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Lt Gen Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell

Baden-Powell, Lt Gen Robert Stephenson Smyth, 1st Baron Baden-Powell of Gilwell (1857-1941) Commissioned into the 13th Hussars in 1876, ‘B-P’ became a national hero as the defender of Mafeking which was besieged by the Boers from October 1899 to May 1900. There is some controversy about his alleged use of ruthless methods during the siege. Later he took a prominent role in the South African Constabulary, and in 1903 became a mildly progressive inspector general of cavalry. From 1907 onwards Baden-Powell became increasingly involved in the organization he founded, the Boy Scouts.

Bibliography

  • Jeal, Tim, Baden Powell (London, 1989)

— Gary Sheffield

 
 
Biography: Robert Baden-Powell

Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941) was a military officer who helped protect Britain's imperial empire for over 30 years. He was especially talented in military scouting. Baden-Powell was a prolific writer who often chose his military experiences as the subjects of his works. He is best known for starting a worldwide scouting movement.

Robert Baden-Powell was born Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell on February 22, 1857 in his parents' house in London, England. His father, Professor H.G. Baden Powell was a vicar and a professor of natural science. His mother, Henrietta Smyth, was Professor Baden Powell's third wife. The couple had seven living children together, of whom Robert was the fifth, and they also raised three children from the vicar's previous marriage. Baden-Powell's father died just after his last child was born, when Robert was only three years old. In 1869 Henrietta changed the family name to Baden-Powell out of respect for her late husband.

Mrs. Baden-Powell educated her children in the outdoors. Through long walks in the country, she taught them about plants and animals. They were also allowed to read books from their father's collection on natural history. Baden-Powell's formal education started with a Dame's School in Kensington Square. In 1868 he attended the Rose Hill School in Tunbridge Wells, where his father was also educated. Two years later he won a scholarship to the Charterhouse School in London. In 1872 the school moved to Godalming, which was surrounded by woodlands known as "The Copse." The wilderness was an important part of Baden-Powell's childhood experience. As a schoolboy, he did not excel either academically or athletically. He was mainly interested in the outdoors and theater.

Joined the Army

By 1876 Baden-Powell had to decide upon a career. He was denied admittance to Balliol College in Oxford, where two of his older brothers had attended. Without much forethought, Baden-Powell decided to participate in an open examination for an army commission. Of the 700 people who took the exam, he finished second for cavalry and fourth for infantry. On September 11, 1876 Baden-Powell became a sub-lieutenant in the thirteenth Hussars. On December 6 of the same year, he joined his regiment in Bombay, India.

Baden-Powell took his new profession seriously and excelled in the military. He became a captain at the young age of 26. In 1884 his regiment returned to England for two years. During this time he published a book called Reconnaissance and Scouting. He also worked as a spy, traveling to Germany, Austria, and Russia to learn about their latest technological and military advances. In 1887 Baden-Powell's uncle, General Henry Smyth, was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of South Africa. He asked his nephew to be part of his staff. Baden-Powell participated in several non-combative missions with the Zulu and, in recognition, was promoted to brevet-major. In 1889 General Sir Henry Smyth was sent to Malta as governor and commander-in-chief and he again took his nephew as part of his staff. However, Baden-Powell was anxious for combat and, therefore, resigned from his position as military secretary in Malta in 1893 and rejoined the thirteenth Hussars in Ireland.

In 1895 Baden-Powell was sent to command a campaign against the Ashanti, whose king had broken British treaties. He thought he would have an opportunity for military action, but in the end there was no fighting. Due to his success on this mission he was promoted to brevet-lieutenant-colonel at the age of 39. Despite the honor of the promotion, Baden-Powell was disappointed that he had not yet had any combat experience in the military. He thought this was the key to having his own command in Africa. Based on his experiences with the Ashanti, Baden-Powell published a book called The Downfall of Prempeh in 1896. In 1889 he wrote his next book called Pigsticking or Hog Hunting about boar hunting.

Baden-Powell was next sent to deal with the Matabele Rebellion in the African nation of Rhodesia, as the chief of staff of Major-General Sir Frederick Carrington. Since there was not a corps of scouts available for this mission, Baden-Powell conducted his own scouting trips to learn about the terrain and the people. He would later publish his experiences in a book called The Matabele Campaign. Baden-Powell cited the adventure as a crucial learning experience in the ways of scouting.

After returning home from Africa, Baden-Powell was offered command of the Fifth Dragoon Guards back in India. He dedicated much of his position to training the troops in tracking and surveillance techniques. In 1899 he published Aids to Scouting, which was intended for the military, but had also gained surprising interest among the general public. In the same year, the commander-in-chief of the British army sent Baden-Powell back to South Africa to deal with an expected war between the British and the Boers.

Became a Hero

The Boer War was a bloody struggle between English-speaking and Afrikaans-speaking whites for control of South Africa's mineral wealth - the world's richest gold reefs. While the chief of the British army, Lord Wolseley, wanted to send 10,000 troops to South Africa, the British cabinet disagreed and instead sent 20 special service officers to organize a defense of the frontiers, one of whom was Baden-Powell. He was assigned to raise a small regiment to protect Rhodesia and to deceive the Boers into thinking that more British forces were on the way. The Boers surrounded Baden-Powell and his men in Mafeking, a small town about 175 miles west of Johannesburg. Baden-Powell managed to defend the town against over 7,000 Boers for 217 days. Some viewed this as the first real victory for the British against the Boers and Baden-Powell was considered a hero.

