Black and white photograph of Sea Ranger girl guides in uniform on their boat SRS Apollo, Cardiff Docks, c.1958, donated to Cardiff Story Museum in 2008

Description

[Researched and compiled by the VCS Chronicle project.]

This photograph shows the rubbing down of the boats. Several people are stood around two upturned rowing boats, some of them wearing a naval uniform. The Sea Ranger Company of girl guides was called SRS Apollo, because HMS Apollo was the flagship of the home fleet at the time. This picture is taken in the same dock as a black and white photograph of Sea Ranger girl guides in a whaler doing their oarsmen’s certificate, Cardiff Docks, c1958. Girl Guides between 14 and 25 years old can become Sea Rangers, which is a section of the Girl Guides, and engage in seamen’s training.

While the Boy Scouts movement founded by Robert Baden-Powell in the 1900s became more and more popular, girls demanded to be allowed to be scouts as well. Girls dressed as Scouts attended the first Boy Scout Rally in Crystal Palace Park in 1909 demanding to become members and do the same things that boys do. The following year Baden-Powell with his sister Agnes Baden-Powell founded the Girl Guides, a separate organisation dedicated to and for girls. The girls would be part of different groups, earning badges in activities such as sailing, aviation and home electrics. During the First World War, girl guides were making contributions to the First World War effort – growing food, acting as messengers for government organisations and working in hospitals, factories and soup kitchens.

Today, the Girl Guide Association is UK’s largest girl-only youth organisation and it is also a campaigning organisation, having supported the 'No More Page 3' campaign (from 2012 until 2015, stopping The Sun from including pictures of topless models on its page 3) and lobbied the government on sexual harassment in schools, women’s political representation and media sexism. Each year, the organisation publishes the Girls' Attitudes Survey, which surveys the views of girls and young women on topics such as body image, career aspirations and mental health.

Cardiff Story Museum, CARCM:2008.4.5
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