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Girl Guide Uniforms 1908-1918

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Girl Guide Uniforms 1908-1918

A Research Seminar for Charles Sturt University, SCCI
29 May 2020

Elizabeth Elwell–Cook,
B.Des, GradCert. HeritMatConserv, M. Creative Practice

Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga

School of Communication & Creative Industries.

ggnswuniformarchive@gmail.com

Video of this seminar is available at:

https://charlessturt.zoom.us/rec/play/vpd-
JOv8_DI3HtDHuQSDAP8rW9S8fais1CId8_cLy0fnBXYDZlGkZeQTYuobGQf5Hc4TA0ss-
jIRuj63?continueMode=true&_x_zm_rtaid=HGAILqLeQcy_0S_6FNZGlA.1590738236758.2b30c97
72261d29c7d27ceb9af7a520a&_x_zm_rhtaid=839

Abstract
From its official formation in 1909, Girl Guiding was an important
feature of the social landscape during the 1910s, and particularly during
the First World War.

Sir Robert Baden–Powell, the Founder, argued that neither Scouts nor
Guides were ‘militaristic’ movements, but were fundamentally both
patriotic and peaceful. However, Guiding as a uniformed movement
became a valuable feeder for the women’s services, and even MI5.

This article examines the influence of the military, rationing, and the
Great War on the Girl Guide uniform in the UK, Australia and New
Zealand between 1910 and 1920. The interplay between Girl Guide,
nursing and women’s auxiliary uniforms is explored, finally alluding to
the impact of this remarkable movement on popular culture and the war
effort.

Formation

Uniforms are a manifestation of the identity of the organisations they

represent. Girl Guide uniform designs were shaped by the intentions of
their designers and the influence of their precedents in the military,
nursing and the auxiliary services. As such, the origins of these uniforms
should be considered in relation to their material, cultural, social and
political contexts prior to and during the First World War.

The origins of Guiding and Scouting lie in the book Aids to Scouting, by
Robert Baden–Powell (1857–1941, known fondly as ‘B–P’), first
published during the Boer War in 1899, before his famous Relief of
Mafeking.1 His personally–trained military scouts, denoted by a fleur–
de–lis badge on their hat and shoulder, were an inspiration to others
and an essential part of the victory.

The book was picked up by boys and girls all over the Empire, and the
activities used as the basis of games, children pretending to be scouts
themselves. Baden–Powell adapted the book to write Scouting for Boys
in 1907.2

At the suggestion of The Standard’s review column and Baden–Powell

himself, girls immediately picked up the “game” of Scouting for Boys and
made it their own.3 The first edition states categorically that “girls as
well as boys may well learn scouting while they are young.”4

The sight of Girl Scouts in uniform was so familiar to the general public
during this period that renowned London Underground poster
publishers Jordison & Co. Ltd, used their image.5 In 1909, they published
an advertisement for Lions Head Brand matches depicting “Polly the Girl
Scout.” 6 (Figure 1) Her look is quite intrepid. A daringly short skirt sits
just below the knee. Her white woollen jersey matches those worn by
sailors or mountaineers of the day. Her belt and hat are from 1909 Scout

1 Robert Baden–Powell, Aids to Scouting, C. Arthur Pearson, London, 1899, 1st Ed.
2 Tim Jeal, Baden Powell, Hutchinson, London 1989, pp382 & 582.
3 “New Books”, The Standard, London, January 16 1908, p.4.
4 Robert Baden–Powell, Scouting for Boys, C. Arthur Pearson, London, 1908. 1st Ed. p.13.
5 Administrator. "End Of Line For Printer". JournalLive.
6 Advertisement, “John Leckie belts and pouches”, The Scout Headquarters Gazette, Issue 4, October
1909, p.2.

offerings, and her necker is a deep red/black “Merceen” or mercerised

cotton sateen tied with a neat knot. (Figure 2).

Figure 1 – Polly the Girl Scout, Artist Unknown,

Jordison & Co. Ltd., London and Middlesborough, England, c.1909.

Figure 2 – (Advertisement) “Merceen”, Boys’ Life, Boy Scouts of America, N.Y., USA,
October 1915. Stockwin & Co. Outfitters of Birmingham also advertised neckerchiefs
in “strong mercerised material.”

Further evidence for distinctive Girl Scout uniforms appears as

advertisements by independent outfitters throughout 1909, driven by
demand and a need for female patrols to fit fashion strictures. One,

from the Girls’ Reader, is described in detail down to knickers, blouse

and skirt made in “dark green”. (Figures 3a & 3b)

Figure 3a – Saga advertisement, The Scout,

England, 23 October 1909.

Figure 3b – Advertisement “Girl Scout’s Costume”,

Girls’ Reader, England, August 1909.

