William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt is considered by many Scouters to be the Baden-Powell of American Scouting. He has had significant influence on the program
of the BSA and the training Scouters recieve through Wood Badge in this country.
Who was "Green Bar Bill"?
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IN THE BEGINNING....
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William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt was
born Vilhelm Bjerregaard Jenson in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1900. His introduction Boy
Scouting came in January 1911, at the age of 11, after his parents gave him B-P's newly
translated Scouting For Boys as a Christmas gift. Bill went on to become the Danish
equivalent of an Eagle Scout.
His Troop sent him to the first World Jamboree in London,
in 1920, and a habit started that would move him into the international Scouting spotlight
for the rest of his life.
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COMING TO AMERICA....
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It was 1926 and Bill Hillcourt was a "Cub
Reporter" for his Copenhagen newspaper. Bill talked his Editor into sending him to
the U.S. for its first National Jamboree -- after all, Bill was a Journalist who was also
one of Lord Baden-Powell's Scouts. The paper ought not be "scooped" by someone
else by being absent from such an austere event where England's great Lord Baden-Powell
would speak to the very first gathering of American Boy Scouts! The convinced Editor sent
his Journalist to the U.S. to cover BSA's first Jamboree for the paper!
Bill didn't return to Denmark. He broke his leg at the Jamboree and while awaiting passage home,
visited Scout Executive Dr. James E. West at the BSA office on Times Square in New York
City. Awaiting the building's elevator with his leg in a walking cast, the doors opened;
Dr. West stepped out and Bill fell forward trying to step in -- right into Dr. West's
arms! Two handicapped Scouters met abruptly.
What they had in common caused Dr. West to invite Bill Hillcourt to his office. Once
there, Dr. West learned all about Bill Hillcourt, why he was in the U.S. for a BSA
Jamboree, and visiting BSA & West.
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THE START OF A NEW CAREER....
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Bill's enthusiasm about Scouting and being a
journalist led West to offer Bill his first job in the Supply Service of the new,
expanding BSA Program. Later, Bill challenged West's implementation of the scouting program -- that
BSA didn't follow B-P's Patrol Method correctly. West challenged Bill to write a
replacement for BSA's 1910 Official Handbook,
that had been published as an Americanized
version of B-P's Scouting for Boys.
Bill had already written his first book three years earlier at 23: a tale of Scout
camping, based upon his own Patrol's experiences. But
this book had to be written in English; boys not only had to read it, but enjoy it, and
follow B-P's Methods. Bill always enjoyed telling
his story of how a Dane with poor English came to learn our language well enough to write
a best-selling book for American boys.
To improve his English, particularly when it was already corrupted with
"Americanisms", Bill used to go to Times Square to watch
movies. He spent two months on BSA's payroll attending American movies He'd watch a
morning matinee; then a different early-afternoon matinee; then yet another late-afternoon
matinee. This is the way Bill learned the collogial American language of English. His
first Boy Scout Handbook was a smashing, run-away, best-seller success; it was written as
Boys talked. Boys understood it; they liked it; and they followed it. Bill's new BSA
career was off to a running start.
Bill Hillcourt went on to write a Patrol Leader
Handbook, a Scoutmaster's Handbook, and the Field Book; then updated them from 1929 until
he retired. In 1932, while writing the various handbooks, Bill started to enliven the
pages of Boys' Life with his famed Scoutcraft features, leading generations of boys into
the outdoors. For four decades until he retired, Bill wrote his feature columnunder his
pseudonym of "Green Bar Bill", with a logo of "Bill" hand-written on
top of the two green bars of a PL.
Bill became involved in Wood Badge in 1936 when John Skinner Wilson, Camp Chief of
Gilwell, came to introduce Wood Badge to the United States. After adapting the training to
the BSA program, Bill served as Scoutmaster of the first two courses (and many others
thereafter). You'll want to hear more about this.
In 1964, Bill wrote Baden-Powell - The Two Lives Of A Hero, yet another distinguished
writing effort. As he wrote in his acknowledgements, "....I have had the unstinted
help of the three leading characters in the life of Baden-Powell -- himself (B-P), his
mother (Henrietta Grace Powell), and his wife (Lady Olave Baden-Powell), and .... numerous
other people." (One of whom was B-P's daughter, Betty St. Clair.)
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RECOGNITION AS A WORLD SCOUTING PROGRAM LEADER...
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For his work with and for the youth of the United States, Bill received:
- the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award
- the St. George Award
- the Silver Buffalo, BSA's top Scouting Award.
As a World Scouter, Bill's work for InterAmerican Scouting was recognized with its
highest award:
- the Youth Of The American
and for his work with youth around the world, he was honored with:
- the Bronze Wolf, World Scouting's highest award.
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EPILOG...
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William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt was
a personal friend of B-P. When Bill died at 92 on November 9, 1992, in Stockholm, Sweden,
he still had several of B-P's original, signed sketches hanging unadorned on his apartment
walls in Manlius, NY. Two copies of B-P's original serialized newspaper articles that
became B-P's Scouting for Boys sat idly yellowing on a bookcase shelf beside several
autographed first-edition copies of B-P's Scouting for Boys.
In his life-time, William
"Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt became Scoutmaster to the world; revered by BSA
Scouters everywhere as the "B-P" of American Scouting -- equally as important as
William Dickson Boyce, Ernest Thompson Seton, Daniel Carter Beard, and Dr. James E. West
as BSA founders!
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