HISTORIKU I Ser BADEN ROBERT BADEN-POWELL

Founder of Scouting

On his return, Baden-Powell found that his military training manual, "Aids to Scouting", had become something of a best-seller, and was being used by teachers and youth organizations. Following a meeting with the founder of the Boys' Brigade, Sir William Alexander Smith, Baden-Powell decided to re-write Aids to Scouting to suit a youth readership, and in 1907 held a camp on Brownsea Island for 22 boys of mixed social background to test out some of his ideas. Scouting for Boys was subsequently published in 1908 in six installments. Boys and girls spontaneously formed Scout Troops and the Scouting movement had inadvertently started, first a national, and soon an international obsession. The Scouting movement was to grow up in friendly parallel relations with the Boys' Brigade. A rally for all Scouts was held at Crystal Palace in London in 1908, at which Baden-Powell discovered the first Girl Scouts. The Girl Guides movement was subsequently founded in 1910 under the auspices of Baden-Powell's sister, Agnes Baden-Powell.Although he could have doubtless become Field Marshal, Baden-Powell decided to retire from the Army in 1910 with the rank of Lieutenant-General on the advice of King Edward VII, who suggested that he could better serve his country by promoting Scouting.On the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Baden-Powell put himself at the disposal of the War Office. No command, however, was given him, for, as Lord Kitchener said: "he could lay his hand on several competent divisional generals but could find no one who could carry on the invaluable work of the Boy Scouts." It was widely rumored that Baden-Powell was engaged in spying, and intelligence officers took great care to foster and inculcate the myth.Baden-Powell and his wife moved to Pax Hill near Bentley, Hampshire, a gift of her father in 1918. They established their family home there for over twenty years. In 1920, at Olympia, the first World Scout Jamboree took place, and Baden-Powell was acclaimed Chief Scout of the World. Baden-Powell was made a Baronet in 1922.In 1929, during the third World Scout Jamboree he received as a present a new car, which happened to be a Rolls Royce. This car was soon nicknamed Jam-Roll. He also received an Eccles Caravan, which was nicknamed Eccles Cake, so the Scouts attending the event were treated with a Jam-Roll towing an Eccles Cake. This combination served well the Baden-Powells in their further travels around Europe. During the same event, Baden-Powell was created Baron Baden-Powell, of Gilwell in the County of Essex, in 1929, Gilwell Park being the International Scout Leader training center. B.-P. also had a positive impact on improvements in youth education. Under his dedicated command the world Scouting movement grew. By 1922 there were more than a million Scouts in 32 countries; by 1939 the number of Scouts was in excess of 3.3 million. Scouts and Guides mark February 22 as "Founder's Day" (Scouts) and "Thinking Day" (Guides), the joint birthdays of Robert and Olave Baden-Powell, to remember and celebrate the work of the Chief Scout and Chief Guide of the World.