Hi folks, I’m in the middle of a Woodbadge course. What they explained as “working your ticket” was in the British army they sent you out but you had to find your own way back. The men would request assignments ever closer to home so when they were discharged the “ticket” that they actually had to buy to get home would be inexpensive as possible. Thus the phrase “working your ticket.”
Hope this helps
Matthew
Chuck Herrick:
January 26th, 2013 at 9:25 pm
Yes, that is pretty much how it is explained in the various Woodbadge course. While it sounds good, it’s pretty clear it is not true. Under the British regimental system, you could not simply periodically request new assignments in different locations as you can in many armies today. You served with one unit for your entire enlistment, wherever that unit was sent or stationed.
In addition, ‘time-expired men’ (soldiers whose enlistments were drawing to an end), were not simply discharged wherever they happened to be when their time ran out, and left to their own devices to earn their passage back to the UK. As Kipling’s poem “Troopin'(Our Army in the East)” (written during the time of Baden=Powell’s service, and about the theater in which Baden-Powell served) makes clear, time-expired men were ordered back to England on troopships for discharge. They were *not* required to work to earn the price of their ticket home.
[Speculation Alert!] ‘Back to Gilwell’ has the feel of an informal soldiers’ barracks ballad, with the soldier wistfully trying to figure out how to avoid duties or figure a way to wrangle a discharge. Soldiers everywhere and at every time have much in common! Substitute, say, “sapper” or “gunner” for “beaver” and it perfectly fits the tone of a barracks room or campfire on a distant frontier. I suspect that Baden-Powell appropriated it from his time in service and changed the words to fit his new endeavor. I suspect it would have been instantly recognized as a fun, tongue-in-cheek, slightly irreverent ditty back in the day. Since few Scout leaders today have military experience, they generally fail to recognize the voice of the enlisted man expressed in song, and as a result, imagine a more worthy meaning for the song and the expression. At least, that’s my guess.
Bill C:
May 7th, 2014 at 6:31 pm
The military meaning may be as described above, but in Scouts, and Wood Badge specifically, it refers to the “ticket” that must be completed after the Wood Badge course is completed, and before the Wood Badge is awarded.
Purpose
The purpose of a Wood Badge Ticket is to help you realize your personal vision of your role in
Scouting. Ideally, you will write your ticket around your primary job in Scouting.
Four parts of a ticket
A ticket consists of four parts:
? A list of your personal values
? A description of your Scouting role
? A statement of your vision of success
? A mission composed of five significant goals that can be attained within 18 months.
Tom Linton:
November 3rd, 2014 at 1:39 am
In the Victorian army of the UK, to “work your ticket” was to deliberately get discharged before your tour of duty was up by display a condition that bared you from service, such as a mental or psychological disability or homosexuality. We know this from the writings of BP and Kipling. Indeed, that use of the expression continues to this date in the UK military. See also “finagle.” As BP was a Victorian soldier, that would have been his understanding. The traditional – legendary – explanation of that line in the song is inaccurate and I can find no logical explanation consistent with the meaning we attribute to the words.
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Matthew Leon:
April 20th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Hi folks, I’m in the middle of a Woodbadge course. What they explained as “working your ticket” was in the British army they sent you out but you had to find your own way back. The men would request assignments ever closer to home so when they were discharged the “ticket” that they actually had to buy to get home would be inexpensive as possible. Thus the phrase “working your ticket.”
Hope this helps
Matthew
Chuck Herrick:
January 26th, 2013 at 9:25 pm
Yes, that is pretty much how it is explained in the various Woodbadge course. While it sounds good, it’s pretty clear it is not true. Under the British regimental system, you could not simply periodically request new assignments in different locations as you can in many armies today. You served with one unit for your entire enlistment, wherever that unit was sent or stationed.
In addition, ‘time-expired men’ (soldiers whose enlistments were drawing to an end), were not simply discharged wherever they happened to be when their time ran out, and left to their own devices to earn their passage back to the UK. As Kipling’s poem “Troopin'(Our Army in the East)” (written during the time of Baden=Powell’s service, and about the theater in which Baden-Powell served) makes clear, time-expired men were ordered back to England on troopships for discharge. They were *not* required to work to earn the price of their ticket home.
[Speculation Alert!] ‘Back to Gilwell’ has the feel of an informal soldiers’ barracks ballad, with the soldier wistfully trying to figure out how to avoid duties or figure a way to wrangle a discharge. Soldiers everywhere and at every time have much in common! Substitute, say, “sapper” or “gunner” for “beaver” and it perfectly fits the tone of a barracks room or campfire on a distant frontier. I suspect that Baden-Powell appropriated it from his time in service and changed the words to fit his new endeavor. I suspect it would have been instantly recognized as a fun, tongue-in-cheek, slightly irreverent ditty back in the day. Since few Scout leaders today have military experience, they generally fail to recognize the voice of the enlisted man expressed in song, and as a result, imagine a more worthy meaning for the song and the expression. At least, that’s my guess.
Bill C:
May 7th, 2014 at 6:31 pm
The military meaning may be as described above, but in Scouts, and Wood Badge specifically, it refers to the “ticket” that must be completed after the Wood Badge course is completed, and before the Wood Badge is awarded.
Purpose
The purpose of a Wood Badge Ticket is to help you realize your personal vision of your role in
Scouting. Ideally, you will write your ticket around your primary job in Scouting.
Four parts of a ticket
A ticket consists of four parts:
? A list of your personal values
? A description of your Scouting role
? A statement of your vision of success
? A mission composed of five significant goals that can be attained within 18 months.
Tom Linton:
November 3rd, 2014 at 1:39 am
In the Victorian army of the UK, to “work your ticket” was to deliberately get discharged before your tour of duty was up by display a condition that bared you from service, such as a mental or psychological disability or homosexuality. We know this from the writings of BP and Kipling. Indeed, that use of the expression continues to this date in the UK military. See also “finagle.” As BP was a Victorian soldier, that would have been his understanding. The traditional – legendary – explanation of that line in the song is inaccurate and I can find no logical explanation consistent with the meaning we attribute to the words.