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 |