"Rejoice, Emmanuel has come - God is with us."
(This is my favorite video - still impacts me from the first time I saw it!)
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Blessed Christmas!
Here's wishing everyone a very blessed Christmas. May you experience God's peace, joy, hope and love this season.
"Rejoice, Emmanuel has come - God is with us."
(This is my favorite video - still impacts me from the first time I saw it!)
"Rejoice, Emmanuel has come - God is with us."
(This is my favorite video - still impacts me from the first time I saw it!)
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Congratulations 1KL - KUL Games Champions 2011
Heartiest congratulations to my beloved 1KL Boys and Officers who trained and played in the KUL Games 2011!!!
Being the champions for this year, of course, is the icing on a well-deserved cake!
Friday, July 08, 2011
Legendary Football Club Manager Sir Alex Fergeson: "[BB] was a very important part of my life"
Not sure how many of you have ever seen this, but did you know that legendary football (the English kind, not the American one!) club manager Sir Alex Fergeson was a Boys Brigade member? He says that “That spell [in the BB] from nine to 16 was a very important part of my life. It gave us discipline and confidence and trust in the relationships we developed with the officers."
Imagine that!
The full article is here.
| Sir Alex still takes a keen interest in the organisation |
BB background a big plus
BEING part of structured training programmes like those offered by the Boys’ Brigade can seriously improve a young person’s life chances.
A training programme such as the BB Queen’s Badge or the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award can also be a decisive factor in determining whether a youngster gets a training place, a place at university or a job.
The Boys’ Brigade, which recently launched a major new recruitment drive, says that more young men aged 15 and over are joining its ranks as they seek to differentiate themselves in the job and education markets.
Parents and boys alike are increasingly recognising the life advantages that being a member of the organisation can bring.
Bill Stevenson, director for Scotland, said: “We believe this represents a growing recognition that the training and broad life skills we give young men are second to none.
“The modern Boys’ Brigade is a rejuvenated organisation that gives young men discipline, fitness, mental stimulation and leadership skills.
“For the first time in a number of years, we have seen an increase in the number of our senior boys, aged 15 plus, and many of them are working for the Queen’s Badge.”
The organisation, founded in Scotland more than 125 years ago, has changed a lot since former Aberdeen Football club manager Alex Ferguson signed up, but he never stops reminding audiences that his career owes much to The Boys’ Brigade.
Sir Alex said: “That spell from nine to 16 was a very important part of my life.
“It gave us discipline and confidence and trust in the relationships we developed with the officers.
“When we went to camp in places like Stonehaven, we were given a list of everything we had to bring with us, and at the bottom, in big capital letters, he’d put ‘and football boots’.
“As soon as we arrived it would be, ‘Right, everybody, get your football boots on’.
“But it was not just football. We had all the other parts – Bible classes, learning to play the bugle, going for our badges.
“I did the signalling badge, the camping badge – about nine or 10 badges in my time there.”
All of which taught him discipline, self-respect, respect for others and leadership – the type of qualities employers seek today, according to motivational speaker Mike Stevenson, of Thinktastic, an Edinburgh innovations company.
“Leaders, leaders and more leaders – that’s what Scotland needs now more than ever,” he said.
“The Boys’ Brigade produces strong and compassionate leaders – gold dust to today’s employers and just what the Scottish economy needs if it is to thrive in the future.”
Sandy Campbell, chief executive of Working Rite, a social organisation that secures apprenticeships for young men agrees.
“Youngsters learn important things such as the importance of endeavour, discipline, punctuality and respect in the Boys’ Brigade and get an excellent training for life and the workplace.
“It gives boys the chance to rise to a challenge, learn about teamwork, achieving success by seeing things through.
“It also teaches the kind of resilience that you need to bounce back from failure so you can go on to succeed in the end.
“These kinds of skills and attitudes are exactly what employers are looking for, particularly in hard times – and can make all the difference in getting into vocational and higher education, too.”
While no one is suggesting that those who sign up with their nearest brigade will become a legendary football manager, it’s clear that this organisation has a lot to offer youngsters, particularly those on the cusp of joining the working world.
For more information or to find your nearest company, visit http://scotland.boys-brigade.org.uk
Thursday, July 07, 2011
Chee Cheong Fun - Classic 1st KL Song
I was digging around the interwebs and remembered this clip. This was taken during 1st KL's 55th Anniversary Dinner in 2009 and it features a "classic" 1st KL fun song - "Chee Cheong Fun". Enjoy!
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
What The Brigade Seeks To Do... (Quote)
"What the Brigade seeks to do is to train up good, true Boys, well prepared, physically and morally, for the battle of life, in whatever sphere they may choose."
- Sir William Alexander Smith
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
William Alexander Smith - The Founder of the Boys' Brigade as a Youth Worker
I read this recently (I think I got the link from Facebook) and thought it provided great insight into the heart and mind of the Boys Brigade Founder, Sir William Alexander Smith. It's also details Sir William Smith's biography as well - which makes for a fascinating read into the life that eventually brought him to found the Boys Brigade! The original article is from here.
William Alexander Smith - the Founder of the Boys' Brigade as a Youth Worker
Jonathan Roberts examines the William Alexander Smith's contribution to the founding, character and development of the Boys' Brigade. He seeks to get behind many of the mistaken images of the work that those outside it have.
Many reactions to the Boys’ Brigade are at one end of a continuum or the other: fond memories of friendships, dignity and activities that stay life long; or blank disbelief at what appears to be militaristic, conservative, and badly out of date. Yet over the years I have met a number of committed and courageous people who have been in the Boys' Brigade and used it to offer young people youth work in some of the most difficult areas of the country, In this piece I want to look at William A. Smith's vision to see if it still works. I also want to explore William A. Smith's significance for youth work and informal education more widely and to make connections to other work.
What was it like in the early days in the Boys' Brigade? What drew young men to join and what aspects of their life benefited from what happened in the Boys' Brigade? In the interaction between the intentions of the adults and the activities that worked for the young people methods evolved that were and are used more widely than just the Boys' Brigade. For church youth work William Smith started a movement that carried with it many of the abiding dilemmas of how far do you go in evangelism? From a social point of view the Boys' Brigade addressed the great generation of young people of the growth in British population: their longevity, as clean water and the end of cholera kicked in, meant that they were able to make traditions over 50 years in their own life times. The influence and impact of William Smith’s ideas and their organisation meant that they were imitated, criticised and contradicted in his own life time.
