Salvation Army Life Saving Guards (Guides) postcard in my collection c. 1910s / 1920s?
July / August 2022: A busy working week and hot weather do not always lend themselves to painting or gaming. Instead I have passed several summer weekday evenings on some uniform research for new Scouting and Guiding Patrols, often based on recently acquired postcards or photographs in my collection.
I have mostly posted these on my Scouting Wide Games for the Tabletop blog here:
https://tabletopscoutingwidegames.wordpress.com
All this is part of my DMZ Demilitarised gaming approach since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 which brought an abrupt halt to my taste for khaki grunge and guns ‘modern’ gaming and the various ImagiNations and historical invasion scenarios that I had been working on.
Instead I have kept busy with the tabletop gaming possibilities of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and Guide troops, Snowball fights, skateboarders, suffragettes and the edge of fantasy and RPG with Mutant Snowmen or Snow Goons.
Once the basic Boy Scouts patrol was established with the basic STS Little Britons 42mm range LBB30 Boy Scout figure, I have been searching out more unusual uniform variations – conversions to Girl Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, American Boy and Girl Scouts …
One of the strengths of the Baden Powell idea of Scouting for Boys (and Girls or Guides) was that it could be adopted or adapted to strengthen and enliven existing youth movements and groups.
It’s been of interest to discover more about the surprising survival of some groups or the opposite, the long vanished and now forgotten youth groups.
This reminds me a little of the 1970s craze for collecting different Subbuteo football teams to give some colour and variety to the basic football game. I write the patrol numbers 1 to 8 on the underside of each figure base but I considered briefly using the old fashioned Subbuteo numbers on the figure backs or by their feet.
Blood and Fire! (The Old Salvation Army flag motto) Life-Saving Scouts and Guards
William Britain’s used to produce attractive old shiny toy soldier 54mm red or black marching band figures for sale by the Salvation Army; similarly Dorset Castings produce useful 54mm castings.
Another postcard in my collection – showing a very cheery and smartly turned out Salvation Army Life Saving Girl Guards troop in Barrow, Cumbria – wearing light grey uniforms with red or maroon facings, cuffs etc and white haversack (or stretcher slings). Undated but looks 1920s- 1930s based on hair styles and civilian clothes.
Their younger Brownie version were the famous (Jesus wants me for a) Sunbeam groups.
Girl Guard groups as they were eventually known, in place of Girl ‘Guides’ were established all over the world where the Salvation Army worked. A modernised version of these SA youth groups still exist.
I will produce a Grey coloured Life Saving Boy Scouts patrol, again with red or maroon facings and neckties etc. There is a useful summary of differences in uniform between the NPV Dutch Scouts and NPG Dutch Guides and their grey clad Life Saving Scouts and Guides counterparts
My aim is to produce a prewar Salvation Army Scout Patrol and Guide \ Girl Guard patrol each of 8 figures.
Canadian Girl Guides 1910s -1920s
I love the assortment of hat styles in this postcard photograph in my collection.
This Canadian Girl Guide group in the 1910s -1920s had a more Camp Fire Girls USA type white Middy and dark neck tie, rather than the standard blue Guide uniform. This survived in modified form as the older Guides Pathfinder type uniform well into the 1980s.
Again my aim is to produce a whole Canadian Girl Guide patrol or enough figures to add to the motley Camp Fire Girls figures that I have already converted from the basic Boy Scout figures.
Some challenging reading was the PhD thesis by Mary McCallum on how Scouting and Guiding can be seen as part of the forced “Canadianisation” of First Nation Aboriginal ‘Indian’ and Inuit children in the prewar and postwar era of the now infamous residential schools.
I already have a mixed race Scout group that would stand in for the Canadian Boy Scouts. When I produce a blue uniform era Girl Guides, I shall include some non white skin toned figures who can see off Polar Bears and other snowy Arctic threats!
Future project aims and new patrols
I have still to finish a Woodcraft style patrol of the slightly odd Kindred of the Kibbo Kift social / youth movement of 1920s Britain.
The idea is to be able to have a variety of terrains and game mats – forest, snow, savanna and bush – with appropriate figures to extend Scouting Wide Games beyond Britain in the 1910s / 1920s / 1930s and into a fantasy role playing game edge too.
Different groups could be brought together in Jamboree meetings of different troops from different nations.
Quick Quarter staff duelling games or tournaments July / August 2022
Solo gaming:
Girl Scouts meet their Girl Scouts Of America counterparts, whilst elsewhere in America …
Long forgotten British Camp Fire Girls meet their Camp Fire Girls USA equivalents …
Blog posted by Mark Man Of TIN, 1970s British Cub Scout (Bronze Arrow, retired) on 7 August 2022
Man of TIN blog two 
Great post with heaps of info. I have just based and undercoated my angry snowmen and snowball fight children from Old Glory. They are still a fair way back in the paint queue but at least there is movement! nearly finished Season 4 of Stranger Things – excellent!
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Thanks. I look forward to seeing the snowmen / snowballer figures when they make it to the head of the queue of your impressive painting output, and hearing more about the rules.
Glad you are enjoying series 4 of Stranger Things – no plot spoilers. Inspirational stuff. Now the wait and speculation about series 5 and spinoffs.
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The Salvation guides were new to me, most interesting. The winter game and competitions are great fun.
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I’ve researched them and their uniforms and activities further in the 1910s and WW1 press ready for my next Scouting Wide Games blog post probably tomorrow.
Some slow figure conversion already underway with skirts and knapsacks into the Guards (Guides) – The Boy Scouts seems the same uniform, just different grey uniform colours with red facings etc.
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