Wood Badge Axe N Log Four Beads Patch

Proudly display this Wood Badge Axe N Log Four Beads patch to show your Wood Badge loyalty. This is a great gift for your patrol at reunions as a Thank You for the great memories. Four Beads are worn by Scoutmasters. The axe and log totem was conceived by the first Camp Chief, Francis Gidney, in the early 1920s to distinguish Gilwell Park from the Scout Headquarters. Gidney wanted to associate Gilwell Park with the outdoors and Scoutcraft rather than the business or administrative Headquarters offices. Scouters present at the original Wood Badge courses regularly saw axe blades masked for safety by being buried in a log. Seeing this, Gidney chose the axe and log as the totem of Gilwell Park. In looking for a suitable recognition for the 19 men who completed the first Wood Badge course, the hero of the 217-day siege of the South African town of Mafeking in 1900 found among his old army trophies and souvenirs a long necklace of quaintly carved wooden beads. In 1888, during the African Z