The following is an excerpt from the article written by Edmund le Grelle of the New Zealand Badgers Club.  We would like to acknowledge his help with various aspects of our historical research, including this article.

At various times the King’s Standard has been called the King’s Prize and the New Zealand Standard.  In 1911, King George V made a generous contribution to the fund in aid of Scout Headquarters in London.  The Scout Executive Committee decided to promote loyalty by presenting a Challenge Standard to each of the following countries: United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada.  The King’s Standard was awarded to the Troop with the largest percentage of King’s Scouts on 30th September each year.  The winning Troop was called the King’s Troop for a year.  The scoutmasters of the winning troop were presented with a badge – the King Scoutmaster’s badge.

Winners of the King’s Standard were:

1912    Devonport No. 3 Troop, Auckland
1913    Not awarded because no Troops entered
1914    Lyttelton No. 1 Troop
1915    Avonside Troop, Christchurch
1916    St Thomas Troop, Wellington Central
1917    Merivale No. 1 Troop, Christchurch
1918    Merivale No. 1 Troop, Christchurch
1919    Merivale No. 1 Troop, Christchurch
1920    St Mark’s Troop, Opawa, Christchurch
1921    Grey Lynn Troop, Auckland

In 1922, the King’s Standard was “suspended throughout the Empire until further orders”.  Dominion Executive decided to call in the King’s Standard to Headquarters because very few entries were received.  It was reported in the ‘Scout Gazette’ of 15 April 1922, that the Dominion Chief Commissioner has therefore donated a Scout Standard and badges to be competed for on nearly the same conditions as the Kings Standard.  (It is not known what eventuated with this new standard).  There is no mention of the Kings Standard flag in Annual Reports after 1928.  It is presumed that it was returned to London.  The National Scout Museum holds a letter written in 1948 from Sir Joseph Ward (the Canterbury County Commissioner) looking for the King’s Standard – with no success.  However, in 1994, Prince Charles returned the standard to New Zealand and presented it to the National Scout Executive Commissioner Paul Outram and Dame Cath Tizard, (NZ Governor General and Chief Scout), in a ceremony conducted at Government House. The King’s Standard was then presented to the National Scout Museum at its official opening on 19 February 1994.