09/06/2024
The Queen will always be our patron and fellow sister 🩵💛💙
Want to be apart of the best history and be connected to the Royal Family…. Join Girl Guides today!
In 1937, 11 year old Elizabeth was registered as a Guide and her younger sister, Margaret, was registered as a Brownie. Their mother, Queen Elizabeth, also joined the Girl Guides Association and later became a patron.
To help the girls earn their challenge badges, the Palace created the 1st Buckingham Palace Guide Company. A Guide leader called Miss V M Synge was invited to Buckingham Palace to lead the group.
It met for the first time on 9th June 1937. At this meeting, Princess Elizabeth was elected second of the Kingfisher Patrol with Patricia Mountbatten as her Patrol Leader. There were twenty Guides, who were children of members of the Royal Household and Palace employees.
A Brownie Pack was also opened at the same time for Princess Margaret. It had 14 members.
In 1942, during World War II, the Guide unit moved to Windsor castle. Elizabeth, who was Patrol Leader of Swallows, kept guiding and helping with the war effort.
When the princess turned 17, she joined the Sea Rangers and became Chief Ranger of the British Empire in 1946.
The Queen’s involvement with guiding didn’t stop there. On 13th July 1947, the International Scout and Guide Folk Dance Festival took place. 200 Guides who had done the Queen’s Guide Award took part in a march-past in the Mall at Buckingham Palace. Princess Elizabeth joined them to take the salute, the first public duty she did following her engagement.
When she married Prince Philip in 1947, aged 21, two of her bridesmaids were former Buckingham Palace Guides and the ingredients for the wedding cake were provided by the Australian Guides.
From 29 July to 7 August 1957, 4,000 Guides from 70 different countries went to the Windsor World Camp. The Queen, who let the organisers hold the camp in the Great Park, one of the Royal Parks, visited the camp too.
She became patron in 1953, the year after she took the throne and continued in the role until her death on 8th September 2022.
Source: girlguiding.org.uk
