HISTORY OF WOODBADGE

THE BHARAT SCOUTS & GUIDES, NATIONAL TRAINING CENTRE
PACHMARHI ( M.P. ) – 461881.

HISTORY OF WOOD BADGE

The Wood Badge has been a most coveted achievement of a Scouter since the inception of the Scheme at Training for Scouters. It is treated as important and as respectful today as it was eighty years ago. This is actually so in regard to so many things introduced in Scouting by the Founder, for example the Patrol System, the Group System, Camping, the Badge work, the daily good turn and many other things. These are as relevant to day as they were ninety years ago when Scouting was started. Actually these are the specialties of our Movement, which make it distinct from so many youth programmes existing in the world today.

As is well known that the Scout Movement is the outcome of the experiment tried by the Founder in 1907 at Brown sea Island Camp for the training of boys in good citizenship where the scheme of Scouting a product of the Founder’s brain was tried by him. The Founder himself acted as the Scoutmaster to do in the case of a Scout Troop. The daily routine, the method of instruction through the Patrol Leaders, the Campfires were all done in the same manner. About the Patrol System, which is the only method of running a Scout Troop, the Founder stated in the report of his experimental camp as below.

“The patrol was the unit for work of play. The boys were put on their Honour to carry out orders. Responsibility, discipline and competitive rivalry were thus at once established and a good standard of development was ensured throughout the troop.

The patrol over night camps with the patrols away from the main camp on their own and under the leadership of their own boy leaders were of special concern to B.P. They were to show him whether one of the corner stones of his Boys Scouts Scheme – the Patrol system – was sound or not, whether it would be depended upon to work”. They talk of Micro teaching these days – but we know that B.P. introduced it years ago.

The experimental Camp proved the efficiency of his scheme. It was to be a school of training in citizenship through wood craft.

(a) This experimental Camp decided two things: that the scheme of ‘Scouting for Boys’ as evolved and experimented in this camp could be successfully implemented with boys; and
(a) That for the implementation of the scheme – an efficient Adult Leader, the Scoutmaster was needed. To improve the efficiency of the Scoutmaster, proper training was necessary. Years which followed strengthened this view.

The Founder started working of this and he developed the details of the training courses of Scoutmaster along lines he had laid down as early as 1913. It was to consist of three parts; a theoretical part covering the fundamental of Scouting as explained in his book ‘Aids to Scout mastership’, a practical part of a week in the camp; and as administrative part in the form of Scoutmaster’s performance in his own troop.

War having started in 1914; attention of B.P. and others was diverted to the more important work of services of the country by the Scouts. But B.P.’s thought turned frequently to the future welfare of Scouting when peace was attained. He realaised that, because of the different, and not always good way in which Scouting had come to be practised, some provision should have to be made for the training of the leaders, so that the enthusiasm of the boys was not damped by dull routine nor the value of personal leadership, W. de. Bois Maclaran, expressed his wish to donate a camping site easy of access to the Scouts of East London. The two met and agreed that a place should be sought for in order to provide both camping for Scouts and a Centre for the training of Scouters. Gilwell was found and acquired, much necessary work started and the place opened in 1919. Capt. Frances Gidney was appointed Camp Chief. He continued till 1923. Gilwell started as a Scoutmasters Training School and year by year expanded in scope.

The first Scoutmaster’s training course was held at Gilwell on 8th Sept. 1919. It followed the pattern B.P. had used with boys on Browne sea twelve years before. The patrol system was again put to test with the nineteen participants divided into patrols and living a patrol life. The instruction also to the same form as Browne sea. Each day a new subject was introduced and covered in demonstrations, practices and game. The Kudu Horn that had called the boys into action on Browne sea was used for all signals. B.P. laid it down that the training courses should run in a camp with the Scoutmaster forming a Scout troop or in the case of Cub master, a cub pack B.P. intended that as far as possible instruction is put into practice to make quite sure that the training of the boy is also kept very practical and very active.

What should these men be given as a token of having finished their training camp? The usual and obvious thing would be some kind of certificate but B.P. did not care for Certificate. He rummaged his trophies and Souvenir for suggestion and pulled out the long string of wooden beads he had found in Dinizuliu’s deserted hut in Ceza bush during the Zul War in 1888. He presented each man who had taken part in the camp with one of these beads.

These simple wooden Beads signifying the completion of the training course soon became one of the most highly prized possessions a Scoutmaster could want. The beads gave the training its name of Wood Badge Course.

