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Abstract
This paper examines the reinvention of Britain's largest uniformed youth organisation, the Girl Guides Association, during the 1960s. It will be argued that the movement's leaders initiated a successful reform process that both analysed and assimilated predominant social mores and tastes amongst British youth. In doing so, they forged a modern, voluntary organisation with mass membership that has remained an integral part of mainstream youth culture. Recent historiography has questioned many perceived orthodoxies regarding the social and moral revolutions associated with the 1960s. The renaissance of Guiding, a movement designed as a rampart for the social order, casts doubt on popular portrayals of the 1960s as a decade of youthful radicalism.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the following people for their invaluable assistance: Karen Stapley and Katherine Kinrade at Girlguiding UK, Daniel Scott-Davies at the Scout Association, Ann Penman, Pauline Ford, Susie Lawrance, Marjorie Kipling, Hilary Franks, Moira Collins and Jenny Brazier.
Notes
Jim Gledhill was educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University and University College London. He previously worked at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester and at the Foundling Museum in London. He is presently the Curator of Social and Working History at the Museum of London.
[1] See CitationMarwick, The Sixties; CitationDe Groot, The 60s Unplugged; CitationSandbrook, White Heat; CitationDonnelly, 1960s Britain.
[2] See CitationLiddell, Story of the Girl Guides; and CitationMaloney, Something for the Girls.
[3] CitationProctor, Scouting for Girls, 121.
[4] See CitationJeal, Baden-Powell; and CitationRosenthal, The Character Factory.
[5] CitationBaden-Powell, Scouting For Boys, 292.
[6] CitationProctor, On My Honour, 24.
[7] CitationVoeltz, ‘The Antidote to Khaki Fever’, 634; CitationWarren, ‘Citizens of the Empire’, 245.
[8] See CitationFowler, The First Teenagers; and Proctor, ‘Uniforming Youth’.
[9] CitationSpringhall, Youth, Empire and Society, 31.
[10] CitationProctor, ‘Uniforming Youth’, 106.
[11] Springhall, Youth, Empire and Society, 31.
[12] CitationLanghamer, Women's Leisure in England, 190.
[13] See CitationEllis, ‘No Hammock for the Idle’; CitationThomas, ‘Challenging Myths of the 1960s’; CitationMort, Capital Affairs; and Donnelly, 1960s Britain.
[14] CitationHeywood, A History of Childhood, 6.
[15] Logbooks were kept by local organisations to record their activities.
[16] CitationDyhouse, ‘Education’, 123–4.
[17] Langhamer, Women's Leisure in England, 85.
[18] CitationOsgerby, Youth in Britain Since 1945, 22–4.
[19] CitationAbrams, The Teenage Consumer, 12–3.
[20] CitationDavies, A History of the Youth Service, 37. The committee was chaired by Diana Keppel, Countess of Albemarle.
[21] The Guider, vol. XLVII, no. 4, April 1960, 101.
[22] CitationProchaska, Christianity and Social Service in Modern Britain, 169.
[23] The Guider, vol. XLVII, no. 4, April 1960, 101–2.
[24] GGA, Annual Report, 1960, 2; 1962, 2; 1963, 28; 1964, 28.
[25] Liddell, Story of the Girl Guides, 64.
[26] Girlguiding UK Archives, Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0PT, GUK/EXE/1/3/2 Minute Book of the CHQ Working Party, 29–30 December 1964, 17–9, Appendix D.
[27] Abrams, The Teenage Consumer, 13–4.
[28] CitationDearnaley and Fletcher, ‘Cubs and Brownies’, 151.
[29] Proctor, Scouting for Girls, 119.
[30] GGA, The Guide Handbook, 58–9.
[31] GGA, Tomorrow's Guide, 56.
[32] GGA, The Ranger Guide Handbook, 11.
[33] CitationFreeman, ‘From “Character-Training” to “Personal Growth”’, 21–43.
[34] Springhall, Youth, Empire and Society, 121–2; CitationWilkinson, ‘English Youth Movements’, 23.
[35] Proctor, ‘Uniforming Youth’, 104–10.
[36] GUK/12/24/1 GGA, Take Your Choice, 1965.
[37] GGA, Policy, Organisation and Rules, 1960, 35.
[38] Pauline Ford (b.1946), personal interview with the author, 10 February 2011.
[39] Guides and Rangers were organised as companies and patrols in the manner of the British Army.
