FEBRUARY 22 has always been a significant day for anyone who has ever been a Scout, Cub, Beaver, Guide, Brownie or Rainbow.

For those of us who, as Brownies and Cubs, solemnly swore to Be Prepared and Do Our Best on behalf of God and Queen at some point in our childhoods, it was the signal for a three-line whip to attend Church Parade in full uniform, shoes neatly polished and badges buffed.

This was Thinking Day, although not all of us knew quite what we should be thinking about.

For Scouts, it was not just Thinking Day, it was Founder's Day, the birthday of the man who wrote Scouting for Boys and first blew his kudu horn to announce the start of the very first scout camp exactly 100 years ago.

The centenary of scouting this year coincides with the 150th anniversary of the birth of General Sir Robert Baden-Powell, born in London on February 22, 1857, and educated at Charterhouse before joining the army where he served with distinction in India and Africa.

At the siege of Mafeking, he organised a messenger corps of boys, whose service was invaluable.

Convinced of the value of scouting and other outdoor activities for youngsters, he wrote an article called Scouting for Boys for the Boys' Brigade Gazette in 1906.

It provided the spark for the book that became the bible of the scouting movement and, as part of his research, he took a group of boys to Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour in August 1907.

The following year, Scouting for Boys was published, outlining his great scheme of voluntary training. It fell into the hands of the leaders of the boys' branch of the Salisbury YMCA.

The start of scouting in south Wiltshire stemmed from a meeting held in the YMCA Hall in Winchester Street on November 22 1909 "to inaugurate a District Council for the purpose of organising Scout Troops in the neighbourhood of Salisbury and of providing a scheme of centralisation."

Lord Radnor was invited to be president, a committee elected, and regulations laid down for conditions of membership, uniform, age limits and behaviour.

Applications from three troops were given approval at the first committee meeting in December - the 1st Salisbury (YMCA), 2nd Salisbury and Bulford.

By the AGM three years later, numbers of Scouts in south Wiltshire had increased to 273, spread across troops in Longford, Wilton, Alderbury, and Redlynch as well as Bulford and Salisbury.

When the Great War started, a Scout brigade of orderlies was formed to undertake messenger duties, earning thanks from the military, but the dearth of Scouters, called to front line service, made life difficult.

1914 also saw the unofficial start of the Wolf Cubs in Salisbury.

Between the wars, scouting in south Wiltshire established itself with local Jamborees, Inter-Troop Proficiency Competitions, the start of the St George's Day Parades (St George being the patron saint of scouting), Scout Weeks and the first revue "Good Turns" staged in the Victoria Hall, Rollestone Street, and based on the London Gang Show.

In 1937, the 7th Earl of Radnor, who had followed his father as president, granted the Scout Association the use of Great Yews for camping, a privilege it retains to this day.

Once again, the war years drained the movement of Scouters, while evacuee scouts boosted membership numbers. Some troops carried on under older boys and Scouters in the services, posted to the area from elsewhere, lent a hand.

Scouts acted as messengers at Air Raid Precaution Posts, collected waste paper and scrap metal for the war effort and acted as patients for the likes of the Red Cross to practice on. They threw themselves into farm work on summer camp and undertook the full-scale collection of household waste for pig food on behalf of Salisbury city council. Peace and the post-war years brought more changes with the introduction of Senior Scouting in 1946, the establishment of scout headquarters at Kingsland Road, golden and diamond jubilee celebrations, and the introduction of long trousers as alternative uniform.

Wolf Cubs became Cub Scouts in 1966, bob-a-job week was renamed Scout Job Week in 1970 as decimalisation turned the bob to 5p, Beavers were officially recognised in 1982, and most controversial of all, girls were admitted to the ranks in 1991.

When they all came marching in
LIKE the five rivers that feed the city, streams of boys and girls threaded their way through Salisbury's streets to converge on the City Hall on Saturday, launching south Wiltshire's centenary celebrations for the birth of scouting.

Each little tributary had started at one of five points - the Greencroft, Harnham Scout Hut, Five Rivers Leisure Centre, Dennis Marsh House in Coldharbour Lane and Salisbury Cathedral.

