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What's in a name?
by Colin Walker
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Most people do attribute the origin of the name 'Boy Scouts' to Baden-Powell, in connection with the Movement he created bearing that name. Unfortunately though, the facts tell a different story. Early uses of the term 'Boy Scout' prior to 1907 The term was first used by Aldine Publishing in 1899 in The New Buffalo Bill Library. This was a series that ran for many years based, on the exploits of William Cody - or Buffalo Bill as he was more popularly called. Cody was often described as the last of the great scouts. 
William Cody was born in Scott County, Iowa, USA in 1846 and was, variously, a wrangler, a gold miner and a Pony Express Messenger, prior to joining Union Army as a scout. In 1863 he joined the Cavalry and saw action in Missouri and Tennessee. By 1867 Cody had left the army and was employed by the Kansas Pacific Railroad to feed the railway construction crews by slaughtering the wild buffalo that roamed the plains. He shot 4,280 head of buffalo in seventeen months earning his nickname 'Buffalo Bill'. Cody returned to the Union Army and earned the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1872, and was also involved in the Indian wars. Whilst a large enough character in real life, a 'dime author', Ned Buntline, used 'Buffalo Bill' as a character for his stories which were a mixture of fact and fiction, putting Buffalo Bill on the same footing as Davy Crocket and Daniel Boone. In 1872, Buntline persuaded Cody to take part in his stage show The Scouts of the Plains. Cody proved a natural showman. After more army adventures he organised a travelling show Buffalo Bill's Wild West - which eventually toured Europe also staring Annie Oakley. For a time, his show was linked with Barnum and Bailey's Circus. Cody's show was first performed in England in Leeds in 1892 and there were other tours over the next twenty years. Cody died in the USA in 1917. 'Buffalo Bill' was a gift to any publisher of children's literature. The mixture of Cowboys, Indians, Soldiers and Circus was irresistible and, amazingly, known and seen in England by thousands of English children. It is not surprising that Aldine Publishing Co., a prime mover in the field of the 'Penny Dreadful', brought out a long-running series, starting in 1899, of The New Buffalo Bill Library. One story concerned 'Boy Scout' Harry White, a youngster of 17. 
The True Blue Library In February 1900, whilst the Boer War was on-going, a series of adventure stories was published, set in South Africa. They cost one penny, published every week, also by the Aldine Publishing Co. The 'Boy Scout' stories involved a fictional hero, Harry St. George. (Surely deserving a prize for most the patriotic name ever devised for a fictional character?) The series was long-running, lasting until 1906 - one year before B-P's experimental camp on Brownsea Island. Every title in this series began with the words 'Boy Scout'. A group of six titles published from December 1900, had Harry St. George actually in Baden-Powell's South African Constabulary. One particular title of particular interest was 'The Boy Scout joins the B-P Police'. The example shown here is also from this sub-series. Like most boys' magazines of the day it was possible to join a club associated with the publication. In this case it was the True Blue Trusty Band and Crypto Club. (No, I am not making this up!) The 'crypto' part of the title was to do with coded messages published weekly. B-P, had he read this series, would definitely have approved of that. The club also had secret signs (the equivalent of the left handshake was the index finger of the right hand cupped the your right ear!) and a list of seven rules. Some have quite a familiar ring, for example: "To do your best to help one another in times of trouble and distress." Table 1: Occurrence of the term 'Boy Scout' in the True Blue Library magazine |
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This magazine was first published on Sunday October 27th, 1900, by Andrew Melrose of London. Though also priced at one penny, Boys of the Empire was certainly not a 'penny dreadful'. It adopted a high moral tone and was designed to sell to patriotic boys across the British Empire, hence its motto 'Many Countries but one Empire'. Its published aim was: "To promote and strengthen a worthy imperial spirit in British-born boys." It ran in conjunction with an 'Empire League', which required boys to give certain loyal undertakings, including finding ways of identifying themselves openly to other members. Badges could be bought from the publishers. Unlike Scouting, class divisions were evident from the start. The pin badges available were bronze for sixpence, white metal at one shilling and two shillings for solid silver! The League had important patrons such as Winston Churchill's father, The Duke of Marlborough, and also Lord Charles Beresford who later was to become Chief Sea Scout. On the last page of the very first issue of Boys of the Empire is the enticing trailer - "Look out next week for 'The Boy Scout' by Baden-Powell." One month's editions were sold bound together with an orange cover, part of one shown here. The first of B-P's articles were published under paragraph promoting a 'Game of Scout', in which editor Howard Spicer wrote: "In the meantime, in order that our readers might have some knowledge of the qualifications necessary for the game, we have arranged with Messrs Gale & Polden (Publishers of Aids to Scouting) to publish a set of six articles taken from Aids in Scouting written by that boys' hero, General Baden-Powell." 