[40] CitationMcCulloch, Philosophers and Kings, 107.
[41] CitationWolfenden, ‘Preparing to Vote’, 41–4. Wolfenden chaired the government committee that recommended the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1957.
[42] Susie Lawrance (b.1951), personal interview with the author, 13 May 2011.
[43] GGA, The Ranger Guide Handbook, 185.
[44] Ellis, ‘No Hammock for the Idle’, 445.
[45] Thomas, ‘Challenging the Myths of the 1960s’, 283.
[46] McCulloch, Philosophers and Kings, 108.
[47] Quoted in Sandbrook, White Heat, xi.
[48] The Ranger, vol. XXI, no. 12, December 1967, 9.
[49] The Ranger, vol. XXIII, no. 11, November 1969, 16.
[50] GGA, Annual Report, 1970, 32; Scout Association, Annual Report, 1970, 48. The GGA total does not include members of affiliated Guide Clubs, British Guides in foreign countries and Rangers who were also Guiders (at least 1279). Neither total includes adult leaders (Guiders and Scouters) and other officials.
[51] Girls' Brigade, Annual Report, 1970, 25. This total includes officers and chaplains.
[52] CitationWhitworth, ‘Selling Youth in the Age of Affluence’, 192; CitationSpringhall, Coming of Age, 216; and Osgerby, Youth in Britain, 52–3.
[53] GGA, Policy, Organisation and Rules, 1969, 17.
[54] Proctor, On My Honour, 53–6.
[55] Pauline Ford Interview.
[56] The Guide, vol. 44, no. 41, 9 October 1964, 686.
[57] The Guide, vol. 49, no. 10, 7 March 1969, 5–6.
[58] CitationSchwarz, ‘Reveries of Race’, 189.
[59] The Guide, vol. 45, no. 29, 16 July 1965, 8.
[60] The film can be viewed at http://www.britishpathe.com.
[61] CitationKerr, The Story of the Girl Guides, 44–6.
[62] CitationMills, ‘Scouting for Girls?’, 548.
[63] The Senior Branch News, vol. XVIII, no. 6, June 1964, 89. The trefoil is the international symbol of the Guide movement.
[64] The Ranger, vol. XXIII, no. 2, February 1969, 19.
[65] CitationMcRobbie and Garber, ‘Girls and Subcultures’, 180–1.
[66] CitationMcRobbie, Feminism and Youth Culture, 122–3.
[67] The Senior Branch News, June 1964, 89.
[68] Ann Penman (b.1949), personal interview with the author, 13 December 2010.
[69] The Girls' Brigade, The Girls' Brigade Magazine, January 1966, 8–10.
[70] CitationBrown, The Death of Christian Britain, 176.
[71] Proctor, On My Honour, 57.
[72] See Mort, Capital Affairs and Donnelly, 1960s Britain.
[73] CitationWeeks, Sex, Politics and Society, 249–52.
[74] CitationLewis, Women in Britain Since 1945, 62.
[75] CitationRichmond, ‘It is Not a Society for Human Beings but for Virgins’, 306.
[76] The Guide Law was a set of 10 rules for good conduct written by Robert Baden-Powell in 1910.
[77] GGA, Tomorrow's Guide, 13.
[78] CitationBirkett and Kay, ‘Partnership’, 7.
[79] CitationJamieson, Intimacy, 26.
[80] CitationWarner, L for Learner, 20.
[81] Mort, Capital Affairs, 352.
[82] CitationCentral Advisory Council for Education (England), The Newsom Report, 54.
[83] Susie Lawrance Interview. In Guide and Ranger companies, Guiders traditionally held military-style ranks.
[84] GGA, The Ranger Guide Handbook, 165.
[85] Weeks, Sex, Politics and Society, 249–53.
[86] CitationGorer, Sex and Marriage in England Today, 153.
[87] Weeks, Sex, Politics and Society, 253.
[88] Lewis, Women in Britain Since 1945, 44.
[89] Gorer, Sex and Marriage in England Today, 47–8.
[90] The Senior Branch News, vol. XX, no. 11, November 1966, 9.
[91] McRobbie and Garber, ‘Girls and Subcultures’, 178.
[92] Pauline Ford Interview.
[93] Pauline Ford Interview
[94] Susie Lawrance Interview.
[95] GGA, The Guide Handbook, 83, 142.
[96] Jamieson, Intimacy, 26.