Bear Grylls named UK chief scout

Survivalist Bear Grylls named as new chief scout
Former SAS man to take over from Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan

Scouts can earn activity badges for skills from skateboarding to global conservation, but the new chief scout could herald the prospect of members tackling some slightly trickier future pursuits – such as eating snakes and climbing Mount Everest.

Bear Grylls, 34, the former SAS man and survivalist who, as television viewers will know, long ago earned his stripes for both the above, said he would be encouraging more adults to volunteer so that 33,000 youngsters on waiting lists could join scout groups.

Grylls will become the youngest chief scout in the organisation's 102-year history later this year when he replaces the former Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan, and he spoke warmly of his boyhood memories of scouting. "I got a sense of identity and a sense of belonging from scouts. My love of the outdoors started with scouting. It was a real confidence boost for me and opened a lot of doors."

An author and public speaker whose television shows have included Man vs Wild, at 23 he became the youngest Briton to climb Mount Everest, crossed the Atlantic Arctic Ocean in an open inflatable boat, and served three years in the SAS.

Grylls said that he hoped to increase the 90,000 adult volunteers offering more than 200 activities and to dispel the image of scouts simply singing around campfires in old-fashioned uniforms.

His appointment got a thumbs up from Scout Elliott Tugwell, 13, from east London, who said: "People will not think scouts are as geeky as they did. Some might think he's crazy, but it shows he is willing to do exciting things like we do."

Founded in 1907 by the Boer War veteran Robert Baden-Powell, whose Scouting For Boys is the fourth biggest selling book in the world after the Bible, the Koran and Mao's Little Red Book, the scouting movement currently numbers around 400,000 members.