Analysis of Scouting publications shows that by May 1909, Girl Scouts

had their own official uniform described in Scouting for Boys including

“blue skirt and knickers”.7 A survey examining British and Australian

newspapers reporting on the Crystal Palace Rally of 4 September 1909
noted at least forty Girl Scouts “mostly from Shoreditch and Reigate.”8
2nd Reigate particularly “were fully equipped, and their smart and
workmanlike appearance obtained for them the compliments of many of
the officers on General Baden–Powell’s staff”.9

Peace Scouting

Guiding is not a militaristic movement, but uniform and presentation

can be observed to hold closer resemblance to the military than to the
more familiar women’s field of nursing. This despite its stated peaceful
aim: training girls in nursing and other practical skills, during its earliest
days. Full kit for Guides included gauntlets, lanyards, whistles, cords,
staves, stripes for rank, haversacks, and flags; all trappings of a military
outfit, rather than those of a nurse. (Figure 4a)

Fig.4a – More military than nursing: patriotic postcard, unknown artist, c1914.
Author’s collection.

7 Robert Baden–Powell, Scouting for Boys , C. Arthur Pearson, London, 1909 2nd Ed. p. 41.
8 Anon, The Graphic, London, 11 September, 1909, p.10.
9 Anon, “The Girl Scouts: Reigate Patrol at the Crystal Palace”, Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser,
Dorking, 11 Sept. 1909, p.6.

A likely reason for this is the Baden–Powell family’s proximity to the

Army: Scouting’s Founder was a Lieutenant General in the British Army
at that time, and his brother Baden Smyth Baden–Powell (1860–1937)
also held rank. Another brother, Warington (1847–1921), had been in
the Merchant Navy.

Another reason may have been the availability of a prototype in Baden–

Powell’s design for Scouts: paper patterns for the official Girl Guide
uniform were available to purchase from Headquarters from the first
issue of the Girl Guide pages in Home Notes in August 1910.10 Scout
Tests and How to Pass Them (1914) includes a pattern for a military-style
Scout shirt and shorts as a requirement for the Tailor badge. Heritage
Research Officer Peter Ford at the Scout Association confirms this
syllabus was first issued as a syllabus in 1913.11 Scouting manuals were
frequently picked up by Guides, as many Company libraries will attest.

Deeper research shows that B–P had designed uniforms for nurses
before: nurses in Mafeking during the 217–day Siege, which lasted from
13 October 1899 to 17 May 1900 wore a blend of nursing and military
uniform.12 B–P made use of available Army campaign hats and a colour
combination of dark green, orange and brown. (Figure 4a) Individual
units on the battlefield at this time were still denoted by distinctively
coloured uniforms, even on the same side.

10 Agnes Baden–Powell, “Information as to Joining the B.–P. Girl Guides”, Home Notes, C. Arthur
Pearson, London, 11 August 1910, p.311.
11 (Dixon, L., Maudsley, G., Parker, K. and James, C. ed. Scout Tests and How to Pass them:
Commemorative 1914 Edition, Michael O’Mara Books, London, 2014, pp.274-8. Date of pattern issue:
Pers. correspondence. 18/7/2018.
12 Jeal, op cit, pp.232 and 299–300.

Figure 4b – Mafeking nurses’ uniform design. Robert Baden–Powell 1899. Elizabeth

Ewing, Women in uniform through the centuries, Batsford, London 1st Ed. 1975,
pp.48.

Analysis of descriptions and illustrations in early publications, log books,

ephemera and photographs shows a distinct evolution from uniforms
cobbled together from what was available in 1909, to something closer
to an ‘official issue’ uniform or pattern around 1914. Even so,
photographs from the later War years clearly show a lot of ‘make–do.’

Searches in the Board of Trade Design Registers at the National Archives,

Kew, reveal that B–P’s sister, Guiding’s Founder Agnes Baden–Powell
(1858–1945), was responsible for badge and belt designs for both Scouts
and Girl Guides between 1907 and 1911.13 (Figures 5a, 5b & 5c)

Fig. 5a – Girl Guide Belt Buckle design, Agnes Baden–Powell, 1910, pencil and ink.
Registered Design No.565418 (Leckie Graham & Co.), National Archives, Kew,
England. BT53/14:BT52/242.

13 Board of Trade Design Registries, National Archives, Kew.

Fig. 5b – Girl Guide Belt, Leckie, Graham & Co., 1910. Photo ©2017 Alan Shrives.

Fig.5c – Girl Guide Promise Badge design, Agnes Baden–Powell, 1910, pen and ink.
Registered Design No.563052 (Agnes Baden–Powell, President of an Association, 23
May 1910), National Archives, Kew, England. BT53/14:BT52/230.

Agnes had attempted to start the girls’ version of Scouting in early 1909
within the Red Cross, where she held strong connections in Westminster
from about 1870 until her death.14 However, careful examination of
early illustrations and photographs shows that she eschewed a nursing
style for the girls’ uniform, and clearly intended to distance the uniform
from that of the Scouts when she designed the first Girl Guide uniform
to include a “red biretta” (later a tam-o’-shanter), and in summer, a wide
crowned straw hat. (Figure 6a & 6b)

14 Helen D. Gardner. The First Girl Guide: The story of Agnes Baden–Powell, Amberley, Stroud, 2011,
pp.103.

Fig.6a – Girl Guides, Devon, photographer unknown, 1910.