Mafeking was an important experience for Baden-Powell in two respects. First, he finally experienced real military action that he had desired for so long. The experience also gave him the respect of the military he was looking for and the recognition as a leader. He was promoted to the rank of major general because of his success with this mission. Second, Mafeking was the beginning of Baden-Powell's idea for boy scouts. Because the men were busy protecting the city, Baden-Powell organized the boys into a Mafeking Cadet Corps to take care of the smaller tasks around town. Mafeking became the subject of a 1907 book by Baden-Powell called Sketches in Mafeking and East Africa. In 1900 Baden-Powell was appointed head of the newly created South African Constabulary, a military police force, for three years. He was named inspector general of the cavalry from 1903 until 1907.

Founded Scouting

It was during this last appointment that Baden-Powell really began to develop his ideas about the scouting movement. In 1904 he attended the Annual Drill Inspection and Review of the Boys Brigade in Glasgow, where the founder, William Smith, had recruited over 54,000 boys. Smith had asked Baden-Powell to rewrite his book Aids to Scouting for a younger audience. According to Michael Rosenthal in The Character Factory, this gave Baden-Powell "the vision of a British society made strong by legions of well-disciplined, morally upright, patriotic youth who found their satisfaction in defending the interests of the empire and following the orders of their superiors."

Since Baden-Powell was still occupied as inspector general of the cavalry, it took a few years to put his ideas into action. In 1906 he wrote a short paper called "Scouting for Boys," where he put some of his ideas into print. His vision for scouting was strongly influenced by three of his contemporaries, William Smith, Ernest Thompson Seton, and Dan Beard. Seton and Beard had started similar youth organizations in the United States. This small paper turned into a six-part series called Scouting for Boys, which was published between January and March of 1908. The series included the first publication of the Scout Oath and Scout Law. This series then led to an official weekly magazine, called The Scout, which increased the visibility and appeal of the scouting movement in the public's eye.

In the summer of 1907 Baden-Powell acted upon his ideas and ran a demonstration camp for boys on Brownsea Island off the coast of Dorset. Twenty-two boys, from ages 10 to 17, took part in the weeklong exercise, which consisted of camping, cooking, tracking, singing, and storytelling. This was the beginning of what was called "unquestionably the most significant youth movement of the twentieth century " in Michael Rosenthal's The Character Factory.

Created an International Movement

In 1910 Baden-Powell resigned from the Army and became the chairperson of the Executing Committee of the scouting movement. This movement quickly spread to other countries. Baden-Powell traveled extensively to promote scouting, including trips to South America, Russia, Canada, and the West Indies. Interest in the movement was not limited to boys. By 1910 over 8,000 girls had registered with the scouts. Baden-Powell convinced his sister, Agnes Baden-Powell, to organize the girls into their own movement, which he called the Girl Guides. In 1912 Robert and Agnes Baden-Powell published the Handbook for Girl Guides. In the same year, the Boy Scout Association was granted a charter of incorporation.

In 1912 Baden-Powell met his future wife, Olave St. Clair Soames, on a voyage to the West Indies. The couple was married on October 30, 1912 and went on to have three children together: Peter (1913), Heather (1915), and Betty (1917). His wife was a strong supporter of the continuing development of the scouting movement.

In 1914 Baden-Powell created the Wolf Cubs for younger boys aged 9 to 12. During World War I he published several books including Quick Training for War, The Adventures of a Spy, Young Knights of the Empire, and The Wolf Cub's Handbook. After the war he created a third group of scouts for older boys (over the age of 16) called the Rover Scouts. In 1920 Baden-Powell organized the first International Jamboree in London. He wanted a special event to celebrate the tenth anniversary of scouting. According to Tim Jeal in the book Baden-Powell, the chief scout wrote that the goal of the Jamboree was "to make our ideals and methods more widely known abroad; to promote the spirit of brotherhood among the rising generation throughout the world, thereby giving the spirit that is necessary to make the League of Nations a living force."

Baden-Powell spent the later years of his life travelling and supporting the movement. He continued to write throughout his life with such books as Birds and Beasts in Africa (1938), Paddle Your Own Canoe (1939), and More Sketches of Kenya (1940). Baden-Powell died on January 8, 1941 and was buried at Nyeri in view of Mount Kenya.

The legacy of Baden-Powell lies in the popularity of the scouting movement throughout the world. However, its founder has also faced his share of criticism. In 1999 Baden-Powell's character came under attack when the Barolong-Boora-Tshidi Tribal Authority of South Africa sued the British government for millions of dollars in compensation for his alleged mistreatment of blacks during the Mafeking Siege. Despite this problem, the scouting movement has continued to grow. By the year 2000 there were over 25 million members in more than 216 countries.

