The first Outward Bound school was opened in Aberdyfi, Wales in 1941 by Lawrence Holt with financial support from the Blue Funnel Line shipping company based on the initiative of Kurt Hahn.

[6] The name Outward Bound was derived from the nautical term for a ship leaving safe harbour for the open sea.

[7] Outward Bound grew out of Hahn's work in the development of the Gordonstoun school and what is now known as the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.

Outward Bound's founding mission, during the Second World War, was to improve the survival chances of young seamen should their ships be torpedoed in the mid-Atlantic.

[19] Today there are organisations, called schools, in more than 35 countries with 250 wilderness and urban locations around the world which are attended by more than 250,000 students each year.

[4] Since its founding in the middle of the last century, Outward Bound has encouraged individuals to test their physical and emotional limits in challenging outdoor adventure programs.

JF Fuller adapted the Outward Bound motto, "To Serve, To Strive and not To Yield," from the poem "Ulysses" by Alfred Lord Tennyson: ... Come, my friends.

Though much is taken, much abides; and though We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are -- One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

The first few days, often at a base camp, are spent training for the outdoor education activities that the course will contain and in the philosophy of Outward Bound.