How one of Britain’s oldest youth clubs is trying to stay relevant

ROBERT BADEN-POWELL, the founder of the Scouts, had not initially intended the youth movement to be for girls. But a determined group of young women, keen to try their hand at camping and other outdoor activities, had ideas of their own. Some unofficially joined local Boy Scout units. In 1909 a group of them hijacked a Boy Scout rally at Crystal Palace in London, wearing makeshift uniforms. Critics denounced female involvement. “Girls are not boys,” wrote Violet Markham, an author, “and the training which develops manly qualities in one may lead to the negation of womanliness in the other.”