Boy Scout Trivia
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119 free Boy Scout trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
63 free Boy Scout trivia questions with answers. Scouting started with twenty-odd boys, a kudu horn and a week on an island in Poole Harbour in 1907. Within a decade it had crossed the Atlantic, been chartered by Congress and produced its first Eagle Scout. This quiz covers the whole movement: Robert Baden-Powell and the siege that made him famous, the London good turn that inspired the Boy Scouts of America, the Scout Oath and Law, ranks from Tenderfoot to Eagle, merit badges, Cub Scouts and the Pinewood Derby, the Order of the Arrow, Philmont, world jamborees, and the astronauts and presidents who earned Eagle as boys. It is written for troop meetings, Blue and Gold banquets, Scout Sunday, Eagle courts of honor and anyone who spent their summers at camp. Questions start easy enough for a Webelos den (what is the Scout motto, what do you get when you win the Pinewood Derby's weight check) and climb to details that will stretch a Silver Beaver recipient (which future Cub Scout rank was dropped in 1967 and revived in 2017; where the Unknown Scout's Silver Buffalo actually lives). Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia's Scouting articles and official Scouting sources, and the source sentence appears under each question, so a den leader can settle any dispute on the spot.
30 of 119 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What title is traditionally given to the adult who leads a troop of Boy Scouts?
Scoutmaster
Scoutmaster is the title American troops still use; British Scouting later retired it in favour of the plainer 'Scout Leader'.
Q 02Where in Poole Harbour did the first experimental Scout camp take place in August 1907?
Brownsea
Brownsea Island, in Poole Harbour, hosted Baden-Powell's trial camp of about 20 boys in August 1907; it was cut off from the mainland and the press, yet only a short ferry ride from Poole.
Q 03How did each day begin at Baden-Powell's experimental Scout camp in 1907?
A blast on a kudu horn
A blast on a kudu horn woke the camp each morning; Baden-Powell had brought the horn back from the 1896 Matabele campaign in what is now Zimbabwe.
Q 04In Baden-Powell's scheme, what is a small group of Scouts who camp and work together under a boy leader called?
A patrol
A patrol: at his 1907 trial camp Baden-Powell split the boys into four, the Wolves, Ravens, Curlews and Bulls, each led by a boy carrying a flag with the patrol's animal.
Q 05Which Boer War siege made Baden-Powell a national hero in Britain?
Mafeking
Mafeking, besieged for 217 days in 1899-1900, made Baden-Powell famous; its cadet corps of boys, who carried messages, is often cited as an inspiration for Scouting.
Q 06Baden-Powell's founding handbook, published in 1908, was titled what?
Scouting for Boys
Scouting for Boys reworked Baden-Powell's army scouting manual for a younger audience after he found teachers and youth groups already using the military version.
Q 07How was Baden-Powell's 1908 handbook first published?
In six fortnightly instalments
In six fortnightly instalments: the parts ran from January to March 1908, were bound as a book that May, and the title has sold more than 100 million copies since.
Q 08Where did Baden-Powell spend his final years and die in 1941?
Nyeri, Kenya
Nyeri, Kenya: Baden-Powell had gone there before to recuperate, so he had a one-room cottage built that he named Paxtu, which survives as a small museum.
Q 09What symbol on Baden-Powell's gravestone is the trail sign for "I have gone home"?
A circle with a dot in the centre
A circle with a dot in the centre marks his grave; when his wife Olave died in 1977, her ashes were brought from England to lie beside him.
Q 10With which family member did Baden-Powell start the Girl Guides Association in 1910?
His sister Agnes
His sister Agnes Baden-Powell led the Girl Guides from 1910, after several hundred girls calling themselves Girl Scouts turned up at the 1909 Crystal Palace rally.
Q 11In BSA legend, an 'Unknown Scout' helped Chicago publisher William Boyce find his way in which city?
London
London: in 1909 a boy guided Chicago publisher William D. Boyce to his destination in the city and refused a tip, saying Scouts do a good turn daily.
Q 12Which detail of the Unknown Scout legend do historians reject?