William Alexander Smith
William Alexander Smith (1854-1914) was born 20 miles west of John O’Groats, near Thurso, Scotland on 27th October 1854. He was the eldest son of Major David Smith, and Harriet. His father was the son of William Smith who had fought in the 78th Highlander Regiment in the Napoleonic wars with Wellington up to 1815, and had himself served in the 7th Dragoon Guards in the so-called 'Kaffir War' (South Africa) of 1849-50. The trappings of the imperial soldier came back to the north of Scotland: he held a (part-time) commission in the Caithness Volunteers and his son played soldiers with his 11 year old friends. William Alexander Smith joined the 1st Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers in 1874 and moved through the ranks from private, to Lance Corporal, to Lieutenant – Colonel (second in command) by 1905. The mass military activity of the time was absolutely part of his culture.
His mother was the daughter of Alexander Fraser who was a merchant in Glasgow. (Gibbon 1934: 9) When William was 13 his father died on business in China and he went to Glasgow to his uncle. The histories written for boys emphasise his achievement at school and his continuing studies afterwards, as a 20 year old in a French class (Birch 1959: 17). In 1869 he joined the family firm as a junior clerk. ‘Alex. Fraser & Co. were wholesale dealers in “soft goods,” shawls being one of the principle lines, and South America their chief market.’ (Gibbon 1934:15). Smith’s involvement in business continued until 1887, first in the family firm then in partnership with his brother and a friend. We can see the man growing up to live on a big map. Knowledge and discipline are the means to take a place in the world. We can also see the excellent social connections; and, for those who like to read between the lines, the abiding pattern of the Triangular trade that had made the west coast of Britain rich.
William Smith began to make choices about his life. In 1872 he was attracted by Amelia Sutherland, the 16 year old daughter of a Presbyterian minister, and joined the choir where she sang sweetly and he did not. The narrative written for Boys' Brigade members delights in the story of: ‘the lovely girl, whose dark eyes seemed to speak of Spain, and who was want to sing the Spanish folk songs with quaint and bewitching ease. Willie Smith fell in love with her, wooed her and won her.’ (Gibbon 1934: 25) ‘Mrs Sutherland, because of her daughter’s youth, would not consent to an engagement; but though the consummation of his hope was long delayed, William Smith’s mind was made up… he applied himself with diligence to the things to which he had set his hand.’ (Gibbon 1934,: 26). What a contrast to the anxiety about sexuality found in Baden-Powell. They married in March 1884 and the partnership was vital in the development of the Boys' Brigade.
In the autumn of 1872 William Alexander Smith joined the Glasgow YMCA and ‘attended lectures, two of which were given by H M Stanley the famous African explorer’ (Gibbon 1934: 17). The YMCA played an important part throughout his life. In 1874 William Smith set up a branch of the YMCA in his own church with the encouragement of the minister. This was no short term matter. For example, when he married his second wife, Hannah, in 1906 (Amelia Smith had died in 1898 when their two sons were 11 and 8), 'None of the numerous wedding presents gave greater pleasure than those from the [Boys' Brigade] Company and the Woodside branch of the YMCA, which was largely composed of Boys from the 1st’ (Gibbon 1934: 144).
In 1874 we see a change in the seriousness of William Smith's Christianity. On February 12th he heard the American evangelists Moody and Sankey for the first time, and on 12th April he joined the church (as an adult member) where his uncle was an office holder. Gibbon emphasises the distrust William Alexander Smith had for evangelistic missions and pledges (Gibbon 1934: 19). McFarlan notes the church focus and silence of the Scottish Sabbath (McFarlan 1983: 11). Both are trying to emphasise the thoroughness of the Christianity, and the life long nature of its discipline that marked out the style of Smith’s faith.
The organising church took him into the Mission Sunday school as a teacher, and later he became secretary. It is the developing work in this building in North Woodside Road that grows Smith’s practice and ideas for new methods. Nine years of the YMCA, and, in parallel, teaching bible study to unruly young people shows him a gap. The YMCA depends on the self discipline and motivation of responsible young men. The Bible needs to be learnt for the good life, but the ‘discipline and esprit de corps’ that William Smith found in the Volunteers was sadly lacking in Sunday School. The opportunity for unselfishness and team spirit is missing: attendance is erratic, they are there only for an hour and listen, there is no active participation… there is no form of work or play in which teamwork is called into action (Gibbon 1934: 33).
William Alexander Smith established the first Boys' Brigade unit in 1883 as a way of making Sabbath School both more attractive to boys and young men and of giving a structure to the work. The famous anchor badge was an early feature along with the motto 'Sure and Stedfast' (taken from Hebrews 6: 19 - 'Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast'). The Object of the Brigade was 'The advancement of Christ's Kingdom among Boys and the promotion of habits of Reverence, Discipline, Self-Respect, and all that tends towards a true Christian Manliness'.
William Smith convened the first Council of the Boys' Brigade in 1885. By 1888 he had given up any significant involvement in his business to work full time as time Secretary of the Boys' Brigade Council. He wrote what became known as 'The Little Red Book' - How to Form and Conduct a Company - and founded and edited The Boys’ Brigade Gazette. His work of regularly writing, collecting, and distributing resources to youth workers set a standard for the support, development and encouragement of youth work. William Smith was knighted in 1909 for his service to boys. He continued to work hard for the Movement up until his death (on May 10, 1914). Indeed it was at a Boys' Brigade meeting two days earlier that he was taken ill. His body was taken to Glasgow where it is said over 150,000 people lined the route for his funeral. Whilst being Secretary William Smith remained Captain of the 1st Glasgow company and rarely missed a meeting.
The Boys Brigade - military, drill, uniform and discipline
The founding myth can be found in many places: William Smith drilled the Volunteers on Saturday and can’t get the same lads to sit still in Sunday School. He put the two together as the Boys Brigade on Thursday 4th October 1883 forming the 1st Company in Glasgow. In many respects William Alexander Smith was yet another man doing something useful where he lived and yet the movement caught fire and he stopped his day job to lead and administer the Boys Brigade. Why did it attract others so effectively? What is it about aspects of the Brigade that we find hard to stomach that link to important themes in youth work?
In what follows we examine some of the defining elements of the Boys' Brigade - at least for many external commentators. To begin, however, it is important to recognize that the life of the Brigades contained many convivial aspects. William and Amelia Smith invited the boys they worked with into their house and fed and entertained them.
This approach is one of the key ways in which what we now know as 'youth work as social education' began to be spread more widely, rather than just observation of young people’s lives. Alongside the emphasis upon military organization. drill, discipline and uniform there was a significant social life with many Brigades having 'club rooms' and making use of activities for enjoyment. William Smith strongly insisted that both Officers and Boys should share in the life of the Brigade. At camp, for example, all should join in the fun, adventure and activities. This included sharing in the hardships and eating together. One of his oft quoted phrases was 'Put the Boy first'.
