I was asked to answer a question. What’s the point of  the woggle? Well, there’s many reasons, but it all started back in 1896, when the founder of scouting, Lord Baden-Powell, was off at war was working with an American born scout, called Frederick Russell Burnham, who gave him the idea of the scarf.

Frederick Russell Burnham

A sketch of Frederick Russell Burnham by Baden Powell

If you want to know the history of the scarf, check out the blog that I’ve done previously, and that gave the inspiration for what’s the most iconic part of scouting is the scarf or the Necker, but what is this bad boy, the woggle? Where did it come from and why do we have it? Well, when scouting started, it was just a bit of cloth, the scarf or the Necker, with a loose knot. It wasn’t actually anything. And over time, as we know now, the Necker got really creased and it looked ugly with just some random scarf.

Again, BP went back to America and he got the inspiration for using a bit of bone. So Bill took the idea of the American’s bone ring, but wanted something a bit better. So what he did, he went back to his shed and rustled up some ideas and he went to his sewing machine and he took some leather and he invented this thing as we know, called the Turk’s Head.

The inspiration comes from America and the Americans call it the Boon Doggle, Bill wanted to take the inspiration of America, but I didn’t like the word boon doggle. He thought about it and he copied the idea and he came up with woggle because it rhymes with doggle. The Boon Doggle turned into the English woggle. After a few attempts, he made up this Turk’s Head using thin sewing machine leather. And then he presented it to the camp chief and also rumour has it, he gave it to the Chief Scout, and they gave it the all okay.

On the 9th of June 1923 in a scouting magazine, the woggle was born, There was an article in a magazine giving some ideas about having this woggle and it became very popular and very fashionable in scouting. And the scouts loved this idea of having a woggle rather than an ugly knot. They took it on board and it went crazy. But as we know, the Turk’s Head is only actually allowed to be worn by a leader who has done their wood badge. And that Turk’s Head wobble is known as the first Gilwell Woggle.

Baden-Powell references the woggle in the 14th edition  The Scouts magazine in 1929. said, “It, the scarf, may be fastened at the throat by a knot or woggle, which is some form of ring made of cord, metal or bone or anything you like”. Previous editions only refer to it as a ring. The design of the Gilwell Woggle, formally the Turk’s Head knot, as I say, is only really allowed to be worn by members of the first Gilwell Park who have done their wood beads and completed their training. But now it’s fashionable for anyone to do it.

There’s lots of different designs of the Turk’s Head, lots of Scouts actually do it, part of their camp craft and make them out of para cord, some amazing stuff I’ve seen and also some stuff that the Turk’s Head made out of LED lights, a bit like these ones that I’ve got in my back. And there are hundreds of designs of woggles antler, bone, leather, plastic, many ones that we all do as scouts and make it ourselves to make a bit more personalized. This one I actually made myself and I made a few from my other leaders in my group, oh god, 10 years ago or so. This is a real personal one.

People have carved me ones. My good friend, Old Man woodcraft, carved me this one. Love it. Looks like a scout scarf, a Necker with a woggle of a woggle. It’s a scout woggle woggle, is what we call it. Yeah, but there we are. The history of why scouts wear these, the woggle, or is it the boondoggle? I’ll leave it to you.

If you want to learn some more history on scouting, I’ve got a massive playlist called What’s the Point, and you can find random things all about what’s the point of a scout scarf.