How the Girl Guides Won the War by Janie Hampton

Whether it was in the Blitz or in helping evacuees from bombing to rehabilitate elsewhere, Brownies, Guides, Rangers and their leaders did amazing things. War did break out and, suddenly, many of the practical skills these bands of girls had developed for badges, their teamwork, discipline and preparedness to help out and think of others became vital. Part of the preparations, in grim irony, involved plans as to what to do if war broke out.

Just before the second world war broke out, Guides from many countries were meeting at an international peace camp. Anyway, I hadn’t fully realised how widely the movement had spread so very quickly. I knew more about it through Catherine Christian and girls’ own books, than contemporary sources – the odd feature on TV shows like Blue Peter, maybe.

I grew up knowing that the Guides existed, although they weren’t something that most girls of my background did at the time. We start with an overview of how the Guiding movement was set up – the well-known story of girls wanting to be Scouts too, briefly covering its development suggesting some of the attributes that would turn out to be valuable assets. It’s woven together from all kinds of sources – the most gripping are usually the words of the girls and women themselves, either recorded at the time or speaking with hindsight. The war in question is the second world war, and while the book itself doesn’t really bear out the claim of the title, it does show the extremely important role that Guiding played during that period in Great Britain, the Channel Islands, Continental resistance movements, internment camps on the other side of the world and afterwards.

How the Girl Guides Won the War: Janie Hampton Harper Press 2010

How the Girl Guides Won the War by Janie Hampton