Author’s collection.

Fig.6b – Girl Guides in Summer Straw Hats, photographer unknown, 1910. Girlguiding
UK, London, England.

Both were quickly discarded, as most Companies of Guides found it

simpler to purchase the practical felt ‘campaign hat’ or ‘lemon–
squeezer’ of the Scouts. This was quickly issued in navy blue through AW
Gamage stores.15 (Figure 7). An example was discovered in the Girl
Guides New South Wales & Australian Capital Territory Collection during
restoration work from 2015–18. New South Wales pioneer Guide
Commissioner Nella Levy (1898–1971) probably owned it, and she had
been a Guide in Britain at the Lingholt School for Girls from 1910–16.16
(Figure 8)

15 Advertisement, Equipment for Girl Guides, AW Gamage Ltd, 1911. The Scout Association, Gilwell,
England.
16 Author’s research.

Fig.7 – Equipment for Girl Guides. Advertisement by AW Gamage stores, 1911. The
Scout Association Archives, Gilwell, Chingford, England.

Fig.8 – Miss Nella Levy’s hat c1910, hand–altered from youth style to Commissioner
c1920. Photo ©2018 Elizabeth Elwell–Cook. Girl Guides NSW & ACT Historic Uniform
Collection, Sydney, Australia.

The perception of early Scout and Guide uniforms as ‘khaki’ is mistaken.

Early British Scout uniforms were rarely khaki, but usually either navy
blue, Lincoln green or a combination of the two. Girl Scouting and
Guiding in the UK tended to follow these lines: a Liverpool Company
member explained that they “Started in 1909 and we wore navy blue
trimmed with red braid… When on parade we were generally mistaken
for the Salvation Army!”17 (Figure 9)

17 Kerr, op cit, p.44.

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Fig.9 – “Angus held himself for the cry and cried ‘Curley’.”The Kangaroo Patrol, Doris
Weston, 1909. Watercolour and pencil illustration from a Girl Scout logbook,
showing green and blue uniforms. The Scout Association Archive, Gilwell, Chingford,
England.

Girl Scouts carried on well into the 1910s, though some of the warmer
Dominions chose to wear khaki, due to its ability to reflect heat better
than navy blue. This subsequently became a common colour for Guides
in Australia. The states of Western Australia and Victoria in particular
used this colour for some uniforms throughout the 1910s, and South
Australia retained it until the late 1930s. Rather than Guides or Scouts,
other regions such as Tasmania, Victoria and New Zealand hosted their
own Girl Peace Scouts from as early as 1907. These were created by New
Zealand Lt. Col. David Cossgrove (1852–1920) on the basis of the book
Aids to Scouting.18 Before fire destroyed the Girl Guides Tasmania
Archive in 2013, one example of the Girl Peace Scout uniform was held
there. Fortunately, this author traced the uniform of a tiny Peace Scout
to the private costume collection of Fiona and Keith Baverstock in
Victoria. It is the only example known to exist. (Figure 10)

18 Marie Iles, 65 Years of Guiding in New Zealand, Girl Guides Association of New Zealand,
Christchurch, 1976, p.2.

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Fig.10 – Girl Peace Scout uniform, Victorian or Tasmanian origin, 1909–11. Photo
©2018 Elizabeth Elwell–Cook. Private collection of Fiona & Keith Baverstock,
Victoria, Australia.

The Australian League of Girl Aids (ALGA) was a highly successful

program resembling Scouting, and pre–dating the launch of Girl Guides.
Searches of Australian newspapers, now suspected to be the only
contemporary documentary record of this group’s existence, reveal the
uniform and rules of this almost–forgotten group launched in New South
Wales in early July 1909. The ALGA numbered over 40 units by August of
that year, and eventually spread to several other states, sporting a
distinctive long navy blue uniform with pleated woollen skirt and khaki
“slouch” hat. 19 (Figure 11) Older Girl Aids were absorbed into the Red
Cross VAD with the outbreak of World War I, and switched from their
paramilitary uniform, to one firmly based in the nursing tradition.20
Younger members were renamed, and became the founding branch of

19 “Girl Aids”, Evening News [Sydney, NSW: 1869–1931], 15 July 1909, pp.4.
“Australian League of Girl Aids”, Sunday Times [Sydney, NSW : 1895 – 1930], 8 August 8 1909, pp.22.
20 “Troops Delighted: Work of Girl Aids”, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, Australia, 19 July 1915,
pp.9.

