Sunday, August 31, 2008

Tintin and Scout-Art

Over the years, Scouting has had a huge influence on children's books. Born as it was in the spirt of Kim, with his literary younger brother Mowgli going on to be the patron of the Wolf-Cubs (nowadays known as Cub Scouts), Scouting has affected boy fiction and boy art, and "boy culture" generally, directly and indirectly in both obvious and subtle ways. From Tintin, to The Lord of the Rings, to the children's books of John Christopher, to Indiana Jones (and perhaps even to Harry Potter - though admittedly whimsical wish-fulfilment doesn't lend itself easily to the gritty world of Scouting), the spirit of Scouting has formed the characters of boy-heroes in fiction for over a hundred years just as surely as it was meant to form the characters of real live boys in the so-called "real world".

The most famous fictional Scout is almost certainly Tintin, the artistic and literary creation of Belgian former Catholic Scout Georges Prosper Remi , better know by his nom de plume Hergé. Half Sherlock Holmes, half post-imperial explorer and adventurer, in fact Tintin is really half boy and half man: he doesn’t have a Christian name (or a surname, for that matter), let alone parents, and he smiles and whistles under all circumstances. (Actually I’m not so sure about that last part. We were always taught not to whistle when we were children because it was common – as Hardy puts it, such an accomplishment would be one that one should ‘not care to profess in genteel company’ – but since I never learnt to whistle anyway it hardly matters.)

Hergé himself had his centenary last year. Tintin, for his part, is now 77, and he’s looking pretty good on it. He first appeared in the children’s cartoon-supplement of a rightwing, traditionalist Catholic magazine in Belgium called Le Vingtieme Siecle (The Twentieth Century) in 1929. He wasn’t the first of Remi’s characters to feature in the pages of Le Petit Vingtieme, but he was far and away the most successful, and he pushed up the ’paper’s circulation several-fold. (Which, rather pleasingly, is what happened to Tintin in the Congo last year when the CRE decided to make a stink about it!)

Tintin’s immediate forerunner in Le Petit Vingtieme was not a journalist but a Catholic Boy Scout called Totor. Remi had been a Catholic Scout himself, Catholic Scouting having been started in Belgium in 1917 at Mouscron, thanks to the efforts of a Jesuit priest by the name of Père Jacques Sevin. The international Scout movement had been recognised by Pope Benedict XV two years before that, and Sevin himself had discovered the movement in Britain two years before that. He had been sent to England by his superiors to “investigate” after a couple of “unfavourable” articles had appeared in the Jesuit journal Etudes. Whilst he was here he attended a Scout rally and had tea with Lt Gen Robert Baden-Powell, who by then was a national hero from the Relief of Mafeking, and he liked what he discovered. And this was a mere six years after the birth not just of Georges Remi but also of Scouting itself with Baden-Powell’s first Scout camp on Brownsea Island the very same year.

From Belgium Catholic Scouting spread quickly to France, where in its traditional form it is still surprisingly strong. With a pleasing irony, after the changes of the 1960s (or rather after the changes that started in the 1960s – for in Scouting as in all things change is utterly addictive, and once the craving has beeen indulged it can never be assuaged!) traditional Catholic Scouting in France is a good deal closer to B-P’s original vision than most of what passes for Scouting in the UK today. The 9 Articles of the original Scout Law are still there (though the French prefer ‘sourit et chante’ to ‘smiles and whistles’), albeit with a tenth article – ‘Le Scout est pur dans ses pensées, ses paroles et ses actes. A Scout is pure in his thoughts, words and deeds.’

