Managed to lay my hands on some copies of "The Guider" from 1930, which is all good factual stuff for my research, but have now found yet another contradiction between that authoritative source and what the official history books say!
All of the history books I've seen have given the same two reasons for the 'coming-of-age' of Guiding being celebrated in 1932, rather than 1931 as would have been expected. The books all say the reasons were the UK's difficult economic situation at that time, and the focus on the massive fundraising push to build a headquarters (which became CHQ) - prior to that time, the different headquarters departments were in offices scattered across a range of floors in different buildings, sometimes several streets apart, causing much inconvenience.
However, in The Guider in July1930, it was announced that the celebration would be held in 1932, and the reason actually given for this was - that the Association was founded in 1911. Now as we all know, Guiding started in 1910, so presumably the '1911' date was the official/legal formation of the Association itself, not the effective date that the Girl Guide movement split off from Scouting and gained it's independence, unit registration started, etc.
All subsequent anniversaries have been based on 1910 . . . and it's interesting that all the history books provide one or both of the two usual explanations, but not the reason quoted in the official announcement in "The Guider"! I wonder if there is more to discover on this one . . .
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