Brownies in Wartime for Brownie Packs
Karen Wiles SpeakerNet Sponsor
- Regions:
- England, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire
- Notice Period:
- Emergency (maybe less than one week's notice)
- Type:
- Hobby
- Fee:
- Expensed: Free for the talk + 50ppm travel expenses
- Category:
- History
- Updated:
- 12th November 2026
- Tagged:
- Ww2 | Home Front | Brownies
We are very happy to come to your pack to give a talk within Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire or Berkshire. In addition to the talk we will bring a small display of related original memorabilia for the girls to look at.
The talk for Brownie packs is all about what life was like for children during WW2 and specifically the wartime Brownie. It covers the following topics:
How long ago WW2 was Brownie uniform changes over the last 81 years What life was like for children during the war. Joining Brownies Getting Ready for Brownies The Golden Bar – what Brownies had to do to get their Golden Bar badge. The Golden Hand – how to become a first class Brownie. What Brownies did to help win the war Secret work for MI9
The talk takes the form of a PowerPoint presentation interspersed with activities and games. The talks lasts for 1 hour, but please allow more time for questions and to see the original memorabilia we bring with us.
Air Raid: After talking about air raids the Brownies are warned that at some point the air raid siren will sound and they will have to go to a shelter (3 covered tables). During the air raid there are quite loud sounds, but they will be told that when they are in the shelter they will be completely safe. Previous groups have loved this and they all wanted to do it again!
This can be expanded to a whole morning or afternoon with extra games and activities for pack camps.
Views: 7 | Enquiries: 0About Karen Wiles
We are Karen and Bret Wiles, we live on our Dutch Barge on the river Thames in Oxfordshire. Throughout the summer we frequently move, but in the winter we have a permanent mooring in Goring on Thames.
We are WW2 Home Front historians and re-enactors, we specialise in what women and children did to help the war effort in WW2, We started our interest over 10 years ago with a visit to a WW2 event at Stoke Bruern that manifested into a talk for schools, as we thought there was a gap in children's knowledge about what it was like to be a child in the 1940s. We found adults were also interested so we now have 11 talks for adults and 4 talks for schools and children's groups.
Research is ever ongoing and our talks are updated frequently updated.
We do talks for U3A groups, Probus, Historical Societies and are accredited speakers for Oxfordshire and Berkshire WIs. We are very happy to do talks for other groups, small and large.
Our talks are PowerPoint presentations and include hundreds of original photos, music, and film clips, there is always something going on the screen while we narrate through the talk. We usually take along a small display of related memorabilia. All talks are 1 hour long.
Our website www.doingtheirbit.co.uk includes all details of our talks, what we bring with us, our fees, etc. as well as details of individual talks.
We can be contacted by email contact@doingtheirbit.co.uk
Other Talks on SpeakerNet by Karen Wiles
- WW2 Rationing & Cooking for Victory, A Fair Share for All
- Wartime Children
- The Women's Voluntary Service from 1938-1945
- Life on the Home Front
- How the Brownies helped win the war
- 1940s Girl Guides
- The Women's Institute in WW2, not just Jam and Jerusalem
- WW2 Women's Fashion, Dressing on the Ration
- Upper Thames Patrol, the Home Guard Navy of WW2
- 1940s Boy Scouts
- Isn't It Cold in the Winter? Life on Board a Dutch Barge
- Wartime Children for Schools
- Girl Guides in WW2 for Guide Groups
- Girl Guides Emergency Cooking for Guide Groups
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