Military?
There is much truth in the transfer of a military pattern. The structure of the Boys' Brigade has always had the 'military pattern of Privates, NCOs and Officers, drilled in Squads, Companies, Battalions’ and have ‘colours, Band and Camp and an Annual Inspection or Review under the eye of a Field Marshal.’ (McFarlan 1983: 37). How far this causes difficulty and offence now is interesting to consider. Military personnel have been important to youth work: General Gordon undertook committed work with a Ragged School in Gravesend when he was posted there in 1865 (Eager 1953: 124ff) and his spectacular death at Khartoum was sufficiently attractive to attach his name to the Boys Club in Bermondsey. The army and the other services have provided an opportunity for a developing understanding of how to motivate, encourage, and work together. The approach of an officer to a group of soldiers is one model of how an adult engages with a group of young people. The army also produced some of the first human resources management tools in their officer selection and training, and it was shell shocked soldiers that gave Bion his material for his classic analysis of group work (Bion 1943). In the 1970s it was easy to find in many of the Brigades (Church Lads and Boys' Brigades) officers who did National Service and continued that commitment to the wider community in their youth work. However, today there are significantly less officers with military experience. It is interesting, for example, to see that the current President of the Teesside Battalion of the Boys' Brigade is a learning mentor in his day job, showing continuing links between private and public acts of commitment to the wider community.
Resistance to the ordered behaviour of Brigades by other young people has been notorious from the earliest days. Davies emphasised how working class ‘hooligans’ could make life uncomfortable for those attending the early Scouts and Boys Brigades' (1999: 1-14), and this is a continuing experience that others will recognise. In the North East there remains a strong tradition of Brigades and it may in part be due to the fact that this small region (1,010,676 people in the England and Wales workforce population of 23,529,052 [ONS 2001]) makes up about a quarter of the Armed Services workforce. Respect for the forces, based on personal links, seen as a possible route out of poor job prospects, may mean that the militaristic element is simply seen as smart and organised. Where there are good job prospects the intrusion of a military structure can be seen as disruptive (Osgerby 1998:21).
Drill?
Drill was an important feature of Boys' Brigades. However, as McFarlen put it, ‘The rifles caused the biggest offence’. Drill was part of Williams Smith’s training and ‘it seemed only natural in those days that the only good drill was one that included the precise thud and slap and smart control of rifles exercised in precision. Some of the earliest manuals available from the Boys' Brigade were: Infantry Drill, Manual Exercises for the Rifle and Carbine, and Firing Exercises’ (McFarlan 1983: 37). William Smith took what he was familiar with and what had by then been developed.
It is certainly the case that there was an anxiety about the fitness of recruits for the Boer War (Black and MacRaild 2003:95), but there is a more long-standing quest for health and fitness in work with young people. It is also the case that William Smith’s own background would predispose him to think highly of the army’s approach and requirements, but why did it attract others so effectively? In part it is that people wanted to develop their ideas about physical activity. Drill of various sorts (such as Swedish Drill, devised in 1870) was becoming more widespread and people wanted advice and guidance on what to do and this is what William Smith provided.
Eagar places these developments in the development of ‘virile recreation’ (Eagar 1953:98ff) in the 19th. Century (see, also, muscular Christianity). Enclosure and industrialisation meant that, for example in Blackburn, ‘by 1833 the right of recreation had been lost’ (Eagar 1953: 101). It was regained by: the 1847 Ten Hours Act which allowed the masses time to play (Eagar 1953: 102) and began to challenge the situation where ‘the industrialised working boy of 1770-1880 was … deprived of the activities proper to his age, who had no chance of playing games and formed no habit of open air exercise. Boys Clubs … began the restoration of that part of their birthright to working boys’(Eagar 1953:103). There are a variety of activities that are part of this development such as camping, day trips to the sea, games, playing fields, swimming pools, gymnastics and drill.
The issue of ‘physical development’ in youth work is a long standing discussion. Wholesome activity was a focus for other 19th Century initiatives: Quintin Hogg’s Regent Street Polytechnic had a splendid gymnasium (with structures like ship’s rigging running into the roof) (Eager 1953:249, 160). Cricket recurs in the stories of Boys Clubs in Kennington in the same period (Eager 1953:170ff). The boredom of existing forms of gymnastics in the YMCA led James Naismith to devise basketball in 1891 using a football and the gymnasium he had at Springfield Massachusetts (Titmuss 1998: 8f). It wasn’t until 1905 that the state began to systematically advocate exercise in schools (Board of Education 1909: v) with their ‘Suggestions for the Considerations of Teachers’. A detailed Manual with instructions and diagrams was published in 1909. This was also based on Swedish Drill and it is interesting that ‘As early as 1911, the Board of Education, via Dr. Newman (responsible for PE in schools) began to express some disquiet about Swedish Gymnastics, he described it as boring.’ (Umu 2005).
Team games developed in part to address the issue of boredom in physical activity. Eagar reports the use of cricket, and the emergence of football in the imagination of the late 19th Century young men (Eagar 1953: 105-8). The ways to avoid boredom as far as Smith was concerned was to increase the level of participation and make a noise. A marching band and brigade allows a significant level of complexity to develop and participation by all members. Interestingly, it also allows its members to occupy public space in a legitimate way: there are not many occasions when adults smile to see a group of 50 young people proceeding down the middle of the High Street together. A parade can allow young people to have a place in their community that is respected. Drill also allows a task to be complete, and in a world where young people are being tested for some possible situation 5 or 10 years hence that can’t be bad.
Youth workers now may look at drill as the exclusive preserve of the cadets and brigades and it may be that this is due to the excellent tradition we have built up of street games, cooperative games and so on. The New Games Foundation, for example, emphasises fun, and ‘you don’t need special equipment… or to be in shape.. or to worry about being a superstar’ (Fluegelman 1981:10). In part this was a response to the professionalizing and commodifying of recreation and sport by arguing that losing a game has become the dominant experience in what was meant to be playful. Dearling and Armstrong (1995: 3) see their collection of games and pastimes as a way of allowing intergenerational activity, connecting with past traditions, finding support and fun, building relationships and skills. But we can look at those same statements of purpose and use them to describe drill.
Uniform?
The Boys Brigade began with a modest uniform of cap, belt and haversack (McFarlan 1983:17f). The Volunteer movement began as a patriotic crisis in 1859 (Eager 1953: 314) and Smith wore its uniform as an adult. In Glasgow the Boys' Brigade uniform picked up a practice that was more widespread than the Volunteers William Alexander Smith commanded: there were Foundry Boys in 1865 who had the same sort of kit. More widely, brigades for shoe shine boys and street sweepers were given uniforms to show that they had a legitimate place in city streets (there is a wider study of the uniformed antecedents of the Boys' Brigade by Robin Bolton to be published by the Youth Work Press (Bolton 2005)). Wearing uniform became one of the defining features of the Boys Brigade, and the changes to the uniform down the years have been accompanied by heartache that is typical of an organisation that takes its identity through history seriously.