That it was foggy
That it was foggy: researchers say there was no fog and Boyce was not lost; the Scout only helped him across a street to his hotel and turned down a tip.
Q 13Which organisation housed the first national office of the Boy Scouts of America in 1910?
The YMCA
Q 21What is the Scout motto?
Be Prepared
Be Prepared is the Scout motto, chosen by Baden-Powell and sharing his initials; 'Do a Good Turn Daily' is the BSA slogan and 'Do Your Best' the Cub Scout motto.
Q 22In the Scout sign, which finger does the thumb hold down?
Little
The little finger: the thumb rests on its nail while the other three fingers point up, the pose the 1911 handbook had a boy hold as he took the Scout Oath.
Q 23Which hand do Scouts around the world use for their handshake?
The left
The left: in one popular origin story, Ashanti chiefs offered Baden-Powell their left hands, since a warrior had to lower his shield to do so.
The YMCA: its executive Edgar M. Robinson took over the organising from founder William D. Boyce, and the first BSA office opened inside a New York YMCA on June 1, 1910.
Q 14Who became the BSA's first Chief Scout Executive in 1911?
James E. West
James E. West, a lawyer and children's rights advocate, was hired for six months in January 1911 and stayed until he retired in 1943.
Q 15Which naturalist and author, founder of the Woodcraft Indians, was the BSA's first Chief Scout?
Ernest Thompson Seton
Ernest Thompson Seton, who founded the Woodcraft Indians in 1902, was the BSA's Chief Scout from 1910 to 1915 and wrote much of its first handbook.
Q 16Which president signed the BSA's federal charter on June 15, 1916?
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson signed the Boy Scouts of America's federal charter on June 15, 1916, giving the BSA exclusive rights to its name, badges and emblems.
Q 17How does the Scout Oath begin?
On my honor, I will do my best
On my honor, I will do my best opens the Scout Oath; in 1911 the BSA lengthened Baden-Powell's original wording with a pledge to stay 'physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight'.
Q 18How many points does the BSA Scout Law contain?
12
12: the BSA Scout Law has twelve points; Baden-Powell's 1908 original had nine, and the Americans added brave, clean and reverent.
Q 19Which point comes first in the Scout Law?
Trustworthy
Trustworthy heads the Scout Law; the 1911 handbook warned that a Scout who lied or cheated when trusted on his honor could be told to hand over his badge.
Q 20The 1911 BSA handbook set the Scout Law beside Bushido, the code of which warriors?
The Samurai
The Samurai: the handbook listed their Bushido with the rules of King Arthur's knights and the Crusaders to show that every age has had a code of honour like the Scout Law.
Q 24What is the highest rank in Scouts BSA?
Eagle Scout
Eagle Scout is the top rank in Scouts BSA; the award was introduced in 1911, first earned in 1912, and requires a leadership service project.
Q 25Which rank comes immediately BEFORE Eagle in the Scouts BSA progression?
Life
Life is the rank just below Eagle; in the first handbook the order was reversed, with Life below Star, and both were merit-badge milestones rather than ranks.
Q 26How many merit badges must a Scout earn, at minimum, to become an Eagle Scout?
21
21: an Eagle candidate needs at least 21 merit badges, most from the Eagle-required list; the 1972 Improved Scouting Program briefly raised the total to 24.
Q 27Who received the first Eagle Scout award, in 1912?
Arthur Rose Eldred
Baden-Powell himself sat on his board of review, having landed in the United States earlier that day.
Q 28Before it was renamed in August 1911, the BSA's highest award was going to be called what?
Wolf Scout
Wolf Scout was the name in the June 1911 handbook; by the August printing the top award was the Eagle, months before anyone had earned it.
Q 29Eagle Palms come in bronze, gold and which colour that ranks above gold?
Silver
Silver: a Bronze Palm marks five extra merit badges, Gold ten and Silver fifteen, because BSA awards follow the US military, where a silver bar outranks a gold one.
Q 30Which of these Moon-walkers earned Eagle Scout as a boy?
Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong earned Eagle Scout in Wapakoneta, Ohio, and carried a World Scout badge aboard Apollo 11 in 1969; Charles Duke and Jim Lovell were also Eagle Scouts.