AS 28 million Scouts throughout the world get ready to mark the movement's centenary a fascinating picture is emerging of the earliest days of Scouting in Gwent.

With the diligence of the police officer he once was Scout archivist Mike Breakwell, 60, trawls through old minute books and yellowing newspaper files for clues about Scouting as it was shortly after being launched by Lord Robert Baden - Powell in 1907.

"I started by examing newspapers including the South Wales Argus which threw up interesting nuggets, one being that Baden-Powell may have intended Scouting to be a sub-group within the Boys' Brigade.

"In fact the Boys' Brigade turned the idea down and Baden-Powell then started publishing a series of articles which grew to be his famous Scouting for Boys.

"What happened then was that boys began meeting almost literally on street corners and forming their own patrols in an un-cordinated manner.

"The situation was quite confused in the early days with several different Scouting organisations including the Baden-Powell Scouts, the British Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and the Church Lads' Brigade incorporating the Church Patrol Scouts all more or less competing."

By 1914 and World War One the various organisations had largely been united under one Scout Association. During World War One - and 21 years later with the outbreak of World WarTwo - Scouts were used in a civil defence role.

"The only Scouts outside the Scout Association to remain after the last war were the Salvation Army Lifesaving Scouts who merged with the Scouts in 1947" Mike Breakwell says.

The search for the story of Gwent Scouting is a labour-intensive affair involving hours thumbing through files and archives and staring at microfiche readers in Gwent and Scout HQ in London.

The results are co-ordinated at the Area Scout Office nearTintern where Mike Breakwell's 'office' is a log cabin to gladden the heart of any Scout traditionalist. The amassed notes and photographs will eventually be worked up into a comprehensive history of Gwent Scouting.

Mike Breakwell runs his fingers along a row of Scout minutes going back to 1927.

"These are the bare bones of it but they only go back so far. To put flesh them you have to root about in files and archives and follow up leads from people who have been involved in Scouting for a very long time.

"I tracked down a reference in the South Wales Argus of May 6, 1908 to a meeting at the YMCA in Newport presided over by a Mr Teale at which it was decided to start 'two or three patrols as soon as possible'.

"By 1910 there were troops in Abergavenny, Blaenavon, Varteg and many other places with Major William Williams of Abergavenny, a man around whom much of the early story of Scouting turns, as the first County Organiser."

Abergavenny-born Mike Breakwell joined the Tredillion Cubs at the age of seven and moved through the Scouts, Senior Scouts and Rover Scouts before joining the police where one of his duties was cadet training.

"I've always been fascinated by Scouting and when this job came up after I retired I jumped at the chance" he says.

"Many thing about Scouting have changed - over 12 per cent of the total British membership is now girls - but basic values have not.

"Scouting was set up for the social, mental and physical development of young people.

"As to whether we have been successful, all you have to do is to look at the ex-Scouts who have made their mark in every area of our national life.

"Anything that after 100 years is as strong as the day it started must have merit."

THE BEGINNINGS: A TROOP IN TREDEGAR PARK LESS than three weeks after Scouting's first mention in the South Wales Argus of May 6, 1908 the newspaper carried an item about a Scout activities at Tredegar Park in Newport and a reference to the 'First Troop of the Baden-Powell Scouts'.

The May 25 edition names a Reverend Reginald Barratt as the first Scoutmaster but his troop may well have been one of the many unregistered organisations springing up all over Britain.

"It has to be remembered that Baden-Powell was thinking of Scouting more as a movement than an organisation" Mike Breakwell says.

"Later, there is a reference to a 'St George's Troop' in Newport disbanding in 1911 when the Scoutmaster, a Mr Wall, left the district and to a 'Shaftesbury Street Troop' closing.

A troop had been formed at St Julian's, Newport in 1908 which was set up in the house of Scoutmaster Howard Keene and it was that troop which became the 1st Newport Troop remaining in existence until 1978."

There are presently 446,000 British Scouts including 14,000 in Wales 2,000 of which are from Gwent. Newport has 20 groups with a similar number spread throughout the rest of the county.

*Readers with anecdotes or photographs from their Scouting days can contact Mike Buckingham on (01633) 777245.