About Baden-Pawell
The Scout Movement was started by a
man called Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell. He was known as
Stephe by his family and as a boy he enjoyed pretending to be a
hunter or an Indian scout. One of his favourite places at school
was called The Copse, it was out of bounds to all the boys at
Charterhouse but that made it all the more exciting - avoiding his
teachers!
With his older brothers, Stephe went
on all sorts of expeditions, often on the water. They bought old
boats and used them to explore the coasts of Great Britain. When
they were not on the water , they were learning to look after
themselves as they walked for miles with their gear on their
backs.
When he left school B.P. went into
the Army and travelled extensively in India and South Africa. In
1888 he was fighting in South Africa and, having captured Chief
Dinizulu, B.P. was given a long necklace of wooden beads. Much
later on B.P. used the beads to make the first Wood Badges, Which
are awards given to Scouters when they complete their leadership
training.
While he was still in South Africa,
B.P. became famous for his defence of a small town called Mafeking
(now known as Mafikeng). He used all his cunning to hold out
against the Boers who outnumbered his men by nine to one. After
seven long months, during which food and supplies became very short
and there were so few soldiers that boys from the age of nine
upwards worked as messengers on bicycles, help finally came.
Back in Britain everyone was glad to
hear the news that Mafeking had been relieved and agreed that B.P.
was a national hero.
B.P. was only 43 when he became the
youngest Major-General in the British Army. He came home to Britain
where he found that many boys in the big towns had nothing to do
except get into mischief. He decided to put into practice some of
the ideas he had used in South Africa for boys in Britain.
Formation of the Scouts
He knew that boys enjoyed the
outdoor life and so he organized a camp for a group of 20 boys on
Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour in Dorset. Here he taught them
about exploring, camping, boating, stalking, life-saving and many
of the things which Scouts still do today. An important principle
of the camp was that the boys were on their honour and were trusted
to organize themselves, which B.P. knew they could do.
After the camp, B.P. completed his
book Scouting for Boys, which
was bought by thousands of boys all over the country. They formed
themselves into Patrols and did many of the things they read about
in the book. Before long, they found adults to help them and Scout
Troops began.
In 1910, B.P. retired from the Army
so that he could devote more time to the organization and
development of the new Movement.
In 1920, at Olympia in London, the
first International Jamboree was held. Towards the end a young
Scout declared, We the Scouts of the world, salute you, Sir Robert
Baden-Powell, Chief Scout of the World.
In order to train adults to become
Scout Leaders, B.P. used a camp site in Epping Forest called
Gilwell Park. It is still used for training and as a camp site and
is visited by many thousands of Scouts from all over the world each
year. B.P. chose to be known as Lord Baden-Pawell of Gilwell when
he was made a Baron in 1929, and in that same year he was awarded
the rare and distinguished Order of Merit of Hungary.
When B.P. died in 1941, Lord Somers
became Chief Scout. After him Lord Rowatlan, Lord Maclean and Sir
William Gladstone have all held this appointment.
Scouting Sections
The Scouts have been the heart of
the Scouting family since 1907 when they were founded by Lord
Baden-Powell. In 1914 it was realised that younger Boys wanted to
join the scouts, so the Cub Scouts were formed. The next member of
the scouting family tree was the senior section (Venture Scouts)
formed in 1917. The last group to be added was the Beaver Section,
which was formed in 1982. A recognised Training Section was also
added in 1986.