although most famously connected with the girl guides, olave's first offer to help them in 1914 was turned down. the girl guide movement had started following pressure from girls who wanted to become scouts; the movement was set up by robert baden-powell and his sister agnes baden-powell. after the reorganisation of the girl guides in 1915, olave again offered to help, this time successfully, and she started organising guiding in sussex. she became the county commissioner for sussex in march 1916. in october 1916, the first conference for county commissioners was held and it was here that the commissioners unanimously requested that olave take the role of chief commissioner – she was just pregnant with her third child. shortly before this she had organised a great number of women in other parts of britain to take up roles in guiding. in 1918, olave was acclaimed chief guide, a title she much preferred to chief commissioner.