Looking at the care that goes into young people’s self presentation in a visual culture (Polhemus (1994) it is hard to see the appeal of uniforms that may appear uncreative or 'uncool'. The Streetstyle list of 39 different young people’s cultures (biker, punk, etc) can indicate distinctiveness and conservatism: ‘Style isn’t trendy. Quite the opposite. It’s inherently conservative and traditional and it is for this reason that it often makes use of permanent body decorations’ (Polhemus (1994:13). Put this way a uniform seems less stark. Uniforms can be seen as a way that organisations distinguish members from non-members, to support the values and tasks of the group (Nathan Joseph’s view in Rubinstein 1995: 67). Choosing to put on a uniform is a social tie symbol (Rubinstein 1995:206): it shows that the wearer wants to support the organisation, to be with the others. This combination of values, distinctive behaviour and aspiration are precisely what the Boys' Brigade expressed when the object was first written: the advancement of Christ's kingdom among Boys and the promotion of habits of Obedience, Reverence, Discipline, Self-respect and all that tends towards a true Christian manliness. The Boys Brigade focuses on the processes rather than accredited outputs.
Discipline?
Above all there are the insights that William Alexander Smith had into the lives of young people and the sort of activities and interventions that work. It is interesting to see the contrast with the view of the ‘depravity’ or sinfulness of people, characteristic of many Calvinists. In the Boys' Brigade the emphasis is on starting from the young person, characteristic of most youth work.
Looking at the purpose of Boys' Brigade content we see: true Christian manliness: the Bible and the Christian life. This seems more disciplined than many a youth programme but look at it from the right perspective. Eager was right ‘A Boys' Brigade Company is always connected with a church. A vigorous church, which always has young men of good type in its congregation has a good company if it has one at all. A feeble church which makes no appeal to young men is almost bound to fail.’ (Eagar 1953:323). In this sense the role of the Boys' Brigade is not to abuse its power (the concern of Maxine Green (1999: 110ff) but to build and develop a Christianity that is part of young people’s lives.
Not the only way to do it
In the end the Boys' Brigade was not the only way to work with young men. In Smith’s own lifetime the Boys' Brigade was criticised and imitated by the Scouts and the development of the Boys Clubs. The former saw too slavish a devotion to a form of army life that wasn’t successful and tried to be empowering to a greater extent, seeing the potential in young people. The Boys clubs knew that the social groups being addressed by the Boys' Brigade were nicer than the reality of the cities of Britain. And ever since new forms of youth work have emerged to try to improve on what has gone before. But the Boys' Brigade still carries some interesting aspects of youth work that can stimulate us to think twice about what we are doing.
Bibliography
Bion, W. R. (1943) 'Intra group tensions in therapy' The Lancet 27th November 1943 available in (1961) Experiences in Groups, London: Routledge.
Birch, A. E. (1959) The story of the Boys Brigade, London: Frederick Muller.
Black, J. and MacRaild, D. (2003) Nineteenth Century Britain, London: Palgrave.
Board of Education (1909) The Syllabus of Physical Exercises for School, London: HMSO.
Bolton, R. (2005) First for Boys? (to be published), Leicester: Youth Work Press.
Davies, B. (1999) A History of the Youth Service in England (2 Volumes), Leicester: Youth Work Press.
Dearling, A. and Armstrong, H. (1995) World Youth Games, Lyme Regis, Russell House Publishing.
Eager, W. McG. (1953) Making men: the history of Boys Clubs and related movements in Great Britain, London: University of London Press.
Fluegelman, A. (1981) More new Games, New York: Doubleday.
Gibbon, F. P. (1934) William A Smith of the Boys’ Brigade, Glasgow: Collins.
Green, M. (1999) 'The youth worker as Converter ' in S. Banks (1999) Ethical Issues in Youth Work, London: Routledge.
McFarlan, D. M. (1982) First for Boys: the story of the Boys Brigade 1883-1983, Glasgow: Collins.
Osgerby, B. (1998) Youth in Britain since 1945, Oxford: Blackwell.
Polhemus, T. (1994) Streetstyle: from sidewalk to catwalk, London: V&A Thames and Hudson.
Rubinstein, R. (1995) Dress Codes, Boulder: Westview.
Titmuss, D. (1998) Play the game: Basketball, London: Cassell.
Umu (2005) 'Historical study of PE' http://www.eng.umu.se/e3ht99/mattias/history.htm accessed
Links
Smith’s biography: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/index.php?area=content/famous_scots/smith
Museum of Smith’s life: http://www.caithness.org/community/museums/boysbrigade/
Scottish Boys' Brigade: http://scotland.boys-brigade.org.uk/
British Boys' Brigade where there is a good history of both Smith and the Boys Brigade: http://www.boys-brigade.org.uk/
© Jonathan Roberts 2006
(2006) 'William Alexander Smith -the founder of the Boys' Brigade as a youth worker', the encyclopedia of informal education, http://www.infed.org/thinkers/william_alexander_smith.htm. Last update: September 03, 2009
Jonathan Roberts works in the School of Social Sciences and Law, University of Teesside.
William Alexander Smith - the Founder of the Boys' Brigade as a Youth Worker
Jonathan Roberts examines the William Alexander Smith's contribution to the founding, character and development of the Boys' Brigade. He seeks to get behind many of the mistaken images of the work that those outside it have.
Many reactions to the Boys’ Brigade are at one end of a continuum or the other: fond memories of friendships, dignity and activities that stay life long; or blank disbelief at what appears to be militaristic, conservative, and badly out of date. Yet over the years I have met a number of committed and courageous people who have been in the Boys' Brigade and used it to offer young people youth work in some of the most difficult areas of the country, In this piece I want to look at William A. Smith's vision to see if it still works. I also want to explore William A. Smith's significance for youth work and informal education more widely and to make connections to other work.
What was it like in the early days in the Boys' Brigade? What drew young men to join and what aspects of their life benefited from what happened in the Boys' Brigade? In the interaction between the intentions of the adults and the activities that worked for the young people methods evolved that were and are used more widely than just the Boys' Brigade. For church youth work William Smith started a movement that carried with it many of the abiding dilemmas of how far do you go in evangelism? From a social point of view the Boys' Brigade addressed the great generation of young people of the growth in British population: their longevity, as clean water and the end of cholera kicked in, meant that they were able to make traditions over 50 years in their own life times. The influence and impact of William Smith’s ideas and their organisation meant that they were imitated, criticised and contradicted in his own life time.
