Date of Issue – 20 October 2010
Gibraltar Post has issued a set of 4 stamps to commemorate Centenary of Girl guiding . The stamps depict the uniforms, badges and other identifiable features of the Girl guiding age-groups - Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Senior Section.
Girl guides or Girl Scouts is a parallel movement to Scouting. It evolved from the Scouting movement in the early years of the 20th century. Girls were attracted to Scouting since its inception in 1907 when Robert Baden-Powell, a famous army general, tried out his ideas for training boys at a camp on Brownsea Island in 1907 and the following year published them in a book, ‘Scouting for Boys’.
Baden Powell wanted to create a separate identity for the girls so that they could work for self-development independently, not in imitation of their brothers. He decided that the name should change and the name ‘Guide’ was taken from a famous frontier regiment in the British Indian Army, the Corps of Guides, which was noted for its skills in tracking and survival. Baden-Powell’s sister, Agnes, was charged with the task and the Girl Guides were founded in the UK in 1910.
Two central themes have been present from the earliest days of the movement: domestic skills and “a kind of practical feminism which embodies physical fitness, survival skills, camping, citizenship training, and career preparation”. These two themes have been emphasised differently at different times and by different groups, but have remained central to Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting.Guiding has come a long way since then – the movement has travelled all over the globe with over 10 million members worldwide. Internationally it is governed by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts with member organizations in 144 countries.