Spicer is acknowledging that the series of articles taken from Aids to Scouting was an arrangement between publishing houses without the direct involvement of Baden-Powell. Indeed, it would almost impossible for it to be otherwise. Less than six months after Mafeking and before his return to this country, B-P was fully occupied in South Africa fighting the Boer War. The 'Game of Scout', later referred to as the Scouting Competition, was a piece of self-publicity and moral blackmail that even the arch-publicist Pearson, who later published Scouting for Boys, might have balked at: Boys (later called 'our Army of Boy Scouts') in order to win a prize, had to submit the greatest number of names of newsagents who did not stock Boys of the Empire Apparently, this ruse worked very well: "Our Boy Scouts have been a huge success. They have taken Baden-Powell's hints and have tracked down every culprit (i.e., newsagents) who ignores BOYS OF THE EMPIRE." Needless to say none of the hints contained within either B-P's original Aids to Scouting or the articles under his name in Boys of the Empire had anything to do with harassing newsagents! The prizes for the Scouting Competition were mundane enough, but shortly afterwards there was a prize of a bicycle for the boy who enrolled the most members into the League. Later on there were other competitions, the main prize being the to opportunity to emigrate to a new life on a farm in Canada! Within a very short time there were 7000 members of the League. Table 2: Occurrence of the term 'Boy Scout' in Boys of the Empire magazine |
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Baden Powell and the name game Sir Percy Everett records that it was Scouting for Boys publisher, Sir Arthur Pearson, who suggested to B-P that as his new scheme be partly based on Aids to Scouting and should contain the word 'Scouting'. B-P agreed - it was little use having a name like 'The Society for the Propagation of Moral Attributes' and came back with the title 'Boy Scouts'. Years later, it was suggested to B-P that the name 'Boy Scouts' was not his invention, but that he had taken it from the boys' magazines like the ones above. B-P was adamant that this was not the case. In a letter to the Scout Press July 4th, 1916 (now owned by the Boy Scouts of America) he wrote: "I had certainly never heard the title 'Boy Scouts' before I applied it to boy training in Britain in 1907." Author Tim Jeal, in his biography of Baden-Powell, published in 1989, covered some of the same 'evidence' outlined above and characteristically leads his readers to think the worst, without actually going so far as calling B-P a liar! It should be borne in mind that there was no organisation called 'Boy Scouts' before 1908. The use of the term prior to B-P starting to promote his scheme, was either purely coincidental to denote a young 'frontier scout', or was used by editors in conjunction articles, works or events associated with him. There is some evidence of this. The cigarette card shown above (courtesy of the John Ineson Collection) was issued by Ogdens in 1901 and grandiloquently entitles B-P 'The King of Scouts'. Perhaps this came from a quotation I have so far been unable to confirm or identify, which called B-P "A King of Scouts and a Prince of Men". Baden-Powell was employed in fighting the Boer War until June 1901, when he was ordered home on sick leave for six months - his first home leave since 1895. Tim Jeal himself reports B-P's younger brother as having said that B-P was in state of 'general breakdown'. It is doubtful that the General, on much-needed sick-leave, would have spent time reading boys' magazines. On his return to South Africa, B-P resumed his duties as Commanding Officer of the South African Constabulary, where he remained until March 8th, 1903. Most of the publications listed above were published whilst B-P was out of the country and it is doubtful that he ever saw them. Those that were published later do not, as far as I know, carry any preface or personal endorsement from B-P. (This was not uncommon later on in Baden-Powell's life). Had there been any such contact then surely the publishers would have made this prominent. The absence of any such link supports the contention that B-P was not personally involved in these publications. When Baden-Powell was once again established in England, he did write a one-page article for a Boy's Magazine The Union Jack Library in December, 1904. This very short article (shown here), partly printed in a facsimile of his own hand, encouraged "Loyal Britishers" to form themselves into teams with a view to becoming "useful to our King and country when needed." He invited the captains of cricket and football 'elevens' to take up his idea with their players and to write to him reporting their progress. In this article B-P did not even hint at the term 'Boy Scout'. This, I think, indicates that as far as B-P was concerned, the term 'Boy Scout' was not under consideration until his conversation with Pearson in 1907. I do not know if we will ever be able to say, with any certainty, at exactly what point B-P became conscious of the early use of the name 'Boy Scout'. Interesting though this sort of conjecture might be to historians, to the millions of past and present Scouts, their organisation is defined by the Law and Promise, 'brotherhood', adventure and fun. And there is no doubting who was the architect! |
 Shield and motto of Boys of the Empire |
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