William Alexander Smith
William Alexander Smith (1854-1914) was born 20 miles west of John O’Groats, near Thurso, Scotland on 27th October 1854. He was the eldest son of Major David Smith, and Harriet. His father was the son of William Smith who had fought in the 78th Highlander Regiment in the Napoleonic wars with Wellington up to 1815, and had himself served in the 7th Dragoon Guards in the so-called 'Kaffir War' (South Africa) of 1849-50. The trappings of the imperial soldier came back to the north of Scotland: he held a (part-time) commission in the Caithness Volunteers and his son played soldiers with his 11 year old friends. William Alexander Smith joined the 1st Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers in 1874 and moved through the ranks from private, to Lance Corporal, to Lieutenant – Colonel (second in command) by 1905. The mass military activity of the time was absolutely part of his culture.
His mother was the daughter of Alexander Fraser who was a merchant in Glasgow. (Gibbon 1934: 9) When William was 13 his father died on business in China and he went to Glasgow to his uncle. The histories written for boys emphasise his achievement at school and his continuing studies afterwards, as a 20 year old in a French class (Birch 1959: 17). In 1869 he joined the family firm as a junior clerk. ‘Alex. Fraser & Co. were wholesale dealers in “soft goods,” shawls being one of the principle lines, and South America their chief market.’ (Gibbon 1934:15). Smith’s involvement in business continued until 1887, first in the family firm then in partnership with his brother and a friend. We can see the man growing up to live on a big map. Knowledge and discipline are the means to take a place in the world. We can also see the excellent social connections; and, for those who like to read between the lines, the abiding pattern of the Triangular trade that had made the west coast of Britain rich.
William Smith began to make choices about his life. In 1872 he was attracted by Amelia Sutherland, the 16 year old daughter of a Presbyterian minister, and joined the choir where she sang sweetly and he did not. The narrative written for Boys' Brigade members delights in the story of: ‘the lovely girl, whose dark eyes seemed to speak of Spain, and who was want to sing the Spanish folk songs with quaint and bewitching ease. Willie Smith fell in love with her, wooed her and won her.’ (Gibbon 1934: 25) ‘Mrs Sutherland, because of her daughter’s youth, would not consent to an engagement; but though the consummation of his hope was long delayed, William Smith’s mind was made up… he applied himself with diligence to the things to which he had set his hand.’ (Gibbon 1934,: 26). What a contrast to the anxiety about sexuality found in Baden-Powell. They married in March 1884 and the partnership was vital in the development of the Boys' Brigade.
In the autumn of 1872 William Alexander Smith joined the Glasgow YMCA and ‘attended lectures, two of which were given by H M Stanley the famous African explorer’ (Gibbon 1934: 17). The YMCA played an important part throughout his life. In 1874 William Smith set up a branch of the YMCA in his own church with the encouragement of the minister. This was no short term matter. For example, when he married his second wife, Hannah, in 1906 (Amelia Smith had died in 1898 when their two sons were 11 and 8), 'None of the numerous wedding presents gave greater pleasure than those from the [Boys' Brigade] Company and the Woodside branch of the YMCA, which was largely composed of Boys from the 1st’ (Gibbon 1934: 144).
In 1874 we see a change in the seriousness of William Smith's Christianity. On February 12th he heard the American evangelists Moody and Sankey for the first time, and on 12th April he joined the church (as an adult member) where his uncle was an office holder. Gibbon emphasises the distrust William Alexander Smith had for evangelistic missions and pledges (Gibbon 1934: 19). McFarlan notes the church focus and silence of the Scottish Sabbath (McFarlan 1983: 11). Both are trying to emphasise the thoroughness of the Christianity, and the life long nature of its discipline that marked out the style of Smith’s faith.
The organising church took him into the Mission Sunday school as a teacher, and later he became secretary. It is the developing work in this building in North Woodside Road that grows Smith’s practice and ideas for new methods. Nine years of the YMCA, and, in parallel, teaching bible study to unruly young people shows him a gap. The YMCA depends on the self discipline and motivation of responsible young men. The Bible needs to be learnt for the good life, but the ‘discipline and esprit de corps’ that William Smith found in the Volunteers was sadly lacking in Sunday School. The opportunity for unselfishness and team spirit is missing: attendance is erratic, they are there only for an hour and listen, there is no active participation… there is no form of work or play in which teamwork is called into action (Gibbon 1934: 33).
William Alexander Smith established the first Boys' Brigade unit in 1883 as a way of making Sabbath School both more attractive to boys and young men and of giving a structure to the work. The famous anchor badge was an early feature along with the motto 'Sure and Stedfast' (taken from Hebrews 6: 19 - 'Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast'). The Object of the Brigade was 'The advancement of Christ's Kingdom among Boys and the promotion of habits of Reverence, Discipline, Self-Respect, and all that tends towards a true Christian Manliness'.
The Boys Brigade - military, drill, uniform and discipline
The founding myth can be found in many places: William Smith drilled the Volunteers on Saturday and can’t get the same lads to sit still in Sunday School. He put the two together as the Boys Brigade on Thursday 4th October 1883 forming the 1st Company in Glasgow. In many respects William Alexander Smith was yet another man doing something useful where he lived and yet the movement caught fire and he stopped his day job to lead and administer the Boys Brigade. Why did it attract others so effectively? What is it about aspects of the Brigade that we find hard to stomach that link to important themes in youth work?
In what follows we examine some of the defining elements of the Boys' Brigade - at least for many external commentators. To begin, however, it is important to recognize that the life of the Brigades contained many convivial aspects. William and Amelia Smith invited the boys they worked with into their house and fed and entertained them.
These ‘at homes’ were really an innovation in social work. ‘Slumming’ enjoyed a certain vogue at this period, but that was quite another story. For a large proportion of those who visited mean streets and entered unclean dwellings for the first time, slumming provided a new excitement, and it gave a delicious, if transient thrill to feel that they were engaged in good works and at the same time following the fashion. They visited the homes of the poor but the idea of encouraging a return visit never entered their heads. The example set by Mr and Mrs Smith has been followed… (Gibbon 1934: 51)
Military?
