All about the World Scouting symbol

When B-P started the Scouting movement, there was criticism that he was creating an "army of little boys".

Here's what he had to say about that ....

The Scout's Badge

Years ago, soon after the Boy Scouts were first started, certain critics accused the movement of being a military one. Whenever anything new is started there are bound to be people who get up on their hind legs to find fault with it, often before they know what it is all about.

In this case they said that the Scout movement was designed to teach the boys to be soldiers, and they quoted in, proof that the crest of the movement was, as they described it: "A spear-head, the emblem of battle and bloodshed."

I was asked by cable what I had to say about it. I telegraphed back: "The crest is the fleur-de-lys, a lily, the emblem of peace and purity."

But it wasn't for that reason that Scouts took it. In the Middle Ages Charles, King of Naples, owing to his French descent had the fleur-de-lys as his crest.

It was in his reign that Flavio Gioja, the navigator, made the mariners' compass into a practical and reliable instrument. The compass card had the initial letters of North, South, East and West upon it. In Italian the North was "Tramontana."

So he put a capital T to mark the North point. But in compliment to the King he made a combination of the letter T with the King's fleur-de-lys crest. From that time the North point has been universally shown on the maps, charts, and compass cards by that sign.

The actual meaning to be read from the fleur-de-lys badge is that it points in the right direction (and upwards) turning neither to the right nor left, since these lead backward again. The stars on the two side arms stand for the two eyes of the Wolf Cub having been opened before he became a Scout, when he gained his First-Class Badge of two Stars. The three points of the fleur-de-lys remind the Scout of the three points of the Scout's Promise—Duty to God and King, Helpfulness to other people, and Obedience to the Scout Law.

Beneath the fleur-de-lys ... a little cord depends with a knot tied in it. This knot, like the knot you tie in your handkerchief on occasion, is to remind the boy daily that he has to do a good turn to someone.

Want to know more? Check out the entire contents of B-P's book "Lessons from the Varsity of Life" on the Pinetree Web.

Click here to go to World Scouting Headquarters.