Hargrave wrote a series of articles for "Lone Scouts", held Lonecraft Camps and wrote Lonecraft, the handbook for Lone Scouts, published in 1913.

Hargrave dedicated his book to naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton, founder of the Woodcraft League.

[2] Hargrave, a Quaker pacifist and medical corps war veteran of the disastrous 1915 Gallipoli Campaign, became increasingly disenchanted with the military dominated leadership and militarism of the Baden-Powell Boy Scouts and in February, 1919, he held a meeting of like-minded Scout leaders.

In 1920 Hargrave formed the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift and in January 1921 he was expelled from Baden-Powell's organization.

The Lone Scouts of America were formed in 1915 by William D. Boyce, a Chicago newspaper entrepreneur.