Under banners that read 100 Years of Fun and Friends and 100 Years of Doing Our Best, an estimated 700 scouts, cubs and beavers crocodiled side by side to the big birthday bash.

At the City Hall, Jonathan the Jester and stilt-walking colleagues welcomed the columns of excited youngsters as Scouts from Salisbury and south Wiltshire joined together with their counterparts from Salisbury Plain for the first of a series of celebratory events at local, county and national level.

Today, which marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of scouting's founder General Sir Robert Baden-Powell, Salisbury's mayor Sheila Warrander will be among the dignitaries at a Founder's Day Thanksgiving Service at St Edmund's Methodist Church.

On Saturday, there will be a Centenary Celebration Dinner at the Guildhall.

Scouts from Salisbury and south Wiltshire will attend an award ceremony at county hall in Trowbridge in March when the Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire will be presenting Chief Scout Awards, Queen Scout Awards and Duke of Edinburgh Awards.

This year's World Scout Jamboree takes place in Essex in summer, but the focus of attention on August 1 will be Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour where, 100 years ago, Baden-Powell blew his kudu horn to sound the start of his first Scout camp.

To celebrate Scouting's Sunrise on that day, Scouts and former Scouts across the world will mark the moment at 8am local time by renewing their Promise as the scouting movement enters its second century.

Father of city movement
THE man widely acknowledged as the father of scouting in Salisbury is P J Southon.

Percy Southon established the family furniture business in Salisbury in 1907 and two years later, in July1909, gained one of the earliest official warrants issued to become Salisbury's first scoutmaster.

He became district scoutmaster in 1916, assistant district commissioner in 1920 and district commissioner of south Wiltshire in 1928.

He attended the World Jamboree in 1929 and the World Rover Moot in Scotland in 1939.

In 1948, he became the first Wiltshire County Organiser for the B-P Guild of Old Scouts, remaining District Chief Warden for the more than 30 years.

City councillor Mr Southon was made Silver Wolf in 1931 and was awarded the MBE for services to youth in 1962.

His son, Eric, also played an active part in the Scout Association, becoming assistant district commissioner to Dennis Marsh.

Grandson Chris, who is the current managing director of Southons and Co, in Catherine Street, says he and his sister were almost duty bound to join Cubs and Brownies as children.

"We couldn't get away without joining," he says.

"By the time I knew my grandfather, he was less active.

"I remember him sitting around in his uniform a lot - the shorts and the pointed hat with the wide brim - and he used to come and inspect the Cub pack I was involved in."

But with scouting in the blood, weekends were active.

"We'd go and set up wide games in the New Forest," he recalls.

"You do learn a great deal in the Scouts - it gives an extra dimension to childhood that you don't get in the curriculum.

"The camping was such a fun thing to do, which you couldn't have done without the Scouts."

Nathan will pack bags all the way to £950 target
SEA Scout Nathan Liversage spent the weekend packing bags at ASDA in Swindon.

The Sea Scout, who is a member of the 3rd Salisbury troop, needs to raise £950 so that he can join 40,000 other Scouts from around the globe at the World Jamboree in Essex in July.

It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to share in an international celebration of the Scout movement in its centenary year and he's convinced it will be an amazing experience.

He has also applied to be one of the select group of Scouts to go to Brownsea Island for a special camp to mark scouting's exact centenary.

Patrol leader of the Kingfishers and a young leader, Nathan, 13, joined Beavers at six, worked his way through Cubs and is now considering moving up to Adventure Scouts.

He's been on camps around the county, taking part in adventure activities as well as learning traditional camping and culinary skills.

"There's lots of adventure and socialising and because I'm a Sea Scout, I've learned to sail, windsurf and canoe," he says.

To win a place as part of the Wiltshire contingent going to the Jamboree, he had to attend interviews and take part in a selection weekend, when he was assessed on scouting skills as well as camping, cooking and hiking.

So far, bag-packing, car-washing and a games evening has netted £200 towards his total, but in true scouting tradition, Nathan is prepared to do all the bag packing it takes to get to his target.

  • If you'd like to donate to Wiltshire's Jamboree fund, you can find out more by calling Tim Reed, one of the leaders of the Wiltshire contingent, on 01425 650961.