12


the Junior Red Cross.21 The badge of the ALGA, shaped like a map of
Australia, bears no resemblance to either Scouting or Guiding badges
beyond the wording “Be Ready”, similar to the Guide motto “Be
Prepared”. (Figure 11a) For this reason it is virtually unknown to
collectors, although the image of a badge in the form of a map is quite
common in Australian propaganda posters of this period. (Figure 12)

Fig.11 – Uniform of the ALGA. Heavily pleated skirt in navy wool, and military surplus
hat. The Sunday Times [Sydney], 15 August 1909. Source:
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news–article126588957

21 “Girl Aids: New Junior Red Cross Society”, The Sun [Sydney NSW; 1910–1954], 9 August 1914, p.13.

13


Fig.11a – Badge of the ALGA. The only confirmed example is this line drawing from
their weekly column in The Sunday Times [Sydney], second half of 1909. Source:
nla.gov.au/nla.news–page13498478, Australia.

Fig.12 – AWM/ARTV05621. Australian War Memorial, Canberra, Australia.

14


Impact of military and nursing uniforms on Guiding

Guide uniforms adapted in response to precedents established in

concurrent uniform design for other fields of service. Lt. Col. Cossgrove’s
badge for the Girl Peace Scouts has a definite military influence in the
wreath around the Fleur–de–lis.22 (Figure 13) Almost all military
services, male or female, show this wreath along with a crown.

Fig.13 – Girl Peace Scout badge, 1909. Photo ©2018 Frank and Bev Murphy, New
Zealand Badgers Club, New Zealand.

The earliest known description (from 8 November 1909) tells us the first
Guide uniforms were devoid of the proficiency badges seen on Scout
uniforms and, with the addition of a series of hats more fetching to the
wearer than sober in style, were otherwise quite plain.23 It was usually
only illustrated with a “Red Cross Armlet” which later changed to the
Nursing Sister Armband for earning the three nursing and first aid
proficiency badges. (Figure 14) Confusingly, the Red Cross Armlet
matched the military and Red Cross brassard.24

22 Iles, op cit, p.2
23 “The Scheme for ‘Girl Guides’”. (1909). Boy Scouts' Headquarters Gazette, (Vol. 1; No. 5), pp.1, 12-
13.
24 Fiona and Keith Baverstock Collection, "Red Cross VAD Brassard, Australia 1915,” Women of
Empire Stories Exhibition, Canberra, Australia, 2018.
“Leeds Guide wearing brassard,” Home Notes, Volume 68, Issue 883, 15 December 1910, pp.597.

15


Fig.14 – Earliest illustration of a Girl Guide. Red Cross Armlet visible under shoulder
knot ribbons. Pamphlet A (Frontispiece), Robert Baden–Powell, 1909, British Library,
London, England.

The Nursing Sister Armband was a larger version of the Guide “Sick
Nurse” badge, attached to a piece of ribbed elastic. (Figure 15) This
visual change was intended to make it distinct from the Red Cross
qualification. Careful reading of The Girl Guides’ Gazette reveals that in
March 1915, the Army Council formally asked the Girl Guides to remove
the red cross symbol (which indicated either a military medic or a Red
Cross volunteer) from the back of their haversacks, and the change in
the brassard/armlet appears to have been made around this time. 25

25 Agnes Baden–Powell, “Girl Guides in Wales”, Home Notes, C.Arthur Pearson, London, 1910 . p.342
“Wearing the Red Cross Forbidden,”The Girl Guides' Gazette, Girl Guides Association, London, March
1915, p.5.

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Fig.15 – Nursing Sister Armband, 1929 (as available from 1915/16). Photo ©2018
Elizabeth Elwell–Cook. Cambridgeshire East Archive, Stow–cum–Quy, England.

Scholars of these uniforms must cross–reference a wide range of

primary material in order to understand how and why decorations and
symbolism interlink with the services around them. Both internal and
wider media reportage of the period indicates that interactions by Girl
Guides with the military and auxiliary services were frequent both
before, during and after the Great War. It was therefore necessary for
Guide uniforms to be easily “readable” by fellow services whose officers
found themselves in command of Girl Guides. In a nod to military
protocol, higher awards from Guiding, including honours such as the
MBE, and medals from other services had their place on the left breast
for adults, but always on the right for youth. Service stars and the First
Class emblem sat on the left breast or sleeve for all, until adult members
were precluded from wearing the latter during the late 1910s.

The terminology of rank and uniform design from 1914 was quite
militaristic: the leader of a Company of Guides was the Captain, her
assistant a Lieutenant, and the Senior Patrol Leader, still retained as a
rank in Scouting today, was a Company Sergeant with three chevrons on
her left sleeve. Chevrons remained in place until 1917, when the
chevrons were moved to the left breast pocket, becoming upright
stripes.26 The Patrol Leader, wearing two chevrons, appointed her own
“Corporal”, who wore one chevron, rather than a “Second” until at least
this date.27 (Figure 16) Prior to the war, two horizontal stripes were

26 “Headquarters Notices”, The Girl Guides’ Gazette, Girl Guides Association, London, February 1917,
p.31.
27 Ibid. — The term “Corporal” was changed in line with Scouts “and has removed much
misconception as to [the movement’s] aims”; Roland Erasmus Phillips, The Patrol System for Girl
Guides, C. Arthur Pearson, London, 1918. – “Corporal” still appears the following year.

