APPROACHING a group of women wearing matching red fleeces and clutching clipboards, I braced myself.
Whatever they were selling, or trying to get me to sign up for, I wasn’t interested. So I did what everyone does - I avoided eye contact and kept walking.
What I wasn’t expecting was the friendly greeting: “Were you in the Guides?”
I stopped walking. “I was!” I beamed. And before I knew it, I was back in the draughty church hall where I spent every Tuesday evening as a girl. I was soon sharing Guiding memories with the women in red fleeces who, it turned out, were from an organisation called the Trefoil Guild.
A branch of Girlguiding, Trefoil continues to uphold the spirit of the movement. The focus is on friendship, new challenges, community work and passing on skills and knowledge to Guiding units, from helping Brownies gain badges to preparing Guides for camp. There are more than 1,100 Trefoil Guilds in the UK, with over 20,000 members.
It dates back to 1920, when former Girl Guides began to set up groups to maintain contact with their Guide packs. In 1943 the Girl Guides Association amalgamated various ‘Old Guides’ groups as the Trefoil Guild, which became a self-governing body for former Guides to stay involved with the Guide and Scout movements.
Guides was a big part of my youth and I like the idea of an organisation that remains part of the movement. My chance meeting with the Trefoil Guild, on a day out in Morecambe, felt like being among kindred spirits.
Being a Guide is something I have in common with the likes of Zoe Ball, Dame Judi Dench, Davina McCall, Emma Thompson, Kate Moss, Dame Kelly Holmes and the late Queen. Taylor Swift, Michelle Obama and Reese Witherspoon were all Girl Scouts.
I loved going to Guides. I learned practical skills, I enjoyed the trips and camps, and I had a sense of achievement working towards badges to sew on to my uniform (which I’ve still got).
I even became a Queen’s Guide - the highest award in Guiding. I remember the process being relentless, working for specific badges and completing various projects - Commonwealth Knowledge was notoriously difficult and felt like taking an exam - and if it wasn’t for my mother’s persistence I’d have probably given up. But eventually I was presented with the award - and a certificate from the Queen. I’m still proud of it. I was only the second Guide in my pack (10th Bradford, Greengates) to be a Queen’s Guide. I even had my photo in the T&A!
This year is the 80th anniversary of the Queen’s Guide award, and Guiding groups across the UK are celebrating the accolade.
A few years ago I visited a local Guide pack to write a feature on how Guiding had changed since my day. Was it still relevant? Did girls still go to Guides? I was pleasantly surprised to find that they did - there was even a waiting list. The uniform was more casual than mine (blue shirt, cap, neckerchief, navy skirt and polished shoes), and there was a wider range of badges, in subjects such as archaeology, film-making, aviation, engineering, geocaching, interior design and human rights, but the Guiding ethos - life skills, friendship, community - remained at the heart of it.
Guiding began when a group of girls gatecrashed the first Boy Scout rally, at Crystal Palace in 1908. Scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell’s sister, Agnes, set up a girls’ movement, with a focus on outdoor, domestic and practical skills.
During the First World War, Guides assisted in hospitals and factories and were even messengers for MI5.
Today Girlguiding UK is the country’s largest female youth organisation; giving girls a voice and helping them develop skills such as decision-making, teamwork and leadership.
And while today’s Guide badges are more adventurous, I’m pleased to see the First Aid badge is still going. I remember the First Aid chapter of my Guiding Handbook, which included how to dress a wound if someone “sinks an axe into their leg at Guide camp”. I reckon I’d still know what to do. Once a Guide, always a Guide...