Robert Baden Powell was the man who thought of
starting up a group just for boys he called it Scouts.  

In 1909 lots of Scouts got together in a place called
Crystal Palace it was called a Rally, but not only boys
turned up.  As the Scouts walked through Crystal
Palace girls were at the back of the parade and they
insisted they wanted to become Scouts too.

Lots of people then thought this wasn't a very good
idea, but in 1910 Robert Baden Powell started the Girl
Guides, he asked his sister Agnes to look after his
new organisation and Agnes was made the Girl
Guides President.  Girl Guides had blue uniforms.

A few years later Robert Baden Powell met a lady
called Olave whilst on a trip on a big ship to Jamaica.  
They found they had lots of things in common and they
even shared the same birthday 22nd February.  Soon
after the trip Robert Baden Powell asked Olave to
marry him and she accepted.

Around 1914 more and more girls were joining Girl
Guides, even their little sisters were coming so a junior
section of Girl Guides was created for them and they
were called Rosebuds, their uniform was blue too and
very similar to their sisters in Guides.

The Rosebuds decided they didn't like their name so
Robert Baden Powell changed it to Brownies around
1916 and so the girls started to wear a brown uniform,
not all of them at first, some still wore the old blue
one, but eventually Girl Guides wore blue and
Brownies wore brown.

Olave quickly became very involved with Agnes in Girl
Guides and in 1918 was asked to become the Chief
Guide.
Sir
Robert
Baden Powell
Lady
Olave
Baden Powell
Sir Robert & Lady Olave Baden Powell
12th Ashton Brownies Web Page