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Lord Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell
Chief Scout of the World
The name
Baden-Powell is known and respected throughout the world as
that of a man who, in his 83 years, devoted himself to the
service of his country and his fellow men in two separate
and complete lives, one as a soldier fighting for his
country, and the other as a worker for peace through the
brotherhood of the Scout Movement.
Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell was born at 6
Stanhope Street (now 11 Stanhope Terrace), Paddington,
London on February 22, 1857. He was the sixth son and the
eighth of ten children of the Reverend Baden-Powell, a
Professor at Oxford University. The names Robert Stephenson
were those of his Godfather, the son of George Stephenson,
the railway pioneer.
His father died when B.-P. was only three years old
and the family were left none too well off. B.-P. was given
his first lessons by his mother and later attended Rose Hill
School, Tunbridge Wells, where he gained a scholarship for
admittance to Charterhouse School. Charterhouse School was
in London when B.-P. first attended but whilst he was there
it moved to Godalming, Surrey, a factor which had great
influence in his later life. He was always eager to learn
new skills. He played the piano and fiddle. He acted - and
acted the clown too at times. He practiced bricklaying, and
it was whilst a scholar at Charterhouse that he began to
exploit his interest in the arts of Scouting and woodcraft.
Unofficially, in the woods around the school, B.-P.
would stalk his Masters as well as catch and cook rabbits,
being careful not to let the tell-tale smoke give his
position away. His holidays were not wasted either. With his
brothers he was always in search of adventure. One holiday
they made a yachting expedition around the south coast of
England. On another, they traced the Thames to its source by
canoe. In all this, Baden-Powell was learning the arts and
crafts which were to prove so useful to him professionally.
B.-P. was certainly not a 'swot' at school, as his end of
term reports revealed. One records: 'Mathematics - has to
all intents given up the study', and another: 'French -
could do well but has become very lazy, often sleeps in
school'. Nevertheless, he gained second place for cavalry in
open examination for the Army and was commissioned straight
into the 13th Hussars, bypassing the officer training
establishments, and subsequently became their Honorary
Colonel for 30 years. His Army career was outstanding from
the start. With the 13th Hussars he served in India,
Afghanistan and South Africa and was mentioned in dispatches
for his work in Zululand. There followed three years service
in Malta as Assistant Military Secretary and then he went to
Ashanti, Africa, to lead the campaign against Prempeh.
Success led to his being promoted to command the 5th Dragoon
Guards in 1897, at the age of 40. It was to the 5th Dragoon
Guards that B.-P. gave his first training in Scouting and
awarded soldiers reaching certain standards a badge based on
the north point of the compass. Today's Scout Membership
badge is very similar.
In 1899 came Mafeking, the most notable episode in
his outstanding military career, by which he became a
Major-General at the age of only 43. B.-P. became famous and
the hero of every boy, although he always minimized his own
part and the value of his inspiring leadership. By using
boys for responsible jobs during the siege, he learned the
good response youth give to a challenge. During the 217 day
siege, B.-P.'s book 'Aids to Scouting' was published and
reached a far wider readership than the military one for
which it was intended. Following Mafeking, B.-P. was given
the task of organizing the South African Constabulary and it
was not until 1903 that he returned to England as Inspector
General of Cavalry and found that his book, 'Aids to
Scouting' was being used by youth leaders and teachers all
over the country. He spoke at meetings and rallies and
whilst at a Boys' Brigade gathering he was asked by its
Founder, Sir William Smith, to work out a scheme for giving
greater variety in the training of boys in good citizenship.
The Beginnings of the Movement
B.-P. set to work
rewriting 'Aids to Scouting', this time for a younger
readership. In 1907 he held an experimental camp on Brownsea
Island, Poole, Dorset, to try out his ideas. He brought
together 22 boys, some from public schools and some from
working class homes, and put them into camp under his
leadership. The whole world now knows the results of that
camp.
'Scouting for Boys' was published in 1908 in six
fortnightly parts at 4d a copy. Sales of the book were
tremendous. Boys formed themselves into Scout Patrols to try
out ideas. What had been intended as a training aid for
existing organizations became the handbook of a new and,
ultimately worldwide Movement. B.-P.'s great understanding
of boys obviously touched something fundamental in the youth
of this and other countries.
Without fuss, without ceremony and completely
spontaneously, boys began to form Scout Troops all over the
country. In September 1908, B.-P. had set up an office to
deal with the large number of enquiries which were pouring
in concerning the Movement.
There is no need to describe the way in which
Scouting spread throughout the British Commonwealth and to
other countries until it was established in practically all
parts of the free world. Even those countries where Scouting
as we know it is not allowed to exist readily, admit that
they used its methods for their own youth training.
As Inspector-General of Cavalry, B.-P. considered
that he had reached the pinnacle of his career. The baton of
Field Marshal was within his grasp but he retired from the
Army in 1910 at the age of 53, on the advice of His Majesty
King Edward VII, who suggested that he would do more
valuable service for his country within the Boy Scout
Movement (now Scout Movement) than anyone could hope to do
as a soldier!
So all his enthusiasm and energy was now directed to
the development of Scouting and its sister Movement,
Guiding. He traveled to all parts of the world, wherever he
was most needed, to encourage their growth and give them the
inspiration that he alone could give.
In 1912, he married Olave Soames who was his constant
help and companion in all this work and by whom he had three
children (Peter, Heather and Betty). Olave, Lady
Baden-Powell, until she died in 1977, was known throughout
the world as World Chief Guide.
Chief Scout of the World
The first international
Scout Jamboree took place at Olympia, London in 1920. At its
closing scene, B.-P. was unanimously acclaimed as Chief
Scout of the World. Successive international gatherings,
whether of Scouts or Rovers (now called Venture Scouts) or
of Scouters, proved that this was not an honorary title, but
that he was truly regarded by them all as their Chief. The
shouts that heralded his arrival, and the silence that fell
when he raised his hand, proved beyond any doubt that he had
captured the hearts and imaginations of his followers in
whatever country they owed allegiance.
At the 3rd World Jamboree, held in Arrowe Park,
Birkenhead, to celebrate the 21st Anniversary of the
publication of 'Scouting for Boys', the Prince of Wales
announced that B.-P. had been created a Peer. He took the
title of Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell - Gilwell Park being
the International Training Centre for Scout Leaders.
Scouting was not B.-P.'s only interest, for excelled
at pig-sticking and fishing, and favored polo and big game
hunting. He was also a very good black & white and
watercolor artist and took an interest in cinema-photography
and sculpture. In 1907, he exhibited a bust of John Smith,
the colonial pioneer, at the Royal Academy.
B.-P. wrote no less than 32 books, the earning from
which helped to pay for his Scouting travels. As with all
his successors, he received no salary as Chief Scout. He
received honorary degrees from Edinburgh, Toronto, Montreal,
Oxford, Liverpool and Cambridge Universities. He also
received Freedoms of the cities of London, Guildford,
Newcastle-on-Tyne, Bangor, Cardiff, Hawick, Kingston-on-
Thames, Poole, Blandford, Canterbury and Pontefract, and of
other cities in various parts of the world. In addition, 28
Foreign Orders and decorations and 19 Foreign Scout Awards
were bestowed upon him. Every minute of B.-P.'s life was
'sixty seconds worth of distance run'. Each new adventure
was the subject for a book. Every happy incident or thought,
every fine landscape might be the subject for a sketch.
In 1938, suffering from ill-health, B.-P. returned to
Africa, which