As the number of courses all over the world increased, and as the stock of these beads in the necklace of Dinizule exhausted the Gilwell Park started preparing own beads for presentation to the Scouters.

It is satisfying to note that even though with the change of times, the Associations in various countries and also the World Bureau have brought about considerable change in the syllabus content and conduct of these courses, the Beads are still accepted as the insignia for these Scouters who complete this training.

It is also happy sign that in our country also after the formation of the Bharat Scouts & Guides in 1950, the Wood Badge (now named as the Himalaya Wood Badge) was retained as insignia for completion of Adult Leader Training and also as a symbol of unity in World Scouting, and our National Training Centre at Pachmarhi prepare and issue the beads from the wood available at the Centre itself.

The first cub master Wood Badge was held in 1927. Several complete specialist courses over shorter periods were held during the first fifteen years of the Gilwell life.

In 1924, policy changes as under took place in regard to training of Scouters as approved by the Founder.
(i) More emphasis was placed on Wood Badge Courses in the Provinces so as to make practical training more available i.e. policy of decentralization in training was adopted.
(ii) Emphasis was laid on the importance of preliminary or District Training, and also on the position of the District Commissioner as the Leader of his Scouts.
(iii) More stress was laid on the fact that Akela Leader (for cub training) and Deputy Camp Chief (for Scouts & Rover training) were members of the Gilwell Training Team and also on the value of combined.
Cooperative work. This resulted in the gradual development of the International Training Team. This was recognized by the 11th International Scout Conference in France in 1947.

In 1924, the Empire Jamboree at Webly brought 161 Scouters to Gilwell and 70 others distributed to other centres. Many training centres on the lines of Gilwell were conceived by men on these courses that had been specially appointed Deputy Camp Chiefs. It was a natural growth in the terms of the Founder.

Since 1919, a number of courses were held at Gilwell from India Col. Wilson and Sir Alfred Pickford attended a Wood Badge Courses in the summer of 1921. In February 1921, they conducted the first Wood Badge Course in Bengal. It is reported that in old Bombay Province Smt. A.C.Miller, the State Secretary after from Gilwell in 1921, November conducted Wood Badge Camp at Lonavala in 1922-23. Since 1923 after retirement from Bengal Police service, Col Wilson helped Scouting by running courses  for Patrol Leaders and beginners in Scoutmastership as well as by holding Wood Badge Courses. In 1934, three courses Cub, Scout and Rover were held at Pachmarhi on the bank of the Lake near Pachmarhi Bazaar and in 1956, the M.P. Government made a grant of land in Pachmarhi for the establishment of the National Training Centre. This Provided a Most suitable place for Wood Badge Courses for the country.

Wood Badge Courses were also held at various other camping centres by D.C.Cs. and A.K.Ls. for states at Taradevi, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Seetlakhet, (UP), Bihar, Madras, AP, Bombay, Bengal etc. It is difficult to state in correct figures the number of such Wood Badge Courses held in the Country since the inception of the Movement in our Country and Wood Badge Scheme, but the National Training Centre have endeavored to maintain a record since the National Training Centre was founded at Pachmarhi in 1956. The records show a figure of 6789 Scouters having completed the Wood Badge in all the three Sections of the Movement. It must be admitted that the Wood Badge Scheme has attracted our Scouters and has inspired them for better work.

We all know that the Wood Badge – the beads of a Wood in a lace and the Parchment which accompanies it, is a symbol of the completion of the adult leader training and of unity of world Scouting. It is an insignia of a clan of Scouters who have dedicated themselves and have pledged for the service of the boys of the country by giving them better Scouting. We also know that it does not confer a degree or a status, which raises its recipient higher than the development of the Movement in the Country. On the other hand it is continuous reminder to the Scouter weaving the Wood Badge of the following:

(I) That he has undertaken to serve the boys under his care with efficiency, to give proper lead to them and that he has to continue his efforts to improve his efficiency as a Scouter.
(ii) That he has undertaken to give his leadership in a voluntary Movement in the humblest manner without any sense of age in him;
(iii) That he has undertaken to inspire his younger brother Scouters by setting his personal example of service with efficiency, discipline and fellowership of his leaders and;
(iv) That he has undertaken to strengthen his belief in the principles and methods of Scouting and to propagate it by living the Scout Promise and Law himself.

So during this celebrations of eighty years of Wood Badge let each one of us do a little introspection to find for ourselves how far we have gone to achieve these objectives and then let us pray to seek the blessings of God to give us the right direction to enable us to serve the children of our country through the Wood Badge training in a better manner than what we could do so far.