Robert Stephenson
Smyth Baden-Powell, (22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941), also known as B-P or Lord
Baden-Powell, was a lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, founder of
the Scout Movement and first Chief Scout of The Boy Scouts Association.
After having been
educated at Charterhouse School in Surrey, 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 town 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 Sir Arthur
Pearson, for youth readership. In 1907, he held the first Brownsea Island Scout
camp, which is now seen as the beginning of Scouting.
On January 24,
1908, the Boy Scouts movement begins in England with the publication of the
first installment of Robert Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys. The name
Baden-Powell was already well known to many English boys, and thousands of them
eagerly bought up the handbook. By the end of April, the serialization of
Scouting for Boys was completed, and scores of impromptu Boy Scout troops had
sprung up across Britain.
The first Scout
Rally was held at The Crystal Palace in 1909, at which appeared a number of
girls dressed in Scout uniform, who told B-P that they were the "Girl
Scouts", whereupon B-P and his sister Agnes Baden-Powell formed the Girl
Guides Movement. After his marriage on 30 October 1912 to Olave St Clair
Soames, Baden-Powell and his wife actively gave guidance to the Scouting and
Girl Guiding Movements. Baden-Powell lived his last years in Nyeri, Kenya,
where he died and was buried in 1941.
No comments:
Post a Comment