The Beginning

The "original" Scouts were in fact not "formal" scouts at all, but boys of the Mafeking Cadet Corps. It was the part they played in the famous Siege during the Second Boer War, which was to make Gen Robert Baden-Powell a national hero, that so inspired him to write first Scouting for NCOs and then the more famous Scouting for Boys. And thus it was that out of the British imperial military was to be born the most successful youth movement, and the most famous peace movement, that the world has ever known.

"Johnny" Walker has an article on the boys of Mafeking on his Scouting Milestones website here.