There is much truth in the transfer of a military pattern. The structure of the Boys' Brigade has always had the 'military pattern of Privates, NCOs and Officers, drilled in Squads, Companies, Battalions’ and have ‘colours, Band and Camp and an Annual Inspection or Review under the eye of a Field Marshal.’ (McFarlan 1983: 37). How far this causes difficulty and offence now is interesting to consider. Military personnel have been important to youth work: General Gordon undertook committed work with a Ragged School in Gravesend when he was posted there in 1865 (Eager 1953: 124ff) and his spectacular death at Khartoum was sufficiently attractive to attach his name to the Boys Club in Bermondsey. The army and the other services have provided an opportunity for a developing understanding of how to motivate, encourage, and work together. The approach of an officer to a group of soldiers is one model of how an adult engages with a group of young people. The army also produced some of the first human resources management tools in their officer selection and training, and it was shell shocked soldiers that gave Bion his material for his classic analysis of group work (Bion 1943). In the 1970s it was easy to find in many of the Brigades (Church Lads and Boys' Brigades) officers who did National Service and continued that commitment to the wider community in their youth work. However, today there are significantly less officers with military experience. It is interesting, for example, to see that the current President of the Teesside Battalion of the Boys' Brigade is a learning mentor in his day job, showing continuing links between private and public acts of commitment to the wider community.
Resistance to the ordered behaviour of Brigades by other young people has been notorious from the earliest days. Davies emphasised how working class ‘hooligans’ could make life uncomfortable for those attending the early Scouts and Boys Brigades' (1999: 1-14), and this is a continuing experience that others will recognise. In the North East there remains a strong tradition of Brigades and it may in part be due to the fact that this small region (1,010,676 people in the England and Wales workforce population of 23,529,052 [ONS 2001]) makes up about a quarter of the Armed Services workforce. Respect for the forces, based on personal links, seen as a possible route out of poor job prospects, may mean that the militaristic element is simply seen as smart and organised. Where there are good job prospects the intrusion of a military structure can be seen as disruptive (Osgerby 1998:21).
Drill?
Drill was an important feature of Boys' Brigades. However, as McFarlen put it, ‘The rifles caused the biggest offence’. Drill was part of Williams Smith’s training and ‘it seemed only natural in those days that the only good drill was one that included the precise thud and slap and smart control of rifles exercised in precision. Some of the earliest manuals available from the Boys' Brigade were: Infantry Drill, Manual Exercises for the Rifle and Carbine, and Firing Exercises’ (McFarlan 1983: 37). William Smith took what he was familiar with and what had by then been developed.
It is certainly the case that there was an anxiety about the fitness of recruits for the Boer War (Black and MacRaild 2003:95), but there is a more long-standing quest for health and fitness in work with young people. It is also the case that William Smith’s own background would predispose him to think highly of the army’s approach and requirements, but why did it attract others so effectively? In part it is that people wanted to develop their ideas about physical activity. Drill of various sorts (such as Swedish Drill, devised in 1870) was becoming more widespread and people wanted advice and guidance on what to do and this is what William Smith provided.
Eagar places these developments in the development of ‘virile recreation’ (Eagar 1953:98ff) in the 19th. Century (see, also, muscular Christianity). Enclosure and industrialisation meant that, for example in Blackburn, ‘by 1833 the right of recreation had been lost’ (Eagar 1953: 101). It was regained by: the 1847 Ten Hours Act which allowed the masses time to play (Eagar 1953: 102) and began to challenge the situation where ‘the industrialised working boy of 1770-1880 was … deprived of the activities proper to his age, who had no chance of playing games and formed no habit of open air exercise. Boys Clubs … began the restoration of that part of their birthright to working boys’(Eagar 1953:103). There are a variety of activities that are part of this development such as camping, day trips to the sea, games, playing fields, swimming pools, gymnastics and drill.
The issue of ‘physical development’ in youth work is a long standing discussion. Wholesome activity was a focus for other 19th Century initiatives: Quintin Hogg’s Regent Street Polytechnic had a splendid gymnasium (with structures like ship’s rigging running into the roof) (Eager 1953:249, 160). Cricket recurs in the stories of Boys Clubs in Kennington in the same period (Eager 1953:170ff). The boredom of existing forms of gymnastics in the YMCA led James Naismith to devise basketball in 1891 using a football and the gymnasium he had at Springfield Massachusetts (Titmuss 1998: 8f). It wasn’t until 1905 that the state began to systematically advocate exercise in schools (Board of Education 1909: v) with their ‘Suggestions for the Considerations of Teachers’. A detailed Manual with instructions and diagrams was published in 1909. This was also based on Swedish Drill and it is interesting that ‘As early as 1911, the Board of Education, via Dr. Newman (responsible for PE in schools) began to express some disquiet about Swedish Gymnastics, he described it as boring.’ (Umu 2005).
Team games developed in part to address the issue of boredom in physical activity. Eagar reports the use of cricket, and the emergence of football in the imagination of the late 19th Century young men (Eagar 1953: 105-8). The ways to avoid boredom as far as Smith was concerned was to increase the level of participation and make a noise. A marching band and brigade allows a significant level of complexity to develop and participation by all members. Interestingly, it also allows its members to occupy public space in a legitimate way: there are not many occasions when adults smile to see a group of 50 young people proceeding down the middle of the High Street together. A parade can allow young people to have a place in their community that is respected. Drill also allows a task to be complete, and in a world where young people are being tested for some possible situation 5 or 10 years hence that can’t be bad.
Youth workers now may look at drill as the exclusive preserve of the cadets and brigades and it may be that this is due to the excellent tradition we have built up of street games, cooperative games and so on. The New Games Foundation, for example, emphasises fun, and ‘you don’t need special equipment… or to be in shape.. or to worry about being a superstar’ (Fluegelman 1981:10). In part this was a response to the professionalizing and commodifying of recreation and sport by arguing that losing a game has become the dominant experience in what was meant to be playful. Dearling and Armstrong (1995: 3) see their collection of games and pastimes as a way of allowing intergenerational activity, connecting with past traditions, finding support and fun, building relationships and skills. But we can look at those same statements of purpose and use them to describe drill.
Uniform?
The Boys Brigade began with a modest uniform of cap, belt and haversack (McFarlan 1983:17f). The Volunteer movement began as a patriotic crisis in 1859 (Eager 1953: 314) and Smith wore its uniform as an adult. In Glasgow the Boys' Brigade uniform picked up a practice that was more widespread than the Volunteers William Alexander Smith commanded: there were Foundry Boys in 1865 who had the same sort of kit. More widely, brigades for shoe shine boys and street sweepers were given uniforms to show that they had a legitimate place in city streets (there is a wider study of the uniformed antecedents of the Boys' Brigade by Robin Bolton to be published by the Youth Work Press (Bolton 2005)). Wearing uniform became one of the defining features of the Boys Brigade, and the changes to the uniform down the years have been accompanied by heartache that is typical of an organisation that takes its identity through history seriously.
