Looking for Gilwell Park

Gilwell was purchased for The Association by a generous publishing company owner from Edinburgh called William F de Bois Maclaren. Maclaren was a Scout Commissioner from Scotland who was expanding his business from Edinburgh to Fleet Street in London. During one visit he was dismayed to see the Boy Scouts in the East End of London trying to operate their programme in the back streets and on waste land.

In November 1918 he contacted BP and told him of his wish to provide money to purchase a camping ground for the Scouts of the East End. His original idea was to buy 600 acres of land in Ashdown Forest in Sussex but he soon saw that Sussex was an impractical distance from London.

Finding Gilwell Park

Baden-Powell referred the matter to P B Neville who was Commissioner for East London at the time. On Monday 20th November Neville and Maclaren had dinner at Roland House, the Scout hostel in Stepney, London, to discuss the matter. Having looked at many options they agreed to look for a site in either Hainult Forest or Epping Forest and Maclaren agreed to commit £7,000 to the project.

Parties of Rover Scouts searched in both areas for quite some time without success, until one day a young Assistant Scoutmaster, called John Gayfer, contacted Neville and suggested Gilwell Hall, a place where he often went bird-watching. Neville visited the site and was impressed with what he saw, even though the estate was in a deplorable condition. He managed to find a torn down board with the name of the estate agent on it and, on contacting them, discovered that the estate was on the market for £7,000; exactly the sum that Maclaren had offered. The estate at that time was a total of 53 acres.

Extract from the First Wood Badge Log

The Scouts move in...

The purchase having been made, Neville brought in his Rover Scouts on Maundy Thursday 1919 to start the clear up operation. The old house was in a terrible state of repair and the entire grounds were overgrown. On their first visit the Rovers found the ground to be so wet that it was impossible to pitch tents, so they slept that first night in a gardeners shed on the Orchard which they christened 'The Pigsty'. It still stands their today.

The White House in a terrible state of repair

From that point on regular parties of Scouts spent their weekends clearing the estate and Maclaren was a frequent visitor to see the work in progress. The extent of the work and, in particular, the work needed to restore the house had clearly been underestimated and more money was desperately needed.

Maclaren had only originally been interested in providing a camping ground, but Baden-Powell's vision was for a training centre for Scoutmasters as well and Maclaren became convinced that the two could sit in harmony side by side. So keen was he on the project that he committed an extra £3,000.

Work continued apace and in Mat 1919 the first Camp Chief, Francis Gidney, was appointed and the work took on more shape and direction. Plans were made for an official opening ceremony on 19th July 1919 and invitations printed for the event. It was soon discovered though that most London Scouts were committed to supporting the Official Peace Festival on that day and so the opening was postponed for a week until Saturday 26th July 1919. The printed invitations were changed by hand to save money and distributed to all London District Scout Commissioners and other dignitaries.

The opening of Gilwell Park

On the day, Gilwell was opened by Mrs Maclaren, who cut Scout colour green and yellow ribbons at the main gate and declared Gilwell open. The White House was bedecked with bunting and Union Flags with Ensigns hung from every window. This did little however to disguise the deplorable state that the building was really in.

The White House on opening day, 26th July 1919

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