Guiding Modern Girls GUIDING MODERN GIRLS Girlhood, Empire, and Internationalism in the 1920s and 1930s Kristine Alexander © UBC Press 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior written permission of the publisher. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Alexander, Kristine, author Guiding modern girls: girlhood, empire, and internationalism in the 1920s and 1930s / Kristine Alexander. Includes bibliographical references and index. Issued in print and electronic formats. ISBN 978-0-7748-3587-9 (hardcover). – ISBN 978-0-7748-3589-3 (PDF). – ISBN 978-0-7748-3590-9 (EPUB). – ISBN 978-0-7748-3591-6 (Kindle) 1. Girl Guides – England – History – 20th century. 2. Girl Guides – Canada – History – 20th century. 3. Girl Guides – India – History – 20th century. 4. Girls – England – History – 20th century. 5. Girls – Canada – History – 20th century. 6. Girls – India – History – 20th century. I. Title. HS3353.A44 2017 369.46309’042 C2017-905496-1 C2017-905497-X UBC Press gratefully acknowledges the financial support for our publishing program of the Government of Canada (through the Canada Book Fund), the Canada Council for the Arts, and the British Columbia Arts Council. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. UBC Press The University of British Columbia 2029 West Mall Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2 www.ubcpress.ca CONTENTS Illustrations / vi Acknowledgments / vii Introduction / 3 Guiding’s Beginnings: Victorian Antecedents and Early 1 Twentieth-Century Growth / 17 Guiding Girls toward the Private Sphere: Training for 2 Homekeeping, Mothercraft, and Matrimony / 46 “We Must Give the Modern Girl a Training in Citizenship”: 3 Preparing Girls for Political and Social Service / 79 Moulding Bodies and Identities in the Outdoors: Religion, Gender, 4 and Racial-National Narratives at Girl Guide Camps / 109 “The Mass Ornament”: Rallies, Pageantry, Exercise, and Drill / 140 5 Imperial and International Sisterhood: Possibilities and Limits / 164 6 Conclusion / 193 Notes / 204 Bibliography / 247 Index / 271 ILLUSTRATIONS Publicity shot from the 1920s showing a Canadian Boy Scout and Girl Guide with Christmas toys for needy children / 96 Snapshot of the First Jasper Park Girl Guide Company, 1929 / 111 Canadian Brownie and Guide rally held in honour of the Baden-Powells / 161 A group of mostly white Guide leaders and one Indian Guider at an international gathering, early 1930s / 174 The house at Foxlease, the British Guide Association’s estate in the New Forest / 177 The dining room at Our Chalet in Adelboden, Switzerland, c. 1932 / 178 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book has been a long time in the making, and it’s a real pleasure to be able to thank all the individuals and institutions that made it possible. It began more than a decade ago at York University, where I was fortunate enough to benefit from the engagement and guidance of Bettina Bradbury, Stephen Brooke, and Douglas Peers. I am particularly grateful for Bettina’s wisdom and friendship, which continue to inspire and sustain me. Molly Ladd-Taylor, Celia Haig-Brown, and Dominique Marshall provided valuable advice and feedback on an early version of this manuscript, as did the members of the York University British History Writing Group and Bettina Bradbury’s monthly reading group. I also owe special thanks to Robert J. Young and Tamara Myers, whose teaching and mentorship at the University of Winnipeg inspired me to become a historian. For allowing access to their collections and for forcing me to think critically about archives, I would like to acknowledge the Archive Committee at Ontario Guide House, the Archives of the National Council of the Girl Guides of Canada – Guides du Canada, the Girl Guiding UK Archives, the Archives of the Manitoba Council of the Girl Guides of Canada – Guides du Canada, the Archives of the New Brunswick Council of the Girl Guides of Canada – Guides du Canada, the British Scout Association Archives, and the Girl Scout National Historic Preservation Center. I