The UK’s new chief scout has said he was stabbed while growing up in London but the scouts helped give him “a place to belong” and keep him from falling “on the wrong side of the tracks”.
The scouts has announced Dwayne Fields, the first black Briton to reach the North Pole, is taking over from Bear Grylls as the new chief scout.
Speaking on Friday, the adventurer told how the scouts helped stop him from falling “on the wrong side of the tracks” as a young man.
He told BBC’s Today programme how he moved to the UK from Jamaica, living first in north London and then east London, where there was “a lot of street violence”.
He said he was stabbed “for being in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
“I was stabbed, I was a victim of street violence,” he told the programme. “I’d never carried a knife with malice, I’ve never carried any instruments with malice, and I suffered a stabbing incident just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
We’re excited to announce @DwayneFields, adventurer and TV presenter, as the UK’s new Chief Scout. He's been appointed to lead our half a million young people and adult volunteers. Read more at: https://t.co/bBc0ZgjikQ pic.twitter.com/2c2TrruCx8
— Scouts (@scouts) September 5, 2024
He has previously told how he was the victim of an attempted shooting.
“It would have been so easy for me to slip and fall on the wrong side of the tracks,” he told Today on Friday.
But he said joining Scouts at a young age helped him learn skills such as empathy, patience, and communication, which helped him in “making the right decisions at the right time”.
“I walked through the doors of a Scout hut in north London when I was seven years old - scared, new to the country, anxious, really shy - and it gave me a place to belong,” he said.
“Scouting gave me someone to believe in me and allowed me to believe in myself.
“I think scouting instilled in me a level of self-belief that I carried through all of that and it supported me making the right choices at the right times, I think it played a huge part in me being where I am today.”
Mr Fields has vowed to show that the group “is a family for absolutely anyone”, and to appeal to new communities which may have been put off by “a lot of the older ideas” around scouting – such as those in inner cities.
The Scouts has a membership of some 500,000 young people and adult volunteers.
Mr Fields will succeed TV star Bear Grylls, who was appointed as chief scout in 2009, aged 34, making him the UK’s youngest ever in the role at the time.
Born in Jamaica, Mr Fields came to the UK at the age of six. He grew up in inner city London without access to nature and said the Scouts made a “huge difference” to his life.
He told the PA news agency it was an “honour” to be appointed Chief Scout.
He said his feelings were “initially disbelief, followed by a huge sense of pride in something that’s made a huge difference to my life”.
“I remember being seven years old and walking into that Cub Scouts hut in Palmers Green in north London, and I never thought I belonged anywhere until the moment I walked into that hut.
“And now to be given this role as Chief Scout, to me it’s pride of place, really. It’s the fact that other young people can look at me and say, ‘well, actually, that guy started exactly where I am’.”
Mr Fields said volunteer leaders had “showed me I could do anything I put my mind to” and “taught me to believe in myself”.
He went on to become the first black Briton to reach the North Pole in 2013 and has since had a successful career in adventure and TV, presenting shows on Channel 5, Disney+ and National Geographic.
This included recreating the Antarctica journeys of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Roald Amundsen alongside Ben Fogle for a 2023 television series.
Mr Fields, 41, was formally invested as chief scout on Thursday at Scout Park in north-east London where he spent time in Cub Scouts as a child.
He said he hoped to be a “role model” to a new generation of Scouts and encourage new communities to join the group, which was formed by Sir Robert Baden-Powell in 1907 with a camp of 20 boys on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour.
“I think the idea of scouting still holds on to maybe a lot of the older ideas,” he continued.
“There are a lot of groups and communities who still think that maybe scouting isn’t for them and I’m hoping that they’ll look at me and say, ‘well, actually, I have something in common with that guy – he grew up where I grew up, he looks like me. If scouting is for him, it’s for me as well’.
“Scouting is a family for absolutely anyone.”
Mr Fields said many traditional outdoor skills – including knot-tying, camping and bridge-building – are “at risk” today.
“The more we get more young people to go outside and be active in the outdoors and spend time in nature, in our natural spaces, the more they’ll appreciate it and want to safeguard it going forward,” he added.
He said he hoped his legacy as chief scout would be “all about growth and bringing more volunteers on-board”.
Carl Hankinson, UK chief volunteer at the Scouts, said: “I’m so excited to welcome Dwayne Fields as chief scout. A committed Scout ambassador since 2017, Dwayne has visited hundreds of Scout groups, events and camps across the UK and internationally.
“He champions the sense of belonging Scouts gives young people. He is able to reach across generations, to further expand reach across all communities.”
Sophia Sanyahumbi, a 17-year-old Explorer Scout from south London, said: “I can see that Dwayne is determined to make a difference to young people’s lives through scouting.
“I had the pleasure of spending time with him this week and can tell he is passionate about making sure more young people get the chance to join the Scouts.
“He talked to me about how scouting gave him a sense of belonging and confidence as a young person and how he intends to create more opportunities for young people from all communities to have the same opportunities as he did.”
Chief scouts are appointed for a five-year tenure but may serve for a longer period. Mr Fields will be the 11th person to hold the title.
