NEWS RELEASES
Scouting 100 - A Century of Scouting in the Horsham District
21st March 2007
2007 sees the 100th anniversary of the Scout movement, started by Robert Baden-Powell – the Hero of Mafeking and hero to millions of children the world over.
Within a year of Baden-Powell’s famous Brownsea Island camp of 1907, Scouting came to Horsham when a group of local boys approached Edward Dewdney, secretary of the Horsham Gas Company who was also an officer in the Church Lads’ Brigade, and he agreed to become their leader. The 1st Horsham Group of Scouts was thus born in 1908 and since then several other groups have sprung up in Horsham and district, many of which are still thriving.
The idea of Scouting came from Baden-Powell’s army experiences in Africa and India, where he saw the survival skills and bushcraft of the native scouts. Impressed by their resourcefulness, Baden-Powell thought that British boys could benefit from the discipline of learning survival skills in an outdoor environment, while at the same time enjoy the camaraderie and support of being in a group. The Brownsea Island Camp of 1907 was where Baden-Powell trialled his ideas and it proved to be a resounding success. The idea of Scouting caught on like wildfire, both in Britain and worldwide, so much so that a world Jamboree was first staged in 1920 to bring Scouts of different nations together for mutual exchange and understanding.
A new temporary exhibition at Horsham Museum - Scouting 100: A Century of Scouting in the Horsham District, is being staged to celebrate the centenary and it includes memories of Scouting from those early pioneering years to the present day. The exhibition is not only concerned with the past however, as it also features activities local Scouts are currently involved in. Scouts old and new from various local Groups have contributed recollections of their Scouting days, and the exhibition includes examples of Scout uniforms and camping gear as well as photographs and documents from the archives of various groups which offer a fascinating insight into what it was like to be a Scout during the early decades of the movement. Scouting today offers many more opportunities for activity and travel, many of which would have been undreamed of by the early Scouts.
Scouting 100: A Century of Scouting in the Horsham District opens on 3rd April 2007 and closes on 23rd June 2007.
For further information please contact Jason Semmens, Assistant Curator.
Horsham Museum
9 Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex RH12 1HE
Tel: (01403) 254959 Fax: (01403) 282594
Email: museum@horsham.gov.uk
Web: www.horshammuseum.org
Exhibitions currently on display at Horsham Museum feature 'Coaching', 'The Jeweller's Craft' and 'Hogarth - Up Close & Personal'.