Books

Jeal, Tim, Baden-Powell, Century Hutchinson, Ltd., 1989.

Mac Donald, Robert H. Sons of the Empire: The Frontier and the Boy Scout Movement, 1890-1918, University of Toronto Press, 1993.

Plaatje, Sol T., Mafeking Diary: A Black Man's View of a White Man's War, Meridor Books, 1990.

Reynolds, E.E., A Biography of Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell, Oxford University Press, 1943.

Rosenthal, Michael, The Character Factory: Baden-Powell and the Origins of the Boy Scout Movement, Pantheon Books, 1986.

Saunders, Frederick Mafeking Memories, Associated University Presses, Inc., 1996.

Periodicals

Guardian, July 24, 1999, p. 1.

Independent, October 21, 1989.

Los Angeles Times, July 24, 1999, p. 1.

New Republic, September 29, 1986, p. 33.

Ottawa Citizen, October 11, 1999, p. A7.

San Diego Union-Tribune, February 20, 2000, p. G-1.

Smithsonian, July 1985, p. 33.

Sunday Telegraph, October 10, 1999, p. 33.

U.S. News and World Report, January 14, 1991, p. 50.

Online

"Founders of Scouting and the Boy Scouts of America," http://www.scouting.org/factsheets/02-211.html(December 6, 2000).

"Historical Highlights," http://www.scouting.org/factsheets/02-511/1910.html(December 6, 2000).

"History of Scouting," http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/library/books/history/index.html(December 25, 2000).

"Sir Robert Baden-Powell," http://users/aol.com/randywoo/bsahis/b-p.html(December 25, 2000).

"Scouting Archives," http://www.scoutingarchives.com(December 25, 2000).

"Scouting Is …," http://www.www.scout.org/wso/scoutis.html(December 25, 2000).

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Robert Stephenson Smyth 1st Baron Baden-Powell of Gilwell

(born Feb. 22, 1857, London, Eng. — died Jan. 8, 1941, Nyeri, Kenya) British army officer and founder of the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides (later Girl Scouts; see scouting). He was noted for his use of observation balloons in warfare in Africa (1884 – 85). In the South African War, he became a national hero in the Siege of Mafikeng. Having learned that his military textbook Aids to Scouting (1899) was being used to train boys in woodcraft, he wrote Scouting for Boys (1908) and that same year established the Boy Scout movement. In 1910, with his sister Agnes and his wife, Olave, he founded the Girl Guides.

For more information on Robert Stephenson Smyth 1st Baron Baden-Powell of Gilwell, visit Britannica.com.

 
British History: Robert Baden-Powell

Baden-Powell, Robert (1857-1941). Founder of the Boy Scouts. Baden-Powell joined the army in 1876 and specialized in reconnaissance. In 1897 he was appointed to command the 5th Dragoon Guards stationed in India. He explained his methods in Aids to Scouting (1899). During the Boer War he took part in the defence of Mafeking, which held out for 217 days against overwhelming forces. He was made inspector-general of the cavalry in 1903. He retired from the army in 1910 to devote his energies to the Boy Scout movement he had founded several years earlier.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Baden-Powell of Gilwell, Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st
Baron (bā'dən-pō'əl) , 1857–1941, British soldier, founder of the Boy Scouts. He saw much active service in India and Africa prior to the South African War, in which he defended Mafikeng for seven months (1899–1900) and subsequently organized the South African constabulary. For his enduring work in organizing (1908) the Boy Scout and Girl Guide movements, he received a peerage in 1929. His writings include Scouting for Boys (1908), Rovering to Success (1922), and Scouting and Youth Movements (1929).

Bibliography

See biographies by W. Hillcourt and O. S. Baden-Powell (1964), M. Rosenthal (1986), and T. Jeal (1990).

 
Wikipedia: Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell
"Baden Powell" redirects here. For other meanings, see Baden Powell (disambiguation).
Robert Baden-Powell,
1st Baron Baden-Powell
22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941 (aged 83)
Robert Baden-Powell
Founder of Scouting
Nickname B-P
Place of birth Paddington, London, England
Place of death Nyeri, Kenya
Service/branch British Army
Years of service 1876–1910
Rank Lieutenant-General
Commands Chief of Staff, Second Matabele War (1896–1897),
5th Dragoon Guards in India (1897),
Inspector General of Cavalry, England (1903)
Battles/wars Anglo-Ashanti Wars,
Second Matabele War,
Siege of Mafeking,
Second Boer War
Awards Ashanti Star (1895),[1]
Matabele Campaign, British South Africa Company Medal (1896),[2]
Queen's South Africa Medal (1899),[3]
King's South Africa Medal ( 1902),[4]
Boy Scouts Silver Wolf
Boy Scouts Silver Buffalo Award (1926),[5]
World Scout Committee Bronze Wolf (1935),[6]
Order of Merit (1937),
Wateler Peace Prize (1937),
Order of St Michael and St George,
Royal Victorian Order,
Order of the Bath
Other work Founder of the international Scouting Movement; writer; artist

Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB (22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941), also known as B-P, was a lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, and founder of the Scout Movement.

