Allison Greenlees (born Allison Hope Cargill; 13 August 1896 – 4 August 1979) formed a group of girl scouts before it was possible for her to become Scotland's first ever Girl Guide and a founder member of Girlguiding Scotland.^[1][2][3]

Early life

Born in Hillhead, Glasgow, she was the daughter of Mary Hope Walker Grierson and Sir John Cargill, 1st Baronet. She had no brother and if she had been a son then she would have become a baronet. Greenlees set up a precursor to Girl Guides with five friends from Laurel Bank School,^[4] the Cuckoo Patrol, after reading an edition of Scouting for Boys and wanted something like the Boy Scouts to be available to girls.^[1][2] In 1909, the Cuckoo Patrol was adopted into the First Glasgow Scout Group,^[5] a year before The Girl Guides Association was established by Agnes Baden-Powell in 1910.^[4] and the Cuckoo Patrol became the Girl Guide Thistle Patrol.^[5]

Girl Guiding

In 1908, Allison Cargill happened to buy the first copy of The Scout, and was enthusiastic about the idea. After reading ‘Scouting for Boys’ she started a patrol with five friends from Laurel Bank School of Glasgow in Autumn of 1908. This  was the Cuckoo Patrol, affiliated to the 1^st Glasgow Scout Troop in 1909.

The girls met regularly in a stable loft and often practised similar skills to that of the boy scouts, like practising knot tying by lowering each other from the loft to the stable yard. One of the local Scoutmasters came to the girls’ weekly meetings and passed them on their tests. Their proudest moment was when they were permitted to parade with the scouts and march accompanied by a bugle band to woods three miles away where they lit fires and made tea in billy cans - treated no different to the boy scouts.

In 1910 Guiding became official and the Cuckoo Patrol reluctantly became the Thistle Patrol of the Girl Guides; though the patrol was never officially registered as in the autumn of 1910 Allison left Glasgow and went to school in Malvern, Worcestershire.

The first Glasgow Guide company was not registered until December 1911. There had been a patrol of Girl Scouts affiliated to an Edinburgh scout troop and was registered as the 1^st Midlothian in July 1910, later changing to 1st Edinburgh which still meets today. Though the first Girl Guide Company to register in Scotland was the 1^st Peebles Company.

Allison Cargill went on to a private school in Malvern and a Guide Company was started in 1911 with a strong Scottish Connection. One of the company was Loelia Buchan Hepburn who became the first County Commissioner for East Lothian and Deputy Commissioner for Scotland aged 20.

Allison Cargill returned to Glasgow and developed Guiding there. When the First World War broke out she used her experience to help raise the Glasgow Battalion of the Women’s Voluntary Reserve (WVS). After the war, as Division Commissioner she enrolled 30 Guides at a time - a huge achievement in growth for the period.

In 1930, she became County Commissioner Girlguiding Midlothian and in 1953 she became President of Girlguiding Scotland.^[6][3] She was awarded the Silver Fish Award which is the Girl Guiding's highest adult honour, in 1939.^[7]

Career

She retired here after her husband died.

After the start of the First World War, she turned her skills to help set up the Glasgow Battalion of the Women's Emergency Corps.^[3]

Legacy

Allison Cargill House is a registered charity named for her,^[8] and it supplies bunk house accommodation in East Lothian^[9] for Brownies^[5] and other Sections of Guiding to camp at.

Personal life

Greenlees' grave, Inveresk Cemetery

In 1922 she married Dr James Greenlees^[3] who became headmaster of Loretto Public School, Musselburgh, from 1926-1946, living in Inveresk. They had a son and a daughter, Robert and Mary Campbell Allison (1925-2003). Her husband died in 1951 and she bought the farmhouse and steading of Eaglescairnie House.^[10] She died in Edinburgh on 4 August 1979.^[5][11]

References