On the annual Chartres Pilgrimage of course the Scouts of Riaumont and Saint Louis and the Europa Scouts put on a pretty good show. The preference is still for shorts (or for that matter lederhosen) rather than baggy jeans, and the couple of times I've been on it they've all had haircuts that make them look like… well, like Tintin. The iconic tuft of hair indeed was to remain a part of Tintin through all his incarnations: in the 1930s Hergé’s black and white Tintin was reborn in colour as we know him today; in the 1940s he moved from the city to the country, to live with Captain Haddock, whereupon he stopped wearing a tie; and in the 1970s he even changed out of the plus fours he’d been wearing since the very beginning into a pair of groovy flares. It’s nice then to think that one little bit of Scoutisme did indeed survive right until the end.

By the time of his death, Georges Remi had attained a near legendary status as a popular artist of great talent and vision. Certainly he was not primarily a Scout artist, but arguably Scouting was a massively important part of his work in much the same way as it was for artists as diverse as the great French children's artist Pierre Joubert, the immortal American popular artist Norman Rockwell, and the controversial German artist Otto Lohmüller. Each certainly owes a debt to the Scout movement, and Scouting certainly owes each of them a debt of gratitude.

Smells like Imperial Spirit!

Not Scouts, actually, but New Zealand schoolboys, apparently, from an American blogger visiting the country last year!

Nice to think of Commonwealth countries still retaining some of B-P's "shorts and shirtsleeves" Empire spirit!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The "Other" Chartres Pilgrimage

The untrained eye would not be able to tell the difference, but these are the Scouts of Doran (formerly the Catholic Scouts of France), who are under the spiritual care of the Society of St Pius X (SSPX). Sicne the Society is no longer on speaking terms with most of the rest of the Catholic Church (and now is not the place to apportion blame - apart from to say it was mostly the fault of Pope John Paul II), they actually organise an alternative Whitsun "Chartres Pilgrimage" each years, starting at the famous Masonic Cathedral and then heading off to Paris or Montmartre or somewhere.

The little boy at the end of the first group, talking to the priest, is making his confession. Spiritual relief! The ones from the third group who are vanishing into the woods and reappearing again are I fancy relieving themselves in quite a different manner.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Sea Scouts


For me the saddest thing about the tragic degradation of changes made to the Scout uniforms over the years has been the way in which the Scouts themselves have been almost systematically robbed of their dignity. Arguably when Scouting went "mixed" in the 1980s was the ultimate humiliation end of this process.

In a way it's quite pleasing that just as the Navy over the years has to a certain extent, er, weathered the storms of modernisation, so the Sea Scouts have seemingly changed less than their land-based brothers. There's a list of the Sea Scout groups officially recognised by the Navy here. The pic above is from the website of the Southbourne Sea Scouts. (There's a pic of a trad Sea Scout group here.)

The Navy has a nice story about the Southbourne Scouts' visit onboard HMS Endurance (the Navy's Antarctic patrol ship, named after Shackleton's ship) in late September last year on its website.
For some it had was the first time they had ever been on board a Royal Navy ship, and there were definite nervous excitement as the 50 strong 1st Southbourne Sea Scouts arrived at the gangway. HMS Endurance is currently in dry dock undergoing essential maintenance prior to her extended deployment later this year, and this immediately caused confusion to some of the younger scouts. “ Has your ship got a puncture?” was one of the first questions asked. After the compulsory health and safety brief, the scouts were split into small groups and given a tour by members of the Ship’s Company, who were very impressed with the Scout’s knowledge of both Endurance and the RN. Being asked about the ship’s displacement by a 6 year old is very encouraging for potential sailors of tomorrow. The highlight of the tour was obviously the bridge and Captain’s chair, and standing on the bridge roof to see where Her Majesty had stood for the Fleet review, but they were also impressed by the selection of Playstation games available in the Wardroom.

Their visit ended with all the scouts taking part in the ceremony of Sunset, coming to attention in divisions and saluting as the ensign was lowered from the main mast. It was a fitting and unforgettable end to a visit that will be remembered by both the Ship’s Company and the Scouts.

German Scouts of Europe on the Chartres Pilgrimage

Confirmation apparently that the German (Bavarian) Scouts of Europe do indeed go on the annual Chartres Pilgrimage.