17


used, which were ‘less military’. These can be seen on Brownie uniforms
(ages 7–11) from 1917, which continued in use until 1968.

Fig.16 – Military–style chevrons before 1917. The Patrol System for Girl Guides, cover
illustration. 2nd Ed. 1918. The Girl Guides Association, London, England.

Such demarcation continued in hat design. Felt hats, from the rank of
Patrol Leader up, were at first pinned up on the left side.28 This military
fashion was carried over from the Boer War, largely abandoned in
Britain by 1905, but nonetheless a war in which Guiding Founder Robert
Baden-Powell had been a hero.29 Between 1914 and 1918, showy
plumes of cockerel feathers gave way to more discreet coloured cloth
cockades denoting rank among the adult leadership. The turn-up was
dropped for youth members, though the chinstrap remained.

The symbolism of proficiencies was also linked between organisations. A

Guide who passed the Army Signalling Corps tests, a more advanced
version of the Guide Signaller badge, was entitled to wear the military
metal badge of crossed signaller’s flags on her left lower sleeve.30 Senior
Guides over the age of 16 had a system of “trade stripes” which in 1918
included a crown design for higher achievement, echoing the Women’s
Land Army.31 (Figures 17a, b and c)

28 Leslie Smith, http://lesliesguidinghistory.webs.com/guides.htm, accessed 23 July 2018.
29 Wilcox, C. (2017). Badge, boot, button. 1st ed. Canberra: National Library of Australia, p.59.
30 Rules, Policy & Organisation, The Girl Guides Association, London, 1917, p.27.
31 Robert Baden–Powell, Girl Guiding, The Girl Guides Association, London, 1918, pp.180–182.

18


Fig.17a – Army Signaller badge of crossed flags, Commonwealth

countries, 1914–18. Author’s collection.

Fig.17b – A Senior Guide, c1923. Trade stripes introduced in 1918 on left sleeve.
Author’s collection.

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Fig.17c – Women’s Land Army proficiency stripes, 1918. Photo ©2018 Sally Bosley.

A feeder for women’s services

The networks between organisations and individuals informed early

twentieth-century uniform design. Newspapers, member magazines and
logbooks show that as the Great War began, the Girl Guides became a
feeder for the emerging women’s services. They were considered so
reliable that in some munitions factories only Guides were considered
suitable for hire.32 A Gaumont newsreel shows “Guide work” including
drill, morse, semaphore and first aid was continued in set breaks, where
munitions overalls were removed to reveal a Guide uniform underneath.
Judging by the position of title tapes on the right, and chevrons on the
left sleeve, this footage dates from 1916.33 Guides were also hired to
serve as messengers in their own uniforms for MI5 and the War Office.34

The Red Cross connection was natural, dating back to 1909, but Guides
would have served in the WAAC/QMAAC, the Women’s Land Army, the
Women’s Volunteer Police Service and many more. Examination of
original uniforms, photographs and artworks from these services reveals
many parallels between uniforms. Texts reveal even closer connections
among the hierarchy: Olave Baden–Powell (1889–1977), B–P’s wife and
Chief Guide for Britain after 1918, knew Dame Katharine Furse (1875–
1952), founder of both the VAD and the WRNS, and in 1919 Olave asked
Furse to join Guides as Assistant Chief Commissioner, while asking Dame
Helen Gwynne–Vaughan (1879–1967), Chief Commissioner of the
WAAC, to join the Committee, which she readily did.35 Although it took
her until 1922 to warm to the idea, Furse later went on to form the

32 Janie Hampton, How the Girl Guides Won the War, Harper Press, London, 2010 pp.13–14.
33 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30bDYouvBgU and
http://bufvc.ac.uk/newsonscreen/search/index.php/story/76404 – now owned by British Pathé.
34 Ibid., pp.11–12
35 Jeal, op cit, pp.479–80.

20


World Bureau, now known as WAGGGS, the World Association of Girl

Guides and Girl Scouts.36

Impact of Guiding on other service uniforms

When considering the impact of Guiding on the emerging women’s

services, it is important to examine which uniforms came first.

The earliest illustrations of Girl Guides from 1909 show that their
uniform never bore resemblance to uniforms of the nursing services.
Careful cross–checking shows that only the FANY (First Aid Nursing
Yeomanry), formed in 1907, precede the Girl Guides with a paramilitary
style uniform for women, and there is no resemblance in cut, colour or
style between them.37 Salvation Army uniforms for women appear to
have developed a more paramilitary style only with the onset of the First
World War, and they formed one of the earliest Girl Guide “Kindred
Societies”: the Girl Guards. Girls Brigade “uniform” was similarly civilian
before 1914.