After having been educated at Charterhouse School, Baden-Powell served in the British Army from 1876 until 1910 in India and Africa. In 1899, during the Second Boer War in South Africa, Baden-Powell successfully defended the city in the Siege of Mafeking. Several of his military books, written for military reconnaissance and scout training in his African years, were also read by boys. Based on those earlier books, he wrote Scouting for Boys, published in 1908 by Pearson, for youth readership. During writing, he tested his ideas through a camping trip on Brownsea Island that began on 1 August 1907, which is now seen as the beginning of Scouting.

After his marriage with Olave St Clair Soames, Baden-Powell, his sister Agnes Baden-Powell and notably his wife actively gave guidance to the Scouting Movement and the Girl Guides Movement. Baden-Powell lived his last years in Nyeri, Kenya, where he died in 1941.

Early life

Baden-Powell was born as Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell, or more familiarly as Stephe Powell, at 6 Stanhope Street (now 11 Stanhope Terrace), Paddington in London, England, UK on 22 February 1857.[7] His father Reverend Baden Powell, a Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford University, already had four teenage children from the second of his two previous marriages. On 10 March 1846 at St Luke's Church, Chelsea, Reverend Powell married Henrietta Grace Smyth (3 September 1824 – 13 October 1914), eldest daughter of Admiral William Henry Smyth and 28 years his junior. Quickly they had Warington (early 1847), George (late 1847), Augustus (1849) and Francis (1850). After three further children who died when very young, they had Stephe, Agnes (1858) and Baden (1860). The three youngest children and the often ill Augustus were close friends. Reverend Powell died when Stephe was three, and as tribute to his father and to set her own children apart from their half-siblings and cousins, the mother changed the family name to Baden-Powell. Subsequently, Stephe was raised by his mother, a strong woman who was determined that her children would succeed. Baden-Powell would say of her in 1933 "The whole secret of my getting on lay with my mother."[7][8][9]

After attending Rose Hill School, Tunbridge Wells, during which his favourite brother Augustus died, Stephe Baden-Powell was awarded a scholarship to Charterhouse, a prestigious public school. His first introduction to Scouting skills was through stalking and cooking game while avoiding teachers in the nearby woods, which were strictly out-of-bounds. He also played the piano and violin, was an ambidextrous artist, and enjoyed acting. Holidays were spent on yachting or canoeing expeditions with his brothers.[7]

Military career

In 1876, R.S.S. Baden-Powell, as he styled himself then, joined the 13th Hussars in India with the rank of lieutenant. He enhanced and honed his military scouting skills during Britains invasion of the Zulu kingdom in the early 1880s from the Natal province of South Africa, where his regiment had been posted, and where he was Mentioned in Despatches. During one of his travels, he came across a large string of wooden beads, worn by the Zulu king Dinizulu, which was later incorporated into the Wood Badge training programme he started after he founded the Scouting Movement. Baden-Powell's skills impressed his superiors and he was Brevetted Major as Military Secretary and senior Aide-de-camp of the Commander-in-Chief and Governor of Malta, his uncle General Sir Henry Augustus Smyth.[7] He was posted in Malta for three years, also working as intelligence officer for the Mediterranean for the Director of Military Intelligence.[7] He frequently travelled disguised as a butterfly collector, incorporating plans of military installations into his drawings of butterfly wings.[10]

Baden-Powell returned to Africa in 1896 to aid British South Africa Company officials besieged by Africans in Bulawayo during the Second Matabele War.[11] This was a formative experience for him not only because he had the time of his life commanding reconnaissance missions into enemy territory in Matobo Hills, but because many of his later Boy Scout ideas took hold here.[12] It was during this campaign that he first met and befriended the American scout Frederick Russell Burnham, who introduced Baden-Powell to the American Old West and woodcraft (i.e., scoutcraft), and here that he wore his signature Stetson campaign hat and kerchief for the first time.[7] After Rhodesia, Baden-Powell took part in a successful British invasion of Ashanti, West Africa, and at the age of 40 was promoted to lead the 5th Dragoon Guards in 1897 in India.[13] A few years later he wrote a small manual, entitled Aids to Scouting, a summary of lectures he had given on the subject of military scouting, to help train recruits. Using this and other methods he was able to train them to think independently, use their initiative, and survive in the wilderness.

He returned to South Africa prior to the Second Boer War and was engaged in further military action against the Zulu. By this time, he had been promoted and was the youngest colonel in the British Army. He was responsible for the organisation of a force of frontiersmen to assist the regular army. While arranging this, he was trapped in the Siege of Mafeking, and surrounded by a Boer army, at times in excess of 8,000 men. Although wholly outnumbered, the garrison withstood the siege for 217 days. Much of this is attributable to cunning military deceptions instituted at Baden-Powell's behest as commander of the garrison. Fake minefields were planted and his soldiers were ordered to simulate avoiding non-existent barbed wire while moving between trenches.[14] Baden-Powell did most of the reconnaissance work himself.[15]

