The Big Test: The Story of the Girl Guides in the World War

by Catherine Christian

Dust jacket copy: This record of steady effort, devotion to duty and unassuming heroism makes fine reading. You will admire the ingenuity of the Guide who cleaned the sergeant's boots and the one who taught skating in order to earn money to buy air ambulances for Guide Gift Week. You will smile at the enthusiasm of the Guide who, in spite of time-bombs ticking away wanted to "pop in" for her waste paper. And perhaps you will envy the calm courage and skilled resourcefulness of Ranger Joyce, who saved the life of a soldier. But there is much more than that in this book that every Guide will read with pride, and those not of the Guide world may well feel happier about the future through this witness to the courage and resilience of youth who are given such traditions to follow.

113 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1947

About the author

Born in 1901 in Chelsea, London, as Mamie Mühlenkamp, Catherine Mary Christian was the daughter of businessman Christian John Mühlenkamp, and his wife, Catherine Harriett Ellett. The family was of German extraction, although they had been settled in England for some time before Mamie’s birth. They changed their name some time during the First World War, in order to avoid being identified as German. Mamie was educated at Croyden High School, and became involved, some time in the 1920s, in the Girl Guide Movement. She edited The Guide - the journal of the movement - from 1939-1945. Her friend and flatmate, Margaret (‘Peg’) Tennyson, edited The Guider during that same period, and published guide novels under the pseudonym "Carol Forrest" (sometimes erroneously attributed to Christian). After the war, Christian and Tennyson moved to Devon, where Christian was, for a time, Curator of the Salcombe National Trust Museum. The two were involved in the Guide International Service, and helped the former Polish Chief Guide run a home for war orphans. Christian died in 1985.

Christian's life-long interest in Guiding is apparent in her many children's books, which often feature Guides. In addition to her children's stories, she also wrote historical fiction and Arthurian fantasy for adults, and published four "Ranger" books under the pseudonym Patience Gilmour.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you didn’t know, I am a long-time member of the the Girl Guides of Canada! Starting when I was 5, I have been involved nearly every year of my life. So, when this book was found in my Grannie’s library, the family felt I’d find it interesting.

Written just a year after World War II, this book is a series of stories about how Girl Guides in Britain and the world helped the war effort. It is written to be read aloud to groups, to inform and inspire, but paints a high-level history of the war if read in its entirety.

With badges proving competency, and a program that focussed on self-sufficiency and community service, Girl Guides were responsible for supporting salvage efforts, volunteering at aid centres and even in military bases, and helping refugees. As the adults working on the war effort, the book says many of these actions were youth-driven. Most impressive was the story where a global effort raised 46,216L in 1940 ($1.5 million today!), allowing the purchase of an air ambulance and a fleet of emergency boats. However, This book is definitely racist in certain descriptions of people of colour, particularly in the chapter “They Stood Beside Us” on overseas support for Britain during the worst of the war.

Girl Guides is a global, with a membership of 10 million people in 152 countries. Seeing how those Guides came together in a time of war to support each other was inspiring, and made me wonder what would happen if there was a coordinated action by 10 million people from every continent, and three-quarters of the world's countries on an issue like climate change?

The book was interesting, with a good dose of guiding propaganda. For its own sake, and due to the problematic elements, I probably wouldn’t recommend it, but I appreciated the reminder that I am part of something much bigger than me, and the inspiration of what can be done if we all work together.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was short and contained many anecdotes about Girl Guides in Britain and other countries and how their Guide training enabled them to help win the war. I would love to see Girl Guides reprint this book as it is rare. My copy came from a used book store in the UK. Miss Christian's account is well-written. The book was intended for teenage Guides and leaves out some of the more grisly details of war (she briefly mentions concentration camps but goes no further with a description). It was intended to inspire the girls who won the peace by detailing the heroism of the girls who won the war.