H ELLO and welcome!  My name is Colin Walker ("Johnny" to my early or Scouting friends) and I have been involved in Scouting for nearly 55 of its 100 years. For me, Scouting is more a state of mind than an organisation. These Scouting pages began by charting my involvement in Cubs, Scouts and Venture Scouts, together with aspects of my career as a leader and, finally, as an administrator. In 2000 my retirement as Headteacher and as the Chairman of Central Yorkshire Scout County left me time to begin a collection of Scouting artefacts and to consider how these and my Scouting experiences could be used to promote the Movement amongst its membership and those who (as yet) are not involved.'Retirement' gave me the opportunity to attend a Scouting 'Heritage Tour' organised by the Scout Association and visiting many of the sites in the UK relating to Baden-Powell. These visits could not have come at better time, channelling my mind to the 'great works' of The Founder, away from the stresses of work and pointing me towards an area I had not previously had the time to explore.

With the group of fellow-Scouters also on the Heritage Tour I visited a number of sites including Brownsea Island, B-P's school at Charterhouse, Pax Hill (his home near the village of Bentley in Hampshire) and the Windmill on Wimbledon Common where Scouting for Boys was written, as well as the Scout Archives which were, at that time, to be found in B-P House. Whilst venturing out and about, our base camp was the spiritual home of Scouting - The White House at Gilwell Park.

After all my time in teaching, there was the old urge to use what I had learnt to retell to others. More than that, there was the glimmer of an idea. Was it too fanciful to conjecture that as many of these places had exerted a positive influence on B-P, they were, therefore, a part of the origins of Scouting and having visited them they were know exerting an influence on me! When I arrived back home I realised that I had in the form of artefacts I already owned a personal involvement in most of Scouting's history. I have, after all, been a member of the organisation for over half of the time it has existed!

The above was written in 2000 since that time Scouting Milestones like Topsy has grown and grown. I have been fortunate to travel the globe visiting places that B-P visited such as Mafeking and his last home at Pax-tu in Kenya. I have been able to photograph artefacts from the world's leading collections and Scouting Museums. Many these images have found their way, or will in time, onto these pages. I continue to visit the Scout Association's Archives at Gilwell Park where I have been able to research Scout related topics in the greatest detail possible. An ongoing project still, after all this time, is the transposing of B-P's personal diaries to a computer database. Those years that are complete inform the Milestones articles, set within the period covered, with a level of unprecedented detail and accuracy.

The success of Scouting Milestones has led more people to visit the site, and our readers have become our contributors, there is hardly a page that has not been improved by 'reader feedback'. Some contributions have been personal testament or the memories of near relatives at such historic events such The Siege of Mafeking or the first experimental camp on Brownsea in 1907. This had enable to the site to become 'interactive'- far more informative, and in fact, a firsthand resource of the greatest historical interest. The site I hope will offer readers a comprehensive look at the key moments and themes in Scout history, but it is a very personal assessment, illustrated wherever possible, with my own photographs and using items from my own Scouting Archive. This constant personal referencing of Scout History to my own may be a luxury I afford myself at the expense of my readers however I do believe and hope that it brings the pages to life, you are not reading bland facts but the personal involvement of an enthusiast!

Mainly due to the wide appreciation of the website I have been given the opportunity to talk to groups of Scout and Scouters in far flung and exotic places, on cruise liners, in the White House at Gilwell Park, and on Brownsea Island and this of course has been a great joy particularly as the audiences always contain Milestones readers. If you have need for Speaker at a Scout event, try me!

Though Scouting Milestones Articles try to be definitive, the medium of a WebPage within an encyclopedic series of WebPages does not allow for articles of indeterminate length so, in 2006, the author began a range of published books based on the Scouting Milestones articles but taking each subject as far as it will go. So far the following titles have been published and can be obtained from the author by reading the details on the following links: JT Cornwell VC and the Scouts' Badge or Courage , Mafeking's Artillery , Brownsea:B-P's Acorn, The World's First Scout Camp .

These pages are not a straight-line chronology, and at times may not seem to have a great deal to do with me, but as remote as the connection might seem each and every subject represents a part of my own experience. If, for example, you are a toy collector and know of my toy collecting activities it will come as no surprise to find that in these pages you will encounter the world's largest Lead Jamboree(unless, that is, you know differently!) However, other aspects of my life have led to a fairly detailed exposition of the Lyke Wake Walk. This could well have come from a lifetime of 'outdoors' activities; walking, climbing, mountain biking - or even from the period of time when I lived only three miles from Hasty Bank - but it just so happens that, of my many crossings of the Lyke Wake Walk, all were in the company of Scouts. Each of the Pages have a personal connection in that I have either visited the locations mentioned or have at least collected some of the artefacts used to illustrate the web article. In researching some of the articles, especially those that have gone on to become books, the time committment in presenting the information has meant that I have lived with the subject for months at a time, and feel very much part of its history and in some cases such as 'Brownsea' this has become a self-fulfilling prophecy as I was asked to help train the 2007 re-enactment campers.

As you will see from the menu page, the series is constantly being updated, new articles written and yet more projected, for research and writing at a later stage. Perhaps you might like to consider 'Bookmarking' this Web Site, so that you can return to it at a later date to read any new articles added since your last visit.