Guide International Service


The Guide International Service was an organisation set up by the Girl Guides Association in Britain in 1942 with the aim of sending to Europe after World War II teams of adult Girl Guides to do relief work. It is described in two books: All Things Uncertain by Phyllis Stewart Brown and Guides Can Do Anything by Nancy Eastick. A total of 198 Guiders and 60 Scouts, drawn from Britain, Australia, Canada, Ireland and Kenya, served in teams. Some went to relieve the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp, while others served in Malaya.
Olave Baden-Powell, grieving in Kenya after the death of her husband, Robert Baden-Powell, was persuaded to return to Britain:-
... I kept receiving letters from England telling me thrilling stories of the heroism of Scouts and Guides in Britain and in the occupied countries of Europe. Then I had one letter in particular that challenged me. It was from Miss Tennyson, the Eitor of The Guider, and she wrote, “Come home and see what Guides are doing in the war. You will never forgive yourself if you don’t see it.”...
In the 1948 Birthday Honours, Rosa Cliff Ward, JP, Chairman of the Girl Guide International Service, was made an O.B.E.