The singing would probably have been quite good, if it hadn't been for the prat in the hat with the megaphone.

For what it's worth, the banners of the different chapitres on the Chartres pilgrimage are all featured in this video here. (Is it my imagination, or do the German Scouts of Europe come considerably before and separate from the St Louis, Europa and Riamont Scouts?)

Friday, August 22, 2008

Grey Shorts

Well I certainly wore them - pretty much non-stop, in fact, at school and as a Cub, for four solid years. (And it did me no lasting phychological damage whatsoever. Woof!) Thanks to the SA's second round of mindless cultural vandalism uniform reforms in the 1980s I don't think even the Cubs wear them now.

Well, this site is dedicated to them - and no doubt also to nostalgic memories of bygone days!

Un, deux, trois...

Another pic from the Scout Fraternity site, this one apparently a Pierre Joubert-esque depiction of the three main sorts of Scout in France - one from the "mainstream" Scouts of France on the left, one from the Scouts of Europe on the right, and in the middle a representative of one of the "traditionalist" Scout organisations - probably the Unitary Scouts. The website's stated aim is to encourage bonds of brotherhood between the three "branches".

(Good luck with that!)

A Different Sort of Scouting?

This is probably the strangest photo I've yet come across on the 'Net. It's a pic of a Hitler Youth "Jamboree", complete with the flags of different nations. The label runs,
29th July 1935: Members of the Hitler Youth under flags of the various delegations at the Hitler Youth Jamboree near Rheinsberg in Germany. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
Under the Third Reich, Scouting was of course banned in Germany, and all Scouts were forced (or perhaps just forefully encouraged) to join the Hitler Youth.

And yet the Hitler Youth was in many ways clearly inspired by the Scout Movement - right down to their uniforms and, apparently, their "jamborees".

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

It's that hat again!

OK, so this has absolutely no relevance to Scouting whatsoever - except for the hat, I suppose.

Oh, and the fact that Benton Fraser is probably the greatest Scout hero since Tintin!

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.

Monday, August 18, 2008

The Good Old Days

Oddly enough these are actually German Scouts, probably from the 1960s. (Click to enlarge - obviously!) The picture is taken from the superb picture-book from the time The Boy: A Photographic Essay, the contents of which are periodically available here.

Concentrated nostalgia, or what?

(What is it though about Germans and torchlit processions?)

UPDATE: There are more German nostalgia pics (albeit not really of Scouts) on this site here I just discovered.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

The Little Boat

First non-Scouting post! The connexion, I suppose, is that I found this pic on a blog with the address http://pierrejoubert.blogspot.com/ - but going by the name 'Nona'. Actually it's mostly leftwing conspiracy theories and wackiness, but 'Pierre Joubert' was the name of the great French "Scout artist" of the last century. He was (though he may be still alive, for all I know) somewhere between Georges Remi (of Tintin, and so on) and Norman Rockwell.

This painting is The Little Boat, by the Finnish artist Albert Edelfelt.

St Louis Scouts

These are the St Louis Scouts. They were apparently kicked out of the Scouts of Europe (FSE) for being too trad. (The FSE's slightly feeble response to Summorum Pontificum is here. That said, there's an FSE flag in the background here. Something tells me that they might be Germans - associated with the SJM? This may warrant further investigation!)

Dipping


Scouting Centenary

Click to enlarge.

Arc de Triomphe 2008

The Promise

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Riaumont vs. the Rest

I'm not always entirely sure what's going on in this video. It's a video of a trad Catholic Scout summer camp from last year, celebrating the centenary of Scouting. At one point though, it looks suspiciously like the Scouts of Riaumont vs. the Rest of the World.

Somehow I don't rate the Rest of the World's chances.

UPDATE: Oh, bugger it! I give up. This post can be the first of a new blog here. I'll probably get bored of it too pretty soon, but it should be fun whilst it lasts.