THROWBACKTHISDAY, JAN 8; Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouts movement, died

                                             

Lieutenant General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, OM GCMG GCVO KCB 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 Mafe king. 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.

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. Baden-Powell died on 8 January 1941 and is buried at St. Peter's Cemetery in Nyeri.  His gravestone bears a circle with a dot in the centre "ʘ", which is the trail sign for "Going home", or "I have gone home":^[48] 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.

 

 

 

 

THROWBACKTHISDAY; makes it 75 years and TBT Blog remembers him.