A more critical analysis of Baden-Powells performance during the Siege of Mafeking suggests that his success in resisting the Boers was secured only at considerable cost in the lives of African soldiers and civilians - including members his own African garrison. Pakenham states that Baden-Powell drastically reduced the rations to the African garrison.[16] Towards the final stage of the siege, this policy of cutting their rations was further tightened. This became known as "The leave-here-or-starve-here" policy. Which forced a mass exodus of the natives through the Boers lines with predictable results.[vague]

"You have only to sacrfice the nigger absolutely and the game is easy..."[17]

Jeal refutes these views— Baden-Powell was ordered by Lord Kitchener to prepare for four months of siege and to evacuate the African population on the best opportunity.[7] Baden-Powell drew up plans to move the indigenous refugees to Kanya and had supplies set up in Moshwane and Bechuanaland in preparation for the evacuation. After much advance notice, the Africans did not leave and Baden-Powell was forced to stop the sale of food to the refugee camp in order to press the issue. He then provided patrols to guide and protect the evacuees. After most of the African refugees had left, Baden-Powell found that people from outlying communities had been ostracized and had received little food. He had soup kitchens set up to feed the poor and starving, providing free meals for up to 1,500 people a day.

Baden-Powell on patriotic postcard in 1900
Enlarge
Baden-Powell on patriotic postcard in 1900

During the siege, a cadet corps, consisting of white boys below fighting age, was used to stand guard, carry messages, assist in hospitals and so on, freeing the men for military service. Although Baden-Powell did not form this cadet corps himself, and there is no evidence that he took much notice of them during the Siege, he was sufficiently impressed with both their courage and the equanimity with which they performed their tasks to use them later as an object lesson in the first chapter of Scouting for Boys. The siege was lifted in the Relief of Mafeking on 16 May 1900. Promoted to major-general, Baden-Powell became a national hero.[18] After organising the South African Constabulary, the national police force, he returned to England to take up a post as Inspector General of Cavalry in 1903.

In 1910 lieutenant-general Baden-Powell decided to retire from the Army on the advice of King Edward VII, who suggested that he could better serve his country by promoting Scouting.[19][20]

On the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Baden-Powell put himself at the disposal of the War Office. No command, however, was given him, for, as Lord Kitchener said: "he could lay his hand on several competent divisional generals but could find no one who could carry on the invaluable work of the Boy Scouts."[21] It was widely rumoured that Baden-Powell was engaged in spying, and intelligence officers took great care to inculcate the myth.[22]

Scouting Movement

Pronunciation of Baden-Powell
['beɪdʌn 'pəʊəl]
Man, Nation, Maiden
Please call it Baden.
Further, for Powell
Rhyme it with Noel
Verse by B-P

On his return from Africa in 1903, Baden-Powell found that his military training manual, Aids to Scouting, had become a best-seller, and was being used by teachers and youth organisations.[23] Following his involvement in the Boys' Brigade as Brigade Secretary and Officer in charge of its scouting section, with encouragement from his friend, William Alexander Smith, Baden-Powell decided to re-write Aids to Scouting to suit a youth readership. In August 1907 he held a camp on Brownsea Island for twenty-two boys of mixed social background to test out the applicability of his ideas. Baden-Powell was also influenced by Ernest Thompson Seton, who founded the Woodcraft Indians. Seton gave Baden-Powell a copy of his book The Birch Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians and they met in 1906.[24][25][26] Scouting for Boys was subsequently published in six instalments in 1908.

Boys and girls spontaneously formed Scout troops and the Scouting Movement had inadvertently started, first as a national, and soon an international obsession. The Scouting Movement was to grow up in friendly parallel relations with the Boys' Brigade. A rally for all Scouts was held at Crystal Palace in London in 1909, at which Baden-Powell discovered the first Girl Scouts. The Girl Guide Movement was subsequently founded in 1910 under the auspices of Baden-Powell's sister, Agnes Baden-Powell. Baden-Powell's friend, Juliette Gordon Low, was encouraged by him to bring the Movement to America, where she founded the Girl Scouts of the USA.

In 1920, the 1st World Scout Jamboree took place in Olympia, and Baden-Powell was acclaimed Chief Scout of the World. Baden-Powell was created a Baronet in the 1921 New Year Honours and Baron Baden-Powell, of Gilwell, in the County of Essex, on 17 September 1929, Gilwell Park being the International Scout Leader training centre.[27][28] After receiving this honour, Baden-Powell mostly styled himself "Baden-Powell of Gilwell".

In 1929, during the 3rd World Scout Jamboree, he received as a present a new Rolls-Royce car and an Eccles Caravan. This combination well served the Baden-Powells in their further travels around Europe. Baden-Powell also had a positive impact on improvements in youth education.[29] Under his dedicated command the world Scouting Movement grew. By 1922 there were more than a million Scouts in 32 countries; by 1939 the number of Scouts was in excess of 3.3 million.[30]

At the 5th World Scout Jamboree in 1937, Baden-Powell gave his farewell to Scouting, and retired from public Scouting life. 22 February, the joint birthday of Robert and Olave Baden-Powell, continues to be marked as Founder's Day by Scouts and Thinking Day by Guides to remember and celebrate the work of the Chief Scout and Chief Guide of the World.

