PRINCE WILLIAM dybbed and 40,000 Scouts dobbed yesterday when the second in line to the throne flew by helicopter into the world’s biggest Scout camp to help to celebrate the centenary of the youth movement.

William did his best. He arrived wearing trousers in Scout khaki and collected badges and neckerchiefs as he toured the jamboree in Essex. He pinned one badge to his lapel and at one point he had six scarves laced around his neck.

He did not tie a reef knot but he guided a blindfolded girl Scout carrying medical supplies through an imaginary minefield, played catch with a ball, clapped his hands under his outstretched legs in another game and beat out a rhythm on a jungle drum.

He discussed HIV awareness with Scouts from South Africa and sat crosslegged in a Bedouin tent to share a cup of tea with some Saudi Arabian Scouts.

However, there was no woggle to welcome him belatedly into the world’s largest youth movement. It has 28m members from 216 different countries and territories, 162 of which were represented at yesterday’s tented gathering in Hylands Park, Chelmsford. They included Scouts from both Iraq and Afghanistan.

It was 2,000 times bigger than the original camp for 20 boys which Robert Baden-Powell, a hero of the Boer war, had pitched on Brownsea Island, off Poole in Dorset, in 1907.

Yesterday it was left to the Duke of Kent to welcome the Scouts of the world to Britain and tell them to go and “make the world a better place”.

“As a fellow brother Scout I welcome you all. You have travelled from all corners of the world to be here today, bringing with you many cultures,” he said.

William blew a traditional African kudu horn, like the one blown by Baden-Powell to open the first Scout camp.

The instrument is made from the horn of an African antelope and will be blown again on Brownsea on Wednesday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the day the movement began.

Times have changed since then. William cooked a hotdog for his lunch on a gas burner. It could not be cooked over a campfire because this has been banned under health and safety regulations.

One of the Scout leaders who welcomed William was Adam Jollans, 48, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, who has been a Scout since his early teens.

Jollans, who works in marketing for IBM, the computer firm, said: “Scouting has changed a lot over the years. It’s much more adventurous now. Recently we had a team go to climb Mount Everest.”

He said that it would have been great if William and his brother, Prince Harry, had joined the Scouting movement when they were teenagers.

“I think it would have helped them tremendously and they would have acquired some new skills. I think everybody can potentially benefit from Scouting,” he said.

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