Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell
Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB, KStJ, DL (/ˈbeɪdən ˈpoʊəl/ BAY-dən POH-əl;[4] 22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941) was a British Army officer, writer, founder and first Chief Scout of the world-wide Scout Movement, and founder, with his sister Agnes, of the world-wide Girl Guide/Girl Scout Movement. Baden-Powell wrote the seminal work Scouting for Boys, which, with his previous 1899 book Aids to Scouting for N.-C.Os and Men[5] (intended for the military) captured the imagination of the boys of Britain and led to the creation of the Scout Movement.[6]
For the Canadian politician, see Robert Baden Powell (politician).
The Lord Baden-Powell
B-P, Robin (by his wife)[1]
22 February 1857
Paddington, London, England
8 January 1941 (aged 83)
Nyeri, British Kenya
United Kingdom
1876–1910
- Inspector General of Cavalry (1903)
- 5th Dragoon Guards (1897)
- Member of the Order of Merit
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
- Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
- Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
- Boy Scouts Association Silver Wolf
- Boy Scouts of America Silver Buffalo Award[2]
- Boy Scouts International Committee Bronze Wolf Award[3]
- Wateler Peace Prize
- Arthur Robert Peter Baden-Powell
- Heather Grace Baden-Powell
- Betty St Clair Baden-Powell
Founder of the international Scouting Movement; writer; artist
Educated at Charterhouse School, Baden-Powell served in the British Army from 1876 until 1910 in India and Africa.[7] In 1899, during the Second Boer War in South Africa, Baden-Powell successfully defended the town in the Siege of Mafeking.[8] Several of his books, written for military reconnaissance and scout training in his African years, were also read by boys. In August 1907, he held a demonstration camp, the Brownsea Island Scout camp, which is now seen as the beginning of Scouting.[9] Based on his earlier books, particularly Aids to Scouting, he wrote Scouting for Boys,[10] published in 1908 by Sir Arthur Pearson, for boy readership. In 1910 Baden-Powell retired from the army and formed The Scout Association.
The first Scout Rally was held at The Crystal Palace in 1909. Girls in Scout uniform attended, telling Baden-Powell that they were the "Girl Scouts". In 1910, Baden-Powell and his sister Agnes Baden-Powell started the Girl Guide and Girl Scout organisation. In 1912 he married Olave St Clair Soames. He gave guidance to the Scout and Girl Guide movements until retiring in 1937. Baden-Powell lived his last years in Nyeri, Kenya, where he died and was buried in 1941. His grave is a national monument.[11]
Baden-Powell was a son of Baden Powell, Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford and Church of England priest, and his third wife, Henrietta Grace Smyth, eldest daughter of Admiral William Henry Smyth. After Baden Powell died in 1860, his widow, to identify her children with her late husband's fame, and to set her children apart from their half-siblings and cousins, styled the family name Baden-Powell. The name was eventually legally changed by Royal Licence on 30 April 1902.[12]
The family of Baden-Powell's father originated in Suffolk.[13] His mother's earliest known Smyth ancestor was a Royalist American colonist; her mother's father Thomas Warrington was the British Consul in Naples around 1800.[14]
Baden-Powell was born Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell at 6 Stanhope Street (now 11 Stanhope Terrace), Paddington, London, on 22 February 1857. He was called Stephe (pronounced "Stevie") by his family.[15] He was named after his godfather, Robert Stephenson, the railway and civil engineer,[16] and his third name was his mother's surname.[17]
Baden-Powell had four older half-siblings from the second of his father's two previous marriages and was the fifth surviving child of his father's third marriage:[18]
The three children immediately preceding B–P had all died very young before he was born, so there was a seven-year gap between him and his next older brother Frank; so he and his two younger siblings were almost like a separate family, of which he was the eldest.[15]
Baden-Powell's father died when he was three. Subsequently, Baden-Powell was raised by his mother, a strong woman who was determined that her children would succeed. In 1933 he said of her "The whole secret of my getting on, lay with my mother."[15][19][20]
He attended Rose Hill School, Tunbridge Wells and was given a scholarship to Charterhouse, a prestigious public school named after the ancient Carthusian monastery buildings it occupied in the City of London.[21] However, while he was a pupil there, the school moved out to new purpose-built premises in the countryside near Godalming in Surrey. He played with dolls and learnt the piano and violin, was an ambidextrous artist, and enjoyed acting. Holidays were spent on yachting or canoeing expeditions with his brothers. Baden-Powell's first introduction to Scouting skills was through stalking and cooking games while avoiding teachers in the nearby woods, which were strictly out-of-bounds.[15][22]
Baden-Powell published books and other texts during his years of military service both to finance his life and to generally educate his men.[15]
Baden-Powell was regarded as an excellent storyteller. During his whole life he told "ripping yarns" to audiences. 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 most of the last two years of his life in Africa, and many of his later books had African themes.[15]
Most of his books (the American editions) are available online.[86]
Compilations and excerpts comprised:
Baden-Powell also contributed to various other books, either with an introduction or foreword, or being quoted by the author,
A comprehensive bibliography of his original works has been published by Biblioteca Frati Minori Cappuccini.[89]
Art[edit]
Baden-Powell's father often sketched caricatures of those present at meetings, while his maternal grandmother was also artistic. Baden-Powell painted or sketched almost every day of his life, and with equal competence with either hand. Most of his works have a humorous or informative character.[15] His books are scattered with his pen-and-ink sketches, frequently whimsical. He did a largely unknown number of pen-and-ink sketches; he always travelled with a sketchpad that he used frequently for pencil sketches and "cartoons" for later watercolour paintings. He also created a few sculptures. There is no catalogue of his works, many of which appear in his books, and twelve paintings hang in the British Scout Headquarters at Gilwell Park. There was an exhibition of his work at the Willmer House Museum, Farnham, Surrey, from 11 April – 12 May 1967; a text-only catalogue was produced.[90]