am particularly thankful to Lynn Austen, Margaret Courtney, Yevgenya Gribov, Marlene Miller, Catherine Mort, Paul Moynihan, Pat Styles, and Karen Stapley. This project has also benefited from the assistance of librarians, archivists, and other employees at the Bharat Scouts viii Acknowledgments and Guides; the British Library; the Cambridge University Centre for South Asian Studies; the Glenbow Museum and Archives; the Margaret Cousins Memorial Library; the Nehru Memorial Library; the Provincial Archives of Manitoba; the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts; and the Yale University Divinity School Library and Archives. I would not have been able to complete this book without the support, fi- nancial and otherwise, of a number of individuals, institutions, and funding bodies. Jonathan Vance and Christopher Kent, were – and still are – generous and encouraging mentors whose support has meant a lot to me. In 2013, I started a tenure-track job at the University of Lethbridge and am beyond thankful for the support and inspiration of my colleagues and students in the Department of History and the Institute for Child and Youth Studies. For all manner of administrative help at the U of L, thanks especially to Bev Garnett and Jenny Oseen. I am also grateful for the financial support I have received from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Foundation of Canada and the Canada Research Chairs program. I have presented parts of this book at conferences and workshops too num- erous to list here, and I am thankful for the feedback I received at all of them. Corrie Decker’s comments about colonial girlhood and colonial girls at the 2014 North American Conference on British Studies were particularly helpful as I revised the manuscript. I have been lucky enough to discuss my project with a number of scholars whose work I admire, and I especially appreciate the support and advice I have received from Antoinette Burton, Cynthia Comacchio, Harald Fischer-Tiné, Geraldine Forbes, Miriam Forman-Brunell, Mona Gleason, Malavika Kasturi, Linda Mahood, Charlotte MacDonald, Mary Clare Martin, Francine McKenzie, Susan Miller, Sarah Mills, Hugh Morrison, Tamara Myers, Jane Nicholas, Fiona Paisley, Leslie Paris, Timothy Parsons, Adele Perry, David Pomfret, Tammy Proctor, Veronica Strong-Boag, Sharon Wall, Carey Watt, and Sophie Wittemans. Mischa Honeck, Cecilia Morgan, and Tait Keller read the entire manuscript and provided valuable feedback, for which I can’t thank them enough. I also received detailed and thoughtful com- ments from two anonymous reviewers and would like to thank them and my editor at UBC Press, Darcy Cullen. I am fortunate to have found friends and academic co-conspirators in dif- ferent parts of Canada and the world, all of whom continue to make me want to be a better scholar and teacher. Thanks especially to Jennifer Alexander, Jenna Bailey, Lou Barrett, Tarah Brookfield, Susan Cahill, Stephanie Carvin, Val Deacon, Sarah Duff, Cindy Ermus, Elizabeth Galway, Sarah Glassford, Christine Grandy, Jarett Henderson, Greg Kennedy, Lynn Kennedy, Sean Acknowledgments ix Kheraj, Heather Ladd, Fiona MacDonald, Heidi MacDonald, Kim Mair, Sheila McManus, Kristine Moruzi, Alison Norman, Jan Newberry, Janay Nugent, Stephanie Olsen, Serge Pellis, Bill Ramp, Amy Shaw, Michelle Smith, Simon Sleight, Erin Spring, Jamie Trepanier, Karen Vallgårda, Amy von Heyking, and the much-missed Toronto Area Canadian Women’s History Group. This work would also not have been possible without my family, many of whom put up with me when I was a rebellious Brownie in Winnipeg in the 1980s. I started this project with enthusiastic and generous support from my grandparents, Margaret and Donald Fiddler and Sigrun Kissack, as well as my great-aunt Bernice Ashton. The long process of research and writing was punctuated by their deaths, and I wish they could have lived to see me finish my first book. J.P. Marchant reminds me daily that there are all kinds of things to laugh about, as do my parents, Bruce and Linda Alexander.