In his final letter to the Scouts, Baden-Powell wrote:

...I have had a most happy life and I want each one of you to have a happy life too. I believe that God put us in this jolly world to be happy and enjoy life. Happiness does not come from being rich, nor merely being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy, so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man. Nature study will show you how full of beautiful and wonderful things God has made the world for you to enjoy. Be contented with what you have got and make the best of it. Look on the bright side of things instead of the gloomy one. But the real way to get happiness is by giving out happiness to other people. Try and leave this world a little better than you found it and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best. 'Be Prepared' in this way, to live happy and to die happy - stick to your Scout Promise always - even after you have ceased to be a boy - and God help you to do it.[31]

Personal life

In January 1912, Baden-Powell met the woman who would be his future wife, Olave St Clair Soames, on the ocean liner, Arcadian, heading for New York to start one of his Scouting World Tours.[32][33] She was a young woman of 23, while he was 55, a not uncommon age difference in that time, and they shared the same birthday. They became engaged in September of the same year, causing a media sensation due to Baden-Powell's fame. To avoid press intrusion, they married in secret on 30 October 1912.[34] The Scouts of England each donated a penny to buy Baden-Powell a wedding gift, a car (note that this is not the Rolls-Royce they were presented with in 1929). There is a monument to their marriage inside St Mary's Church, Brownsea Island.

Baden-Powell and Olave lived in Pax Hill near Bentley, Hampshire and Chapel Farm, Ripley, Surrey from about 1919 until 1939.[35] The Bentley house was a gift of her father.[36] Directly after he had married, Baden-Powell had begun to have problems with his health, suffering bouts of illness. He complained of persistent headaches, which were considered by his doctor to be of psychosomatic origin and treated with dream analysis.[7] The headaches subsided upon his moving into a makeshift bedroom set up on his balcony.

In 1939, he and his wife moved to a cottage he had commissioned in Nyeri, Kenya, near Mount Kenya, where he had previously been to recuperate. The small one-room house, which he named Paxtu, was located on the grounds of the Outspan Hotel, owned by Eric Sherbrooke Walker, Baden-Powell's first private secretary and one of the first Scout inspectors.[7] Walker also owned the Treetops Hotel, approx 17 km out in the Aberdare Mountains, often visited by Baden-Powell and people of the Happy Valley set. The Paxtu cottage is integrated into the Outspan Hotel buildings and serves as a small Scouting museum.

Jeal argues that Baden-Powell's distrust of communism led to his implicit support, through naïveté, of fascism. In 1939 Baden-Powell noted in his diary: "Lay up all day. Read Mein Kampf. A wonderful book, with good ideas on education, health, propaganda, organization etc.—and ideals which Hitler does not practice himself."[37] He also admired Mussolini, and some early Scouting badges had a swastika symbol on them.[38] According to his biographer Rosenthal, Baden-Powell used the swastika because he was a Nazi sympathizer. Jeal, however, argues that Baden-Powell was naïve of the symbol's growing association with fascism and maintained that his use of the symbol related to its earlier, original meaning of "good luck" in Sanskrit, for which purpose the symbol had been used for centuries prior to the rise of fascism. Despite these early sympathies, Baden-Powell was a target of the Nazi regime in the Black Book, which listed individuals which were to be arrested during and after an invasion of Great Britain as part of Operation Sealion. Scouting was regarded as a dangerous spy organization by the Nazis.[39]

Baden-Powell died on 8 January 1941 and is buried in Nyeri, in St. Peter's Cemetery (0°′″N 36°′″E / 0.420033, 36.947286).[40] His gravestone bears a circle with a dot in the centre, which is the trail sign for "Going home", or "I have gone home": I have gone home[41] When his wife Olave died, her ashes were sent to Kenya and interred beside her husband. Kenya has declared Baden-Powell's grave a national monument.[42]

The Baden-Powells had three children, one son and two daughters, who all acquired the courtesy title of "The Honourable" in 1929 as children of a baron. The son succeeded his father in 1941 to the Baden-Powell Baronetcy and the title of Baron Baden-Powell.[43]

  • Arthur Robert Peter (Peter), later 2nd Baron Baden-Powell (1913–1962). He married Carine Crause-Boardman in 1936, and had three children: Robert Crause, later 3rd Baron Baden-Powell; David Michael (Michael), current heir to the titles, and Wendy.
  • Heather (1915–1986), who married John King and had two children: Michael and Timothy,
  • Betty (1917–2004), who married Gervase Charles Robert Clay in 1936 and had three sons and one daughter: Robin, Chispin, Gillian and Nigel.

Artist and writer

Baden-Powell made paintings and drawings, almost every day of his life. Most have a humorous or informative character.[7] He published books and other texts during his years of military service to both finance his life and to educate his men.[7]

Baden-Powell was regarded as an excellent storyteller. During his whole life he told 'ripping yarns' to audiences.[7] After having published Scouting for Boys, Baden-Powell kept on writing more handbooks and educative materials for all Scouts, as well as directives for Scout Leaders. In his later years, he also wrote about the Scout Movement and his ideas for its future. He spent the last decade of his life in Africa, and many of this later books had African themes.

