Robert Stephenson Smyth
Baden-Powell, (22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941)
son of The Reverend Baden Powell, a Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford University and Church of England priest and his third
wife, Henrietta Grace Smyt. He became a British Army officer,
writer, author of Scouting for Boys which was an inspiration for the Scout Movement, founder and
first Chief Scout of The
Boy Scouts Association and founder of the Girl Guides.
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. In 1907, he held a
demonstration camp, the Brown sea Island Scout
camp, which is now seen as the beginning of Scouting.
Based on his earlier books, he wrote Scouting
for Boys, published in 1908. In 1910 Baden-Powell
retired from the army and formed The Boy Scouts
Association.
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 Baden-Powell that they were the "Girl
Scouts", following which, in 1910, Baden-Powell and his sister Agnes
Baden-Powell formed the Girl Guides from which the Girl
Guides Movement grew. In 1912 he married Olave
St Clair Soames. He gave guidance to the Scouting and
Girl Guiding Movements until retiring in 1937. Baden-Powell lived his last
years in Nyeri, Kenya, where he died
and was buried in 1941.