Girl Guides
The first British woman in space, Helen Sharman, TV presenters Cat Deeley, Gail Porter and Davina McCall and the late politician Mo Mowlan, were all once members of one of the UK's largest organisations – the Girl Guides.
More than 100 years since the Girl Guide Movement started, an exhibition at the Melton Carnegie Museum looks at the history of the youth association with a range of photographs and memorabilia of Leicestershire and Rutland’s Guides, Brownies and Rainbows from when it first began to now.
In 1909 Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Boy Scouts, decided that girls should be in a separate organisation and his sister, Agnes Baden-Powell, took charge of the association.
The movement taught girls domestic skills alongside physical fitness, survival skills, camping, citizenship training and career preparation.
“The exhibition is a must for anyone that is or was a Girl Guide or for those wanting to find out how this amazing movement came about,” says David Sprason, Leicestershire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Adults and Communities.
During half term, at the end of February, there will also be children's activities to coincide with the exhibition and entertain visitors.