Former Guides fed into newer women’s services formed with the
outbreak of war in August 1914, bringing with them the foundations of
uniform. A snippet answering an observant Guide from The Girl Guides’
Gazette of May 1915 suggests the War Office outfitted its women
volunteers with Guide Officer tunics, and its own accessories: “The
Officers who 'don't wear proper uniform' are civilians who have placed
themselves and their motor cars at the disposal of the War Office. They
wear Officers' tunics, but no belts, and they have a big gold badge
[author note: of a crown] on their right arm".38 Certainly by the next
war, Guide uniform catalogues show that they were supplying the
Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS).39 (Figure 18)

36 Ibid. pp 481–86.
37 Margaret Vining and Barton C. Hacker, “From Camp Follower to Lady in Uniform: Women, Social
Class and Military Institutions before 1920”, Contemporary European History, Volume 10, Issue 3,
2001. Access date 17 July 2018.
38 “Observant”,The Girl Guides’ Gazette, London, May 1915, p.13.
39 Girl Guide Catalogue, Girl Guides Association, London 1939. Private collection of Leslie Smith.

21


Fig.18 – ATS uniforms, Catalogue, 1939. Girl Guides Assn. London, England.

Women’s services rarely received the attention they needed with regard
to uniform, even during the Second World War. It is known that several
Australian women’s services, desperate to get their volunteers to feel
part of a unified force, made their recruits parade in Guide uniform until
the proper uniforms were supplied.40

An early Australian WAAC uniform has an emblem resembling a patrol

emblem on the left sleeve of the jacket. (Figure 19) This is in the position
denoting a military unit, requiring further research into whether the
WAAC was using some kind of Guiding Patrol System for operations.

40 Patsy Adam–Smith, Australian Women at War, Five Mile Press, VIC Australia, 2014, p.253.

22


Fig.19 – WAAC sleeve emblem in the style of a patrol emblem. Photo ©2018
Elizabeth Elwell–Cook. Private collection of Fiona and Keith Baverstock, Victoria,
Australia.

Access to extant garments is scant, but close examination of

photographs and illustrations of some women’s service uniforms of this
time show such a similarity of cut, that it would have been a simple
matter to exchange one pinned badge or hatband for another, between
tasks. For ease of cleaning, there are many examples of Guide badges in
archives and collections around the world having been pinned in place,
rather than sewn. More research into the suppliers and manufacturers
of uniforms for these services is currently underway to confirm the
connection. British Guide uniforms were most commonly supplied by
AW Gamage, Bukta, F.S. Powell, John Leckie & Sons and Peter Jones of
Chelsea at this time.41

Skirts and general cut also appear to have been influenced by Guide
uniforms. The cut of Guide Captains’ uniforms appears to have been
transferred directly to the Women’s Volunteer Police when formed by
Mary Allen (1878–1964) in 1914, though she was never a Guide:42 Girl
Guides also tended to dissociate themselves from the Suffragette
movement which Allen loudly supported, after well known feminist
anti–suffragist Violet Markham (1872–1959) denounced Girl Guides in
1909 as a potential hotbed.43 (Figures 20a and 20b)

41 Author’s findings.
42 Anon, Mary Sophia Allen: 1878–1964, English Women's History (Online) (n.d.)
http://www.hastingspress.co.uk/history/allen.html, accessed 16 July 2018.
43 Violet Markham, “What Our Readers Think, The Girl Scouts”, The Derbyshire Courier, 30 November
1909, p.3.

23


Fig.20a – Postcard of HRH Princess Mary (1897–1965), President of the Girl Guides,
c1918. Discreet cockades replaced cockerel feathers. Foxlease Archive, Lyndhurst,
England.

Fig.20b – Women’s Volunteer Police, 1916. IWM/Q66159 © Imperial War Museum,

London, England.

Skirts worn by conductors on various early branches of London

Transport visibly acknowledge the practicality and safety of Guiding’s
shorter skirt for climbing stairs on double–decker trolley buses, and for
getting on and off trains quickly, although close examination of an
example held by the Museum of London indicates the uniform as a
whole was not cut from a Girl Guide pattern. (Figure 21) One photo of a
ticket inspector shows what appears by its size to be a Guide Ambulance
badge with the ring unpicked on her sleeve. The cut of her jacket and
skirt is also that of a Guide Officer. (Figure 22)

24


Fig.21 – London General Omnibus Company Conductor or “Clippie”, WWI. Getty

Images HQ4177. England.

Fig.22 – London Transport ticket inspector with Ambulance badge. Photo © IWM
(Q30358) Imperial War Museum, London, England.

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Red Cross VAD Ambulance drivers had a uniform remarkably similar to

that of a Guide Captain too. (Figure 23) It is also worth noting that
Motorist was a badge on the Senior Guide syllabus from February
1916.44

Fig.23 – “VAD Ambulance Driver on the Western Front”, Gilbert Rogers, 1918. ©
IWM (Art.IWM ART 3824), London, England.

