The Crystal Palace Rally was a gathering of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts at

the Crystal Palace The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibitors from around ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

on Saturday, 4 September 1909. The rally demonstrated the rapid popularisation of the Scout Movement with an estimated 11,000 boys attending with the prominent presence of Girl Scouts also being significant for the start of Girl Scouts and

Girl Guides Girl Guides (or Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) are organisations within the Scout Movement originally and largely still for girls and women only. The Girl Guides began in 1910 with the formation of Girlguiding, The ...

. The rally was held a year and a half after the publication of ''

Scouting for Boys ''Scouting for Boys: A handbook for instruction in good citizenship'' is a book on Boy Scout training, published in various editions since 1908. Early editions were written and illustrated by Robert Baden-Powell with later editions being exten ...

'' and '' The Scout'' magazine, and two years after

Robert Baden-Powell Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, ( ; 22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941) was a British Army officer, writer, founder of The Boy Scouts Association and its first Chief Scout, and founder, with ...

's demonstration

Brownsea Island Scout Camp Brownsea Island Scout camp, is a historic Scout campsite on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour in southern England, which was the site of Robert Baden-Powell's 1907 experimental camp for boys to test ideas for his book ''Scouting for Boys'', which ...

. Some controversy occurred with attempts to exclude Scouts from the

British Boy Scouts The British Boy Scouts and British Girl Scouts Association (BBS & BGS Association; also known as The Brotherhood of British Scouts) is an early scouting organisation, having begun as the Battersea Boy Scouts in 1908.''The Scout (magazine), The S ...

, Church Scout Patrols and other scouts not registered with Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts organisation leading to challenges regarding the 4th Scout Law that "A Scout is ... a brother to every other scout". The Scouts' Own, a simple, non-denominational religious ceremony, was introduced at this rally by H. Geoffrey Elwes. Members of the local Scout Troop, 2nd Croydon (1st Crystal Palace Patrol), formed part of the flag party for Princess Christian, a member of the royal family in attendance. The Group still meet near Crystal Palace Park and regularly use Crystal Palace Park for Scout activities.

Girls

Several hundred Girl Scouts also attended, including one group under their Patrol Leader Marguerite de Beaumont. They dressed in the Girl Scout uniform as given in the Scout handbook, called themselves Girl Scouts, were referred to as Girl Scouts by the media and others and several hundred girls were registered as Boy Scouts. Girls had been part of the Scout Movement almost as soon as it began. A contingent of girls from Peckham Rye spoke to Baden-Powell at the Rally. The media coverage of the rally, including that in ''The Spectator'' magazine in October–December 1909 initiated by Miss Violet Markham, led to the founding, in 1910, of the Girl Guides organisation under Baden-Powell's sister,

Agnes Baden-Powell Agnes Smyth Baden-Powell (16 December 1858 – 2 June 1945) was the younger sister of Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, and was most noted for her work in establishing the Girl Guide movement as a female counterpart to her older bro ...

that further led to other

Girl Guide and Girl Scout A Girl Guide or Girl Scout is a member of a section of some Guiding organisations who is between the ages of 10 and 14. Age limits are different in each organisation. Girl Scouts and Girl Scout organizations already existed in Britain and ...

organisations around the world. Baden-Powell decided to create an entirely separate organisation for girls, the Girl Guides and excluded girls from his Scout organisation. In those days, it was not common for girls to camp and hike, as this extract from the Scout newspaper shows: "If a girl is not allowed to run, or even hurry, to swim, ride a bike, or raise her arms above her head, how can she become a Scout?",. Attendees who later influenced the Scouts and Guides included Nesta G. Ashworth née Maude, later instrumental in the setup of

Lone Guides Lone Guides or Lones are Girl Guides and Girl Scouts who do not attend group meetings for a variety of reasons. They are organised into groups that keep in touch, for example, by letter or email. Members carry out their organisation's normal progr ...

Rotha Lintorn-Orman Rotha Beryl Lintorn Lintorn-Orman (born Rotha Beryl Lintorn Orman, 7 February 1895 – 10 March 1935) was a British political activist and World War I veteran who founded the British Fascists, the first avowedly fascist movement to appear in Br ...

and

Nella Levy Nella Levy, nicknamed ''"The Lev"'' was a pioneer of Girl Guiding in Australia. She was the first Division Commissioner in New South Wales. She had "a firm belief in the principles of Guiding, was young, keen, a dynamic personality, had a great s ...

, a pioneer of Guiding in Australia. To commemorate the event, in September 2009,

Girlguiding UK Girlguiding is the operating name of The Guide Association in the United Kingdom, previously named The Girl Guides Association, which was formed in 1910. It is the original Girl Guides organisation in the world and, in 1928, became a founding m ...

opened a Centenary

Maze A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that lead ...

Crystal Palace Park Crystal Palace Park is a park in south-east London, Grade II* listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. It was laid out in the 1850s as a pleasure ground, centred around the re-location of The Crystal Palace – the largest glass ...

References

{{Use British English, date=September 2010 Crystal Palace Scout Rally, 1909 Girlguiding Crystal Palace, London

Girls

See also

References