Looking at the care that goes into young people’s self presentation in a visual culture (Polhemus (1994) it is hard to see the appeal of uniforms that may appear uncreative or 'uncool'. The Streetstyle list of 39 different young people’s cultures (biker, punk, etc) can indicate distinctiveness and conservatism: ‘Style isn’t trendy. Quite the opposite. It’s inherently conservative and traditional and it is for this reason that it often makes use of permanent body decorations’ (Polhemus (1994:13). Put this way a uniform seems less stark. Uniforms can be seen as a way that organisations distinguish members from non-members, to support the values and tasks of the group (Nathan Joseph’s view in Rubinstein 1995: 67). Choosing to put on a uniform is a social tie symbol (Rubinstein 1995:206): it shows that the wearer wants to support the organisation, to be with the others. This combination of values, distinctive behaviour and aspiration are precisely what the Boys' Brigade expressed when the object was first written: the advancement of Christ's kingdom among Boys and the promotion of habits of Obedience, Reverence, Discipline, Self-respect and all that tends towards a true Christian manliness. The Boys Brigade focuses on the processes rather than accredited outputs.
Discipline?
Above all there are the insights that William Alexander Smith had into the lives of young people and the sort of activities and interventions that work. It is interesting to see the contrast with the view of the ‘depravity’ or sinfulness of people, characteristic of many Calvinists. In the Boys' Brigade the emphasis is on starting from the young person, characteristic of most youth work.
He had no patience with the theory that boys are unregenerate beings, and that to make them good we have to start from this rock bottom level. He believed that they are essentially good, and only require the inspiration of Christ the Hero to make them heroic too. His constant advice was ‘Trust the boys’. (Gibbon 1934: 98)Henry Drummond (William Alexander Smith’s contemporary and Free Church professor of Natural Science in Glasgow University) was struck by the way in which many young men hesitated (‘through shyness, modesty, or fastidiousness’ [Eagar 1953:326]) to join in with evangelism but the Boys Brigade enabled men to join in with church work.
What interests young men in the Boys’ Brigade is the naturalness of the work. It is absolutely natural for a young man to be mixed up with boys… to take up their cause, to lay himself alongside their interests, to play the part of an older brother to them. He altogether understands them; he knows their ways and dodges, and has been in all their scrapes. A mother does not really know a boy in the least. She has never been a boy. (Drummond quoted in Eagar 1953:326).The memories of many Boys' Brigade companies are of groups of people who grew into friendship and were proud to see their young men become adults. Outwardly the style is systemic, focusing on group organisation, making team players. At the heart is the relationship between the officer and young man.
Looking at the purpose of Boys' Brigade content we see: true Christian manliness: the Bible and the Christian life. This seems more disciplined than many a youth programme but look at it from the right perspective. Eager was right ‘A Boys' Brigade Company is always connected with a church. A vigorous church, which always has young men of good type in its congregation has a good company if it has one at all. A feeble church which makes no appeal to young men is almost bound to fail.’ (Eagar 1953:323). In this sense the role of the Boys' Brigade is not to abuse its power (the concern of Maxine Green (1999: 110ff) but to build and develop a Christianity that is part of young people’s lives.
Not the only way to do it
In the end the Boys' Brigade was not the only way to work with young men. In Smith’s own lifetime the Boys' Brigade was criticised and imitated by the Scouts and the development of the Boys Clubs. The former saw too slavish a devotion to a form of army life that wasn’t successful and tried to be empowering to a greater extent, seeing the potential in young people. The Boys clubs knew that the social groups being addressed by the Boys' Brigade were nicer than the reality of the cities of Britain. And ever since new forms of youth work have emerged to try to improve on what has gone before. But the Boys' Brigade still carries some interesting aspects of youth work that can stimulate us to think twice about what we are doing.
Bibliography
Bion, W. R. (1943) 'Intra group tensions in therapy' The Lancet 27th November 1943 available in (1961) Experiences in Groups, London: Routledge.
Birch, A. E. (1959) The story of the Boys Brigade, London: Frederick Muller.
Black, J. and MacRaild, D. (2003) Nineteenth Century Britain, London: Palgrave.
Board of Education (1909) The Syllabus of Physical Exercises for School, London: HMSO.
Bolton, R. (2005) First for Boys? (to be published), Leicester: Youth Work Press.
Davies, B. (1999) A History of the Youth Service in England (2 Volumes), Leicester: Youth Work Press.
Dearling, A. and Armstrong, H. (1995) World Youth Games, Lyme Regis, Russell House Publishing.
Eager, W. McG. (1953) Making men: the history of Boys Clubs and related movements in Great Britain, London: University of London Press.
Fluegelman, A. (1981) More new Games, New York: Doubleday.
Gibbon, F. P. (1934) William A Smith of the Boys’ Brigade, Glasgow: Collins.
Green, M. (1999) 'The youth worker as Converter ' in S. Banks (1999) Ethical Issues in Youth Work, London: Routledge.
McFarlan, D. M. (1982) First for Boys: the story of the Boys Brigade 1883-1983, Glasgow: Collins.
Osgerby, B. (1998) Youth in Britain since 1945, Oxford: Blackwell.
Polhemus, T. (1994) Streetstyle: from sidewalk to catwalk, London: V&A Thames and Hudson.
Rubinstein, R. (1995) Dress Codes, Boulder: Westview.
Titmuss, D. (1998) Play the game: Basketball, London: Cassell.
Umu (2005) 'Historical study of PE' http://www.eng.umu.se/e3ht99/mattias/history.htm accessed
Links
Smith’s biography: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/index.php?area=content/famous_scots/smith
Museum of Smith’s life: http://www.caithness.org/community/museums/boysbrigade/
Scottish Boys' Brigade: http://scotland.boys-brigade.org.uk/
British Boys' Brigade where there is a good history of both Smith and the Boys Brigade: http://www.boys-brigade.org.uk/
© Jonathan Roberts 2006
(2006) 'William Alexander Smith -the founder of the Boys' Brigade as a youth worker', the encyclopedia of informal education, http://www.infed.org/thinkers/william_alexander_smith.htm. Last update: September 03, 2009
Jonathan Roberts works in the School of Social Sciences and Law, University of Teesside.
Monday, July 04, 2011
Meet Mr. John Cheah, founding member of 1st KL
This came by way of both 1st KL's Facebook Fan Page and 1st KL's Facebook Group - the story of Mr. John Cheah who was a founding member of 1st KL in 1954. He went on to become the founder of the 1st Melaka BB Company as well as a dedicated member of the Rotary Club. It is very inspirational to me that the seeds of good works planted early on in his life has come to bear much good fruit!