Rationing and the Girl Guide uniform

As the war progressed, uniform changes became essential. Where the

earliest Guide – particularly ALGA – skirts had often had three–quarter
or ankle– length swathes of wool pleats, these were replaced with
streamlined skirts, generally of six panels, reaching just below the knee.

Photographs show that uniform skirts remained woollen throughout the

1910s, and many Guides continued to wear the shirt–and–skirt option
throughout the war, but Headquarters announced in February 1917 that
the cotton jean overall would be an official replacement as the cost of
the original design had become “prohibitive”.45 As early as 1914,
pattern books for children offered Guides the overall option to save
excess fabric used when shirts needed tucking in.46 (Figure 24)

44 “New Badges: Motorist,” The Girl Guides' Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 39, March 1917, p.38.
45 The Girl Guides' Gazette, February 1917, op cit.
46 M.B. Synge, Simple Garments for Children (4–14). With Paper Patterns, Longmans Green & Co.,
London, 1914, pp.36–42.

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Fig.24 – Illustrations for Guide and Scout patterns, M.B. Synge, 1914. Simple
Garments for Children (4–14). With Paper Patterns, Longmans Green & Co., London.

In 1918, wool rationing in the UK forced Headquarters in London to shift

from the now–familiar felt hats to cloth hats.47 (Figure 25a) This same
advertisement also shows the economical overall. Once rationing ended,
these hats were abandoned by older Guides and became a common
alternative to the Brownie rush hats, surviving in Australia into the
1990s. (Figure 25b)

47 Advertisement, “Hats and Jumpers (Official)”, The Girl Guides' Gazette, June 1918, pp.iv.

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Fig.25a – Cloth hats and jumpers under the ration. 1918. The Girl Guides’ Gazette,
London, England.

Fig.25b – Brownies in rush hats, 1918–20. Private collection, England.

From 1910–14, photographs show that “uniform” did not live up to its
name. In reality, the wide member demographic, and access to suppliers
and materials, meant that rare official illustrations and instructions were
treated as open to interpretation, and defined by family circumstances
of the time. Guides, and more especially leaders, frequently ignored
early entreaties not to draw attention to themselves and bedecked
themselves with cockerel feather plumes on hats, and bizarre uses for
badges in self–styled ornaments.48 (Figure 26) Though some measures
were based in wartime austerity, toning down of uniforms was also
reining in some ladies’ enthusiasm for novel suggestions in 1914 that
Commissioners wear waistcoats in gold and white with purple badges.49

48 Home Notes, 1911 – Clipping. n.d., page unknown.
49 The Girl Guides’ Gazette, August 1914 – Clipping, page unknown.

28


By 1915, things had settled down to smart, simple, and based around
the Norfolk Jacket.50

Fig.26 – Early Captain with self–styled uniform, 1911. Home Notes (n.d.), London,
England.

Fashion, Mourning and Popular Culture

Uniforms are subject to social fashions and cultural changes. Surveys of

British and Australian newspapers show repeatedly that the movement
was both visible and fashionable. The 1910s brought a fad for dressing
as Girl Scouts or Girl Guides at parties, causing consternation for the
Association when partygoers misbehaved.51 Statements were
occasionally issued to explain that the troublemakers were not
registered Patrols.52

Shorter skirts were also considered extremely daring on early Girl Scouts
from 1908–10, and on Guides beyond that date.53 However, the ruckus
seems to have died down as girls and women in practical uniform
became a familiar necessity. Officer uniforms also saw skirts shorten

50 The Girl Guides’ Gazette, October 1915 – Clipping, page unknown.
51 “Eton Ambulance Cinderella,” Daily Mercury [Mackay, QLD: 1906–1954], 28 July 1910, p.6.
52 Agnes Baden–Powell, “Notice”, Home Notes, Volume 68, Issue 875, C. Arthur Pearson, London, 20
October 1910, p.198.
53 Kerr, op cit, p.49.

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throughout the decade, with Guiders instructed in 1918 to raise their

skirts to “not less than 8 inches (≈20 cm) off the ground”.54

Their stoicism in the face of loss should not be discounted either. Lucie
Whitmore explains that while French nurses are sometimes depicted in
mourning dress during this period, British nurses were never seen to be
out of uniform, despite bereavement. The war effort meant that the
option for women to cease service and go into full mourning in the
prescribed Victorian style was unconscionable, beyond a few weeks.

Whitmore continues:

“The subject of a patriotic and war–appropriate mourning was

widely discussed in the contemporary press. One particular
suggestion, the wearing of black, white or purple mourning
armbands, was debated in a series of letters published in The
Times.”55

Although Whitmore goes on to say “There is unfortunately very little

evidence as to whether either suggestion was adopted by the British
public,” study of the Girl Guides’ Rules Policy & Organisation for 1917
describes a black crêpe tied around the hat for girls, and a 3-inch
(≈7.6 cm) crêpe band on the left arm for Officers mourning in uniform.56
By 1925, the crêpe on the hat had disappeared, to be replaced by a band
on the right arm for Brownies under the age of 11, and on the left for
Guides and the older sections.57

This written rule indicates that the women’s services, at least, did take
up the black armband to signify loss as they carried on their work. It is
likely that the white armband was discarded as being too similar to the
Red Cross brassards, and therefore confusing from certain angles. It is
equally possible that the purple option had too many confusing and
negative connotations for these services, whose membership also drew
heavily on the suffragette movement, with its purple, green and white
colours.

54 Cynthia Forbes, Guiding, June 1985. ref. Policy Organisation & Rules (POR) 1918.
55 Lucie Whitmore, “A Matter of Individual Opinion and Feeling’: The changing culture of mourning
dress in the First World War,” Women’s History Review, Volume 27, Issue 4, 2017, p.589.
56 Rules, Policy & Organisation, The Girl Guides Association, London, 1917, p.65.
57 Rules, Policy & Organisaton, The Girl Guides Association, London 1925, p.141.

30


Guides were actively discouraged from parading for show with the
Scouts, waving flags and banging drums or playing in street bands like
the Salvation Army.58 It was expected that their quiet presence,
excellent presentation and visible usefulness in everything they set their
hands to would show a more “ladylike” patriotism and win the public
over without fanfare.

Girl Scouts and Guides were equally well represented in the music hall,
pantomime and satire. Images from these unofficial sources give us
further material from which to establish how the public identified – and
identified with – the early movement. From October to December 1909,
Girl Scouts and Scouts were portrayed in On the Heath at the Alhambra
Music Hall, London, while in Sydney in 1910, Her Majesty’s Theatre
presented them in an updated Aladdin.59 While Auxiliary and Girl Guide
officers bore the brunt of jokes in Punch for powdering their noses
whilst standing at ease, there is a hint more respect for the young War
Office Guide when their cartoonists lampooned the staff instead.
(Figures 27 and 28)

Fig.27 – “Our Amazon corps ‘standing easy’”, C.A. Shepperson, 1916. Punch, 26 April
1916, London, England.

58 “Why the Girl Guides do not join in processions,” The Girl Guides’ Gazette, May 1915, p.7.
59 “On the Heath at the Alhambra,” The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 16 October 1909.
p.13; “Stage, Song and Show – Aladdin at Her Majesty's,” The Star [Sydney, NSW: 1909–1910], 14
March 1910, p.8.

31


Fig.28 – “A War Office Guide”, A. Wallis Mills, 1918. Punch, 27 March 1918, London,
England.

Conclusion

Whether or not the Guides were the butt of jokes and sexism, in a few
short years their uniform, with its practicality, recognisable awards
system, and sharp departure from the traditions of nursing, became a
model for the volunteer services of girls and women elsewhere. It could
be argued that they pushed boundaries, paving the way for the women’s
services that followed them. By daring to break the mould, these
uniforms of the early twentieth century aided in the public acceptance
of the Girl Guides. The skills they wore quite literally on their sleeves
became a respected and desirable benchmark for the selection of highly
trained volunteers moving in to the military auxiliaries, nursing and Red
Cross services. They also set a respected archetype for the uniforms of
youth service organisations that are still recognised in 150 countries,
despite many Guide uniforms having changed beyond recognition from
those worn by these pioneering young women.

By the end of the war, the Girl Guides were here to stay.

Acknowledgements
Thanks must go to Peter Ford, Heritage Research Officer at the Scout
Association, UK, for his assistance with tracing the very earliest
advertisements, and dating availability of patterns. To Robin Clay, for
checking my B-P family history. To Janie Hampton for sharing her
mother’s 1914 pattern book, and also Bev and Frank Murphy, and to

32


Stephen Hovell of the NZ Badger’s Club for supplying images of an

original Girl Peace Scouts NZ badge.

Many thanks to Jenny Baker for assistance with women’s services in

Australia, and to Leslie Smith for sharing her collection. Elizabeth Adams
as always for pointing me at interesting things online, and to Dr Amanda
Kerr-Munslow, Dr Bev Orr, Dr Gaye Wilson and Dr Sam Bowker for
listening to my ramblings.

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Copyright ©2020 Elizabeth Elwell–Cook

Email: ggnswuniformarchive@gmail.com

Biography of the author

Elizabeth Elwell–Cook is an historical costumier and of 20 years

experience, and a trained conservator. She is a Girl Guide leader in
Portland, NSW, Australia, having grown up as a third–generation Guide
and Ranger Guide. When her State Organisation’s historical uniform
collection – dating back to 1910 – sustained water damage in 2015, she
stepped in to conserve and curate several hundred uniforms, tracing
design and provenance. Her Master of Creative Practice (CSU),
completed in October 2018, documents the Collection and its stories.
She is an expert on Girl Guide uniform histories across four continents,
and has spoken at conferences and seminars in Australia, England, and
Switzerland. Her ground–breaking research into the earliest years of
Guiding will feed into her PhD, starting in 2021-2022.

40

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