The first Boys’ Life Brigade Company outside the United Kingdom was recorded in the July 1904 issue of the Life Brigade Chronicle, with the registration of the 1st St Helena Company on the Island of St Helena. This was the 161st BLB Company registered, and was followed a few months later with companies 182 and 219, the 1st Dartford and 1st Oxford both in Nova Scotia, Canada. Many of the early Life Brigade Chronicles reported on BLB Officers leaving for Canada, and the Chronicle of January 1904, when referring to Lieutenant Edgar Spurgeon of the 1st Crayford: ‘The Brigade has lost a most devoted worker through his removal, but we shall expect to hear of the formation of a Brigade in Canada in the near future.’ In 1915, the 1st Toronto was registered, and in the same year on the opposite side of the world, the 1st Hobart in Tasmania, Australia.

Lack or records*, and possibly also the impact of WWI, means that the next recorded Company registrations were in the three years prior to the union with The Boys’ Brigade in 1926. Companies started in this period included: 1st Alexandria, Egypt in 1925, 1st Sierra Leone,  1st Kafue, Northern Rhodesia 1925, and further south, in the Union of South Africa, the 1st Cape Town and 1st Paarl in 1924 followed by the 2nd & 3rd Paarl in 1925, with both the 1st Pretoria and 1st Port Elizabeth registered in 1926.

Whilst the BLB had close relations with the FDF in Denmark, the first Companies in mainland Europe were at the instigation of the Baptist Church in Latvia, with the 1st Riga, at the Ilguciems Baptist Church in 1925, followed shortly with the 1st Ventspils, 1st Grobinas and the 1st and 2nd Liepajas in 1926.  Following the Union of The Boys’ Life Brigade with The Boys’ Brigade in 1926, the Latvian Companies broke away and formed their own organisation, retaining The Boys’ Life Brigade crest, uniform and awards program through until the mid 1940’s.

*This has been compiled using the records held in The Boys’ Brigade Archive Collection, and other Libraries and Archives. Please contact us if you can assist with further information.