Sexuality

For more details on this topic, see Robert Baden-Powell's sexual orientation.

Robert Baden-Powell's sexuality has been brought into question by his principal modern biographers, [7][44] who have found a great deal of evidence indicating he was attracted to youthful men and to boys. Nonetheless, Baden-Powell is thought to always have remained chaste with his scouts, and he did not tolerate Scoutmasters who indulged in sexual 'escapades' with their charges.[7]

Works

Military books
  • 1884: Reconnaissance and Scouting
  • 1885: Cavalry Instruction
  • 1889: Pigsticking or Hoghunting
  • 1896: The Downfall of Prempeh
  • 1897: The Matabele Campaign
  • 1899: Aids to Scouting for N.-C.Os and Men
  • 1900: Sport in War
  • 1901: Notes and Instructions for the South African Constabulary
  • 1914: Quick Training for War
Scouting books
  • 1908: Scouting for Boys
  • 1909: Yarns for Boy Scouts
  • 1912: Handbook for Girl Guides (co-authored with Agnes Baden-Powell)
  • 1913: Boy Scouts Beyond The Sea: My World Tour
  • 1916: The Wolf Cub's handbook
  • 1918: Girl Guiding
  • 1919: Aids To Scoutmastership
  • 1921: What Scouts Can Do: More Yarns[45]
  • 1922: Rovering to Success
  • 1929: Scouting and Youth Movements
  • 1935: Scouting Round the World
  • est 1939: Last Message to Scouts
Cover of second part of Scouting for Boys, January 1908
Enlarge
Cover of second part of Scouting for Boys, January 1908
Other books
  • 1905: Ambidexterity (co-authored with John Jackson)
  • 1915: Indian Memories
  • 1915: My Adventures as a Spy[46]
  • 1916: Young Knights of the Empire: Their Code, and Further Scout Yarns[47]
  • 1921: An Old Wolf's Favourites
  • 1927: Life's Snags and How to Meet Them
  • 1933: Lessons From the Varsity of Life
  • 1934: Adventures and Accidents
  • 1936: Adventuring to Manhood
  • 1937: African Adventures
  • 1938: Birds and beasts of Africa
  • 1939: Paddle Your Own Canoe
  • 1940: More Sketches Of Kenya
Sculpture
  • 1905 John Smith[48]

Awards

Statue of Baden-Powell by Don Potter in front of Baden-Powell House
Enlarge
Statue of Baden-Powell by Don Potter in front of Baden-Powell House

In 1937 Baden-Powell was appointed to the Order of Merit, one of the most exclusive awards in the British honours system, and he was also awarded 28 decorations by foreign states.

The Silver Wolf worn by Robert Baden-Powell is handed down the line of his successors, with the current Chief Scout, Peter Duncan wearing this original award.

The Bronze Wolf, the only distinction of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, awarded by the World Scout Committee for exceptional services to world Scouting, was first awarded to Baden-Powell by a unanimous decision of the then International Committee on the day of the institution of the Bronze Wolf in Stockholm in 1935. He was also the first recipient of the Silver Buffalo Award in 1926, the highest award conferred by the Boy Scouts of America.

In 1931, Major Frederick Russell Burnham dedicated Mount Baden-Powell[49] (34°22′31″N 117°45′49″W / 34.37528, -117.76361) in California to his old Scouting friend from forty years before.[50][51] Today their friendship is honoured in perpetuity with the dedication of the adjoining peak, Mount Burnham (34°22′N 117°47′W / 34.367, -117.783).[52]

Baden-Powell was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on numerous occasions, including 10 separate nominations in 1928.[53]

