British Army officer, writer, founder and first Chief Scout of the world-wide Boy Scout Movement
1857 CE
to 1941 CE
Lieutenant General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB, KStJ, DL (February 22, 1857 –January 8, 1941), is a British Army officer, writer, founder and first Chief Scout of the world-wide Boy Scout Movement, and founder, with his sister Agnes, of the world-wide Girl Guide / Girl Scout Movement
Baden-Powell authors the first editions of the seminal work Scouting for Boys, which is an inspiration for the Scout Movement.
Educated at Charterhouse in Surrey, Baden-Powell serves 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 defends the town in the Siege of Mafeking.
Several of his military books, written for military reconnaissance and scout training in his African years, are also read by boys.
In 1907, he holds a demonstration camp, the Brownsea Island Scout camp, which is now seen as the beginning of Scouting.
Based on his earlier books, particularly Aids to Scouting, he writes Scouting for Boys, published in 1908 by Sir Arthur Pearson, for boy readership.
In 1910 Baden-Powell retires from the army and forms The Boy Scouts Association.
The first Scout Rally is held at The Crystal Palace in 1909, at which appea a number of girls in Scout uniform, who tell Baden-Powell that they are the "Girl Scouts", following which, in 1910, Baden-Powell and his sister Agnes Baden-Powell start the Girl Guides Movement.
In 1912 he marries Olave St Clair Soames
He gives guidance to the Scouting and Girl Guiding Movements until retiring in 1937.
Baden-Powell lives his last years in Nyeri, Kenya, where he dies and is buried in 1941.