[By the way, this reminds me of my encounter with another founding member of 1st KL, Mr. S.Y. Shim!]
This story originally appeared in the New Straits Times, which you can read online here.
[By the way, this reminds me of my encounter with another founding member of 1st KL, Mr. S.Y. Shim!]
This story originally appeared in the New Straits Times, which you can read online here.
| John Cheah when he was a member of the Boys Brigade. |
From Boys' Brigade to stalwart Rotarian
I JOINED the Boys' Brigade when I was 12, and was in the Kuala Lumpur Boys' Brigade (B.B.) Company in 1954 when it was first chartered.
The Boys' Brigade was attached to the Wesley Church Kuala Lumpur, while I was studying at Methodist Boys School Kuala Lumpur. With the help of the late Kuah Beng Choon, a primary school assistant principal of Anglo Chinese School (ACS) primary school, we proposed the idea of forming the first Malacca B.B. Company.
At that time, I was 21 years old and with Kuah, we formed the Malacca B.B. Company which helped a great many youths.
With ardent support from fellow church members, Kuah and I recruited 70 boys to join the Malacca B.B.
With donations, we bought uniforms for the boys and instruments such as the three-sided drums, a bass drum, two tenor drums, a cymbal, six flutes, six bugles and a maze.
We got the Australian and New Zealand officers from the Terendak Camp in Malacca to assist with the training of the boys, especially in the drill and marching.
With regard to the flute and bugle band, we were fortunate to have the help of the late Dr Willie Low, who taught the boys to play the drums while I taught them to play the bugle as I was a bugler.
Together, with the help of the Terendak Camp B.B. officers, we got the band going in tune.
The band later won the first prize in the Bugle section of the Malaysian B.B. Band Competition in 1966.
I left the B.B. in 1967 to further my studies in civil engineering at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, United Kingdom.
A deluge of pleasant memories with the B.B. inundated me recently as I was escorted into the opening of the 21st District 3310 Presidents Elect Training Seminar (PETS) and Assembly held in Johor Baru, recently, by the B.B.
I arrived for dinner, accompanied by my wife, Doreen, who was introduced to me by Kuah.
Back in 1966 when I married Doreen, the B.B. was the guard of honour at our wedding.
After serving as a Rotarian for 36 years, I am happy to be invited to be the guest-of-honour at the 21st District 3310 PETS and Assembly.
The Rotary, which is 106 years old, has been guided and led by illustrious presidents and their Rotary International (R.I.) boards of directors and legislation councils, which have made R.I. a successful non-governmental organisation serving the community worldwide.
When I joined Rotary in March 1975, its motto was To Dignify the Human Being, a theme which struck a chord in my heart and those of caring Rotarians to do what we could for children born in slums and ghettos. We were committed to end the suffering of polio-stricken children.
In 1979/1980, I became the president of the Rotary Club of Johor Baru. The motto of the club was Let Service Light The Way.
Our service in bringing hope can be seen by countless examples with success stories both locally and internationally.
R.I.'s most successful endeavour is the Polio Plus programme which was started by Rotarians in 1985.
Recently, we had Rotarians in our district who walked from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Baru to raise funds for the programme.
When I was a public health engineer in 1970, I was involved in the malaria eradication programme.
My fellow Rotarians and I were invited by the state government to sit in the committee of the communication for behavioural impact programme, launched by the Health Ministry, recently.
If the programme is found to be successful, Malaysia can use this to reduce, control and eradicate the spread of dengue.
John Cheah, 70, was the Rotary District Governor of District 3310 for 1990/1991 and is also the Johor Baru MCA Division Public Complaints Bureau chairman.
Interview by Chuah Bee Kim.
Saturday, July 02, 2011
Meeting Mr. Khoo Onn Soo, 1st KL's Founder
My friend Kenny Voon Zhen Yi had the great honour of meeting the founder of 1st Kuala Lumpur, Mr. Khoo Onn Soo, during a visit to Australia. Mr. Khoo also went on to become Boys Brigade Malaysia's very first Brigade President.
Voon shares his experience (original article archived here):
Mr. Khoo Onn Soo had a very interesting beginning with the BB. It seems that he was to follow the footsteps of his father, the late Rev. Khoo Cheng Hoe and his brothers which decided to join the Brigade earlier than he did. His father was the first Chaplain of the pioneer BB Company 1 st Penang Company in the year 1946. He decided to follow suit later on when he volunteered as a helper for the Methodist Church. Mr. Khoo Onn Soo took over the captaincy of 1 st Penang from Geh Hun Kheng and became the company's second captain.
Before long, the Methodist Church decided to station Mr. Khoo Onn Soo in Kuala Lumpur at the Wesley Methodist Church in 1954, where he took no delay in setting up the 1st Kuala Lumpur Company where he became the company's first captain.
After the separation of Singapore from the Federation of Malaya, Mr. Khoo effectively took over the helm of BBM. He remembers how it was like when the first EXCO was formed, and the plans they had for The Boys' Brigade Ministry.
Mr. Khoo was appointed the Youth Advisor for the Methodist Church in Malaysia . With that advantage, and also being the BBM President, he was able to spread the good name of the BB to more churches (which would be the reason why the BB is so common among the Methodist Church in Malaysia).
He emmigrated to Australia in the year 1970, coinciding with his retirement. He found it appropriate to live in Sydney as job opportunities were plentiful at that time. He worked at the corrections center. His wife continued her career as a teacher in one of the Aussie schools.
He has not been attached to any BB company in Australia , but Mr. Khoo was still deeply involved in the church ministry, offering his home to church members to conduct activities such as Bible Study and worship.
Although in his 90s, Mr. Khoo is still healthy and strong. When I got to Sydney I wasn't even sure if he was still alive as I only had a address with no phone number nor email. Thankfully, he lived only two grids away from where I stayed in Sydney . He wasn't in when I paid him a visit to his home in Castlehill the first time I visited. I left a note, hoping it'll do some good, and it did. Mr. Khoo rang me up on my mobile and gave me the warmest welcome to his home two days later. He was away on a holiday back to Singapore for a family reunion before I met him.
There on a lovely Wednesday morning, I saw for the first time the man whom has served the Brigade which much dedication till the days of his retirement. A friendly man, so anxious to tell his story of his works for the Lord through the BB ministry.
I had to say farewell to our first BBM president after a quick 45 minute chat. I was to catch a plane to Melbourne within the hour. He came up to me and shook my hand with the familiar BB handshake, saying “this is how we do it in the BB” and encouraged me not to give up serving the Brigade. Mr. Khoo Onn Soo has obviously not forgotten the Brigade even though he has been away from it for more than 30 years.
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