THE Boys’ Brigade — founded more than a century ago to promote “true Christian manliness” — is set to admit girls for the first time.

Members of the ruling Brigade Council are due to vote on the issue at its annual meeting in Derry, Co Londonderry, today.

Implementation of the decision is expected to be delayed for a year to allow local groups to gear up for female membership. The inclusion of girls could also see the organisation changing its name.

Martyn Waters, the brigade’s UK programme director, said it was responding to demand from girls, particularly in rural areas, who wanted to join. However Tom Boyle, the Scottish organiser, said the changes were being driven by “political correctness” which threatened to change the whole character of the organisation.

“We have run perfectly well as a boys’ organisation for more than 120 years, but those who prefer the politically correct option would not agree in any way,” he said.

Unlike the Scouts and the Girl Guides, which are self- supporting, the Boys’ Brigade relies on local authority funding to survive.

Boyle said that several councils had withdrawn cash support because they took the view that as a single-sex organisation the brigade fell foul of the Equal Opportunities Act.

“Equal opportunities is the law of the land and we have to comply with that,” he said.

“Some groups have suffered considerably by losing funding from councils because to have a Christian single-sex organisation is not seen as top of the pops at the minute. The whole political correctness thing seems to be really holding us back.”

The organisation, founded by Sir William Alexander Smith in Glasgow in 1883, now has members in more than 60 countries. Its ethos is based on “The advancement of Christ’s kingdom among boys and the promotion of the habits of obedience, reverence, discipline, self-respect and all that tends towards a true Christian manliness”.

A forerunner to the Scout movement, it was strongly associated with the Church of Scotland and other Protestant denominations. It was these close religious ties which prompted Lord Baden-Powell to form a breakaway, claiming: “We hold no brief for one set of beliefs over another.”

In 1996 it had a UK membership of about 85,000 while by September 2003, the most recent figures available, this had fallen by about 30% to just below 60,000.

High-profile former members include Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager of Manchester United, Andy Cameron, the comedian, and Jim Wallace the former deputy first minister.

While the Scout Association changed its boys-only policy in 1991, the Girl Guides continues to have a single-sex policy. Girlguiding UK said it had no plans to change as its self-funding status meant it was not concerned about achieving equal opportunities recognition.

However, a spokesman for the Scout Association welcomed the BB’s change of policy.

“The principle of equality of opportunity is fundamental part of scouting,” said a spokesman.

“Our position is that no young person should receive less favourable treatment on the basis of, nor suffer disadvantage by reason of, his or her gender. There is no justification for restricting membership on the basis of gender.”

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