Baden Powell (1857-1941)
Many of us already recognise Lord Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell as the founder,
in 1908, of the Boy Scouts movement. However, most of us do not realise the sequence
of events that led Baden-Powell to establish the Boy Scouts.
Born in London in 1857, Lord Baden-Powell developed many unconventional, for the
time, techniques for British Army scouts as part of his military career.
These techniques were put to the test under fire at the siege of Mafeking, a small
African town, during the Boer wars
Robert Baden-Powell's goal was to impart some knowledge of these unconventional Army
scouting techniques to boys before they joined the British Army. in August 1907
he conducted the famous Brownsea Island Experimental Camp.
Baden-Powell wanted to test out the ideas he had been working on for his scheme of
work for ‘Boy Scouts’ and he had completed the first draft of Scouting for Boys.
If learned early in life, Baden-Powell theorized, these techniques could help them
to be better British Army scouts.
On January 15, 1908, the first part of Scouting for Boys was published. Like modern
day ‘bit-parts’ it appeared at fortnightly intervals, (six parts) price at 4d each.
It quickly appeared in book form (May 1).
Another little known fact:
Lady Olave Baden-Powell, the founder of the Girl Guide movement, has confirmed that
B.P. was never a Freemason.
Resources for Baden-Powell information:
Infed Encyclopaedia.
Baden-Powell by R.H.Kiernan author of "Lawrence of Arabia"
Baden-Powell: The Two Lives Of A Hero by William Hillcourt