See also


Notes

  1. ^ Ashanti Campaign, 1895. The Pine Tree Web. Retrieved on 2006-12-02.
  2. ^ Matabele Campaign. The Pine Tree Web. Retrieved on 2006-12-02.
  3. ^ Queen's South Africa Medal. The Pine Tree Web. Retrieved on 2006-12-02.
  4. ^ Kings's South Africa Medal. The Pine Tree Web. Retrieved on 2006-12-02.
  5. ^ Fact Sheet: The Silver Buffalo Award. Fact sheet. Boy Scouts of America, Troop 14 (1926). Retrieved on 2006-12-02.
  6. ^ The Library Headlines. ScoutBase UK. Retrieved on 2006-12-02.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Jeal, Tim (1989). Baden-Powell. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-170670-X. 
  8. ^ Palstra, Theo P.M. (April 1967). Baden-Powel, zijn leven en werk. De Nationale Padvindersraad. 
  9. ^ Drewery, Mary (1975). Baden-Powell: the man who lived twice. Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-18102-8. 
  10. ^ Baden-Powell, Sir Robert (1915). My Adventures As A Spy. PineTree.web. Retrieved on 2007-05-05.
  11. ^ Baden-Powell, Robert (1897). The Matabele Campaign, 1896. Greenwood Press. 
  12. ^ Proctor, Tammy M. (July 2000). "A Separate Path: Scouting and Guiding in Interwar South Africa". Compartive Studies in Society and History 42 (3). ISSN 3548-1356. 
  13. ^ Barrett, C.R.B. (1911). History of The XIII. Hussars. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons. Retrieved on 2007-01-02. 
  14. ^ Latimer, Jon (2001). Deception in War. London: John Murray, pp. 32–5. 
  15. ^ Conan-Doyle, Sir Arthur (1901). The Siege of Mafeking. PineTree.web. Retrieved on 2006-11-17.
  16. ^ Pakenham, Thomas (1979). The Boer War. New York: Avon Books. ISBN 0-380-72001-9. 
  17. ^ Pakenham, Thomas (1979). The Boer War. New York: Avon Books. ISBN 0-380-72001-9. 
  18. ^ Robert Baden-Powell: Defender of Mafeking and Founder of the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides. Past Exhibition Archive. National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved on 2006-11-17.
  19. ^ Baden-Powell of Gilwell * Chief Scout of the World. The Ultimate Boy Scouts of America History Site. Randy Woo. Retrieved on 2007-08-01.
  20. ^ Lord Robert Baden-Powell "B-P" – Chief Scout of the World. The Wivenhoe Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 2006-11-17.
  21. ^ Saint George Saunders, Hilary (1948). "Chapter II, ENTERPRISE, Lord Baden-Powell", The Left Handshake. Retrieved on 2007-01-02. 
  22. ^ Baden-Powell, Sir Robert (1915). My Adventures as a Spy. PineTree.web. Retrieved on 2006-11-17.
  23. ^ Peterson, Robert (2003). Marching to a Different Drummer. Scouting Magazine. Boy Scouts of America. Retrieved on 2007-01-02.
  24. ^ Woo, Randy (Aug 1996). Ernest Thompson Seton. The Ultimate Boy Scouts of America History Site. Randy Woo. Retrieved on 2006-12-07.
  25. ^ Ernest Thompson Seton and Woodcraft. InFed (2002). Retrieved on 2006-12-07.
  26. ^ Robert Baden-Powell as and Educational Innovator. InFed (2002). Retrieved on 2006-12-07.
  27. ^ Family history, Person Page 876. The Peerage. Retrieved on 2007-01-01.
  28. ^ Burke's Peerage & Gentry. Retrieved on 2007-01-01.
  29. ^ Baden-Powell as an Educational Innovator. Infed Thinkers. Retrieved on 2006-02-04.
  30. ^ Nagy, László (1985). 250 Million Scouts. Geneva: World Scout Foundation. 
  31. ^ Baden-Powell, Sir Robert. B-P's final letter to the Scouts. Girl Guiding UK. Retrieved on 2007-08-04.
  32. ^ Baden-Powell, Olave. Window on My Heart. The Autobiography of Olave, Lady Baden-Powell, G.B.E.as told to Mary Drewery. Hodder and Stoughton. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  33. ^ Fact Sheet: The Three Baden-Powell's: Robert, Agnes, and Olave (PDF). Girl Guides of Canada. Retrieved on 2007-01-02.
  34. ^ Olave St Clair Baden-Powell (née Soames), Baroness Baden-Powell; Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell. National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  35. ^ Wey people, the big names of the valley. Wey River freelance community. Retrieved on 2007-04-29.
  36. ^ Wade, Eileen K.. Pax Hill. PineTree Web. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  37. ^ Jeal, Tim (1990). The Boy-Man: The Life of Lord Baden-Powell. New York: Morrow, 550. 
  38. ^ Boy Scout medal with fleur-de-lis and swastika, 1930s. The Learning Federation. Retrieved on 2007-08-01.
  39. ^ Schellenberg, Walter (2000). Invasion, 1940: The Nazi Invasion Plan for Britain. London: St Ermin's Press. 
  40. ^ "B-P" – Chief scout of the world. Baden-Powell. World Organization of the Scout Movement. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.
  41. ^ Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell at Find A Grave
  42. ^ Olave St. Clair Baden-Powell at Find A Grave
  43. ^ (1999) in Charles Mosley (editor): Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, Crans, Switzerland: Burke Peerage Genealogical Books Ltd. 
  44. ^ Rosenthal, Michael (1986). The character factory: Baden-Powell and the origins of the Boy Scout movement. Pantheon. isbn13 978-0394511696. 
  45. ^ Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell [1921]. What Scouts Can Do: More Yarns. Retrieved on 2007-08-01. 
  46. ^ My Adventures as a Spy, available at Project Gutenberg.
  47. ^ Young Knights of the Empire: Their Code, and Further Scout Yarns, available at Project Gutenberg.
  48. ^ John Smith. The Library of Virginia. Retrieved on 2007-07-29.
  49. ^ Mount Baden-Powell. USGS. Retrieved on 2006-04-17.
  50. ^ Dedication of Mount Baden-Powell. The Pine Tree Web. Retrieved on April 23, 2006.
  51. ^ Burnham, Frederick Russell (1944). Taking Chances. Haynes Corp, xxv-xxix. ISBN 1-879356-32-5. 
  52. ^ Mapping Service. Mount Burnham. Retrieved on 2006-04-17.
  53. ^ Nomination Database: Baden-Powell. The Nomination Database for the Nobel Peace Prize, 1901-1955. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
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