| 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 held | 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] Großes Dankabzeichen des ÖPB (1927) Großes Ehrenzeichen der Republik am Bande (1931) Goldene Gemse (1931) Grand-Cross in the Order of Orange-Nassau (1932), 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 |
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.[25] 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 from local Boys Brigade companies and sons of friends of Baden-Powell's from public schools Eton and Harrow 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.[26][27] The first book on the Scout Movement, Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys was published in six instalments in 1908, and has sold approximately 150 million copies as the fourth bestselling book of the 20th century.[28]
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.[29] After receiving this honour, Baden-Powell mostly styled himself "Baden-Powell of Gilwell".
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.[34]
Personal life
In January 1912, Baden-Powell met Olave St Clair Soames, on the ocean liner, Arcadian, heading for New York to start one of his Scouting World Tours.[35][36] She was 23, while he was 55; they shared the same birthday, 22 February. 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 31 October 1912, at St Peter's Church in Parkstone.[37] 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 from about 1919 until 1939.[38] The Bentley house was a gift of her father.[39] Directly after he had married, Baden-Powell began to suffer persistent headaches, which were considered by his doctor to be of psychosomatic origin and treated with dream analysis.[7] The headaches disappeared upon his moving into a makeshift bedroom set up on his balcony.
- 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, who died in the sinking of SS Heraklion, and Timothy;
- Betty (1917–2004), who married Gervas Charles Robert Clay in 1936 and had a daughter: Gillian, and three sons: Robin, Nigel and Crispin.
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.
Baden-Powell died on 8 January 1941 and is buried in Nyeri, in St. Peter's Cemetery [41] His gravestone bears a circle with a dot in the centre
, which is the trail sign for "Going home", or "I have gone home":[42] 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.[43]
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