French Boy Scouts: Chronology


Figure 3.--This photograph shows the French Scouts "LA TROUPE SAINT-JACQUES 1ère HAZEBROUCK" in 1933. The Scouts wear the classic wide-brimmed hats. The Cubs wear berets.

The French Scout movement is generally considered to have begun in 1911. A lot of independent troops sprung up in the 1910s, then joined a variety of different associations--mainly accordingly to religion: Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish. That creation of separate, independent associations has continued to this day. The America practice of boys from many different religious and ethnic background participating in the same Scout troop has never been widely practiced in France. The chronology of French Scouting is somewhat complicated because of the different associations. We note a lot of commercial post cards of French Scouts during World war I. We have, however, few details about the role Scouts played during the war. By the 1920s the Scout de France was formed and had added Wolf Cubing and a national camp. Pope Pious XI in 1926 received French Scouts in Rome giving them full support. Scouts de FRance in 1927 created a camp-school at Chamarande. Father Sevin created a camp-school on the English model of Gilwell-Park--the "Cham" training seminars. NAZI Germany invaded and defeated the French Army (Junr 1940). In the resulting Armistace agreement, France was divided into an occupied zone (northern and western France and an unoccupied zone administered by Marshal Petain's collaborationist Goverment at Vichy. NAZI German occpationist authorities banned Scouting. This was the same action the Germans took in other occupied countries.

Foundation

The French Scout movement is generally considered to have begun in 1911. A lot of independent troops sprung up in the 1910s, then joined a variety of different associations--mainly accordingly to religion: Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish. That creation of separate, independent associations has continued to this day. The America practice of boys from many different religious and ethnic background participating in the same Scout troop has never been widely practiced in France.

World War I

We note a lot of commercial post cards of French Scouts during World war I. We have, however, few details about the role Scouts played during the war.

Inter-War Years

By the 1920s the Scout de France was formed and had added Wolf Cubing and a national camp. Pope Pious XI in 1926 received French Scouts in Rome giving them full support. Scouts de FRance in 1927 created a camp-school at Chamarande. Father Sevin created a camp-school on the English model of Gilwell-Park--the "Cham" training seminars.

World War II

NAZI Germany invaded and defeated the French Army (Junr 1940). In the resulting Armistace agreement, France was divided into an occupied zone (northern and western France and an unoccupied zone administered by Marshal Petain's collaborationist Goverment at Vichy. NAZI German occpationist authorities banned Scouting. This was the same action the Germans took in other occupied countries. The Germans as in Germany itself want all youth activities ynder Government control. In particular they did want any uniformed groups, even youth groups, to be outside their control. In the unoccupied zone, Vichy officials permitted the Scouts de France to continue. Famed French Scouting artist Pierre Joubert reportedly moved from Paris to the unoccupied zone so he could comtinue to remain active in Scouting. (After the War some looked on him as a collaborationist because of this.) The Vichy Goverment attempted to control the Scouts and other youth movements, but many of the members strongly favored the Allies and this sentiment increased as the war began to turn against the Germans. After the Allies invaded French North Africa (November 1942), the Germans occupied the unoccupied area as well. I do not know what action the Germans took toward Scouting at this tome.

Post-War Years








HBU






Navigate the Historic Boys' Uniform Chronology Pages:
[Return to the Main chronologies page]
[The 1900s][The 1910s] [The 1920s] [The 1930s] [The 1940s] [The 1950s] [The 1960s] [The 1970s] [The 1980s] [The 1990s] [The 2000s]



Navigate the Historic Boys' Uniform Web Site:
[Return to the Main French Scout page]
[Introduction] [Activities] [Bibliographies] [Biography] [Chronologies] [Countries] [Essays] [Garments] [Organizations] [Other]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Questions] [Unknown images]
[Boys' Uniform Home]



Navigate the Historic Boys' Uniform Web organizatiion pages:
[Return to the National Scout page]
[Boys' Brigade] [Camp Fire] [Church Lads] [Hitler Youth] [National] [Pioneers] [Royal Rangers] [Scout]



Created: 1:11 AM 4/6/2005
Last updated: 1:11 AM 4/6/2005