Scouts . . . The Quest of the Golden Arrow

The Quest of the Golden Arrow, Milestones in the History of the Scout Movement. Introduced by the Chief Scout George Purdy.

The Scout Movement is the largest youth movement spanning the world. The early days of the Scout Movement are traced from Mafeking, the Brownsea Island experiment in 1907 and the official launch of the movement in Birkenhead by the man responsible - Lord Robert Baden-Powell, later to become Chief Scout Of The World.

Birkenhead's Arrowe Park, on the Wirral Peninsula, was host to the Coming of Age World Jamboree in 1929. Over 50,000 Scouts came to Arrowe from 51 nations. 320, 000 members of the public visited. Archive film made by visitors and the USA Scouts contingent help recreate the event.

Lord Robert Baden-Powell died in 1941 and was buried in East Africa. We have rare footage of B.P.'s funeral procession.

In 1957 the Scouts celebrated 50 years with a World Jamboree in the UK at Sutton Coalfield.

In the 1960's the Movement updated its image to a modern activity based organisation for all ages. In 1991 girls were accepted into the Movement for the first time.

We see the Scouts of the 1990's celebrating at the 1995 Jamboree held in the Netherlands and how they differ to those in the early part of the century.

Today the Scouts have 600,000 UK members and 26 million worldwide in over 200 countries.

Narrator: Monty Lister