Adventurer Dwayne Fields who survived stabbing and life of inner city crime to lead Scouts

Fields will replace Bear Grylls who was appointed chief scout in 2009. He has promised to show that the Scout's is a 'family for absolutely anyone'

The man chosen to become the UK’s new chief scout has credited the organisation with teaching him the skills to avoid falling “on the wrong side of the tracks”, having survived a stabbing and attempted shooting while growing up in London.

Dwayne Fields, the first black Briton to reach the North Pole, was announced as former chief scout Bear Grylls successor on Thursday.

Mr Fields, 41, vowed to show that the group “is a family for absolutely anyone” and 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 group has a membership of some 500,000 young people and adult volunteers.

The adventurer will succeed TV star 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 said: “It’s absolutely a sense of honour [to be appointed] - 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 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”.

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.”

What is the chief scout?

The Scout Association's chief scout is the head of its youth programmes. When the role was first enacted under Robert Baden-Powel, the Chief Scout was the powerful leader of the association.

Baden-Powel had made himself Chief Scout and chairman for life, but upon his death, a committee assumed the power to appoint future Chief Scouts and chairmen.

The committee not only separated the roles, but took on the power that they held.

Today, the chief scout is now a figurehead for the organisation that provides inspiration to Scouts in the UK.

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.

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