Wood Badge -- The Raven
David B Strieby (davedave2@JUNO.COM)
Sat, 9 Nov 1996 13:39:35 EST
Indeed there are Ravens and in fact, a Raven patrol is one
of the four patrol names chosen by B-P at Brownsea.
"Scouts Camp, Brownsea Island, Poole
August 1, 1907
The next morning B-P formed the 21 boys who were to test
his scheme into 4 patrols, one of 6 boys and the other of 5
boys, each patrol with a name from the animal kingdom --
the world's first Boy Scouts in the world's first Boy Scout patrols
in the world's first Boy Scout camp:
CURLEWS. Musgrave Wroughton, patrol leader; Cedric Curteis;
John Evans-Lombe; Percy Medway; Reginald Giles; Simon
Rodney.
BULLS. Thomas Evans-Lombe, patrol leader; Arthur Primmer;
Albert Blandford; James Rodney; marc Noble.
WOLVES. George Rodney, patrol leader, Herbert Watts; J. Alen
Vivian; Terence Bonfield; Richard Grant.
RAVENS. Herbert Emley, patrol leader; Ethelbert Tarrent; Herbert
Collingbourne; William Rodney; Humphrey Noble.
Each was provided with a shoulder-knot, a long streamer of
brightly colored tape, to indicate the patrol to which he belonged:
yellow for the Curlews, red for the Ravens, blue for the Wolves,
green for the Bulls. The patrol leaders each sported a short staff
with a white flag with a picture of the patrol animal painted by B-P.
They had the further distinction of wearing the fleur-de-lys badge
on the front of their hats -- that badge that B-P had used for his
army scouts and which, soon, slightly modified, would become
known the world over as the Scout badge."
Source: "Baden-Powell: The Two Lives of a Hero" by William
Hillcourt.
-----------------
In 1919 the first Scouters training course was held at Gilwell.
Several days after the completion of the course at a dinner at the
Scout Restaurant in Buckingham Palace Road, B-P presented
each of the members with two beads from the necklace he had
captured from Chief Dinizulu, a Zulu warrior chief, while he was
in Africa in the 1880's.
The Camp Chief of Gilwell Park (England) wears a necklace of
six original beads which B-P first presented to Sir Percy Everett
as a tribute for his help in launching Scouting and help at the
first scout camp at Brownsea Island in 1907. Sir Percy presented
the necklace to John Thurman and suggested it be worn as the
badge of office of the Camp Chief, Gilwell Park.
Source: THE WOGGLE, Volume 76 Issue 1 (February 1993).
---------------
I have never seen a documented list of patrol names (if indeed
patrols were used) at that first Scouters training course in 1919.
I'd be interested in anything anyone may have on the subject. In
any event, the Raven patrol name is a legend in Scouting history
and it's to bad that more Raven patrols are not used in Wood
Badge.
Good Scouting,
.
Dave Strieby
DaveDave2@juno.com
"I used to be a Raven and a good old Raven, too." NE-I-176-29.
". . . Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.'"
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
