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12 unusual facts about Gilwell Park


Baden-Powell House

In April 2001, the headquarters formally moved to new accommodation at Gilwell Park.

Brynbach

It comprised a summer-house (later moved to Gilwell Park), a 1 metre deep man-made boating lake, swimming pools filled by natural springs, and an airstrip, as it was thought in the future scouts would pilot their own planes.

There was planted there a Scout Emblem the Fleur de Lys, and an arrow pointing to Gilwell Park in the trees in Golden Larch.

Francis Gidney

He was appointed the first Camp Chief of Gilwell Park in May 1919, and organized the first Wood Badge adult leader training course there in September 1919.

George Chinnery

His father was an exponent of the Gurney system of shorthand; his elder brother William Chinnery owned what is now Gilwell Park in Essex, before he was discovered to have committed large-scale fraud, and fled to Sweden.

Hubert S. Martin

He was one of Baden-Powell's instructors at the first Wood Badge course held at Gilwell Park, on 8 to 19 September 1919.

Larch Hill

In the late 50s and early 60s an élite group of leaders formed a troop called the 1st Larch Hill (note the similarity with the 1st Gilwell Park) which wore a grey neckerchief and acted as a proto-National Training Team.

Sano Tsuneha

Sano was a participant, during which time he attended a Wood Badge course at Gilwell Park, marking the watershed for the first period of Japanese Scouting.

Scout Spirit

In the British Scout Training Centre at Gilwell Park, England, Scouts from the United States erected a statue of an American Buffalo in honor of this unknown scout.

William de Bois Maclaren

He is most recognized as the first major benefactor of Scouting by donating Gilwell Park in 1919.

On the recommendation of P.B. Nevill, acting on behalf of Baden-Powell, Maclaren purchased the 53 acre Gilwell Hall estate near Epping Forest near the town of Chingford for GBP 7,000, and presented it as Gilwell Park to the Scout Association in July 1919.

Woggle

A young Australian Scout, Bill Shankley, who was responsible for running a workshop and developing ideas for camping equipment at Gilwell Park, became aware of the American rings, and set out to create something similar.


John Quinton

He rapidly became a Patrol Leader and attended camps at Gilwell Park, Essex, as well as the World Scout Jamboree in Holland in 1937.

Salvador Fernández Beltrán

Salvador Fernández Beltrán D.J.C. (born at Matanzas, Cuba – 1987 in Venezuela) was among the first in the Americas to receive Wood Badge training, at Gilwell Park, England.

Uniform and insignia of the Boy Scouts of America

The axe-in-log is the emblem of Gilwell Park where the first Wood Badge course was held and the Maclaren tartan honors William de Bois Maclaren, who donated the funding to purchase Gilwell Park in 1919.