Square Knot Insignia - History

History

In the earliest days of the Boy Scouts of America, military veterans were urged into service as scoutmasters. The first scout uniforms therefore resembled military uniforms. It was common for these veterans to wear their military decorations on their modified Boy Scout uniform — a national uniform was not to be developed until the early 1920s

Military tradition dictated that the actual medal from a military award was only worn on ceremonial occasions — at other times, it was replaced with a thin ribbon bar with the same ribbon style as found attached to the medal. This carried over to scouting, whose awards were medals, similar to the military, but were most often worn as ribbons. These ribbons differed from the military style in that, instead of being the same as the ribbon for the medal, they were instead all the same - khaki coloured, with a woven square knot in the centre. The colour of this knot was dictated by the ribbon for the medal. The choice of the square knot as the common emblem was made by James E. West, who is said to have chosen it for its use as the knot associated with first aid, thereby reminding scouts to continue to be of service to others.