Author: Purple Brolly

The UK’s Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) community is roughly estimated at 120,000-300,000 people. They have the poorest life outcomes of all the minority groupings, with the shortest life expectancy, lowest educational attainment, more health issues and a high crime rate leading to over-representation in the prison population.

The sudden arrival of GRT caravans, trucks and cars on public parkland is almost always greeted with police visits and dismay from neighbouring householders. To tackle the problems of discarded rubbish and invasion of amenity space, local councils provide facilities in designated spots around their districts, but these may already be occupied or insufficient for a particular travelling group.

GRT families will often stay long-term if someone is old, ill or completing school exams, and many now opt for permanent bricks-and-mortar, though this may never feel quite ‘right’. Apart from New Age Travellers originating from the 1960s’ hippy culture, GRTs have a centuries-old history. Some came from northern India via Europe and it is said that people thought they looked ‘Egyptian‘, which morphed into ‘gypsy‘. Their nomadic way of life was well suited to seasonal farmwork, for example. They were skilled in various manual trades and crafts, but these are more regulated today.

(Image: Peter O’Connor aka anemoneprojectors at Flickr.com / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Lord Robert S.S. Baden-Powell (‘B-P’, 1857-1941) was born in London but always enjoyed being outdoors, immersed in nature. He joined the Army, served in Africa and India, and worked his way up the officer ranks for 34 years. His experience led him to write many practical books on tracking, surveillance and survival skills, his first being ‘Reconnaissance and Scouting’ (1891) aimed at other officers.

After running a trial camp for 22 boys in 1907 on Brownsea Island, Dorset, he wrote ‘Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship’ (1908) and from this sprouted the Boy Scout movement. It became popular very quickly and numerous boy scout troops were set up by enthusiastic adult volunteers. However, the London regional leader, Sir Francis P. Fletcher-Vane (1861-1934) from Dublin, seceded a sizeable membership into the affiliated ‘British Boy Scouts’ in 1909 as he feared B-P’s main organisation was becoming too militaristic.

Although Fletcher-Vane did much to spread Scouting at home and abroad, he was never re-admitted, though some of his ideas were incorporated, such as having a junior section. Today, there are the Squirrels (4-5 years old), Beavers (6-8), Cubs (8-10½), Scouts (10½-14), Explorers (14-18) and Network (18-25) and there are over 54 million Scouts worldwide. In the UK, girls were permitted to join from 1991 onwards.

(Top image of painting of B-P in Africa: J. Matthews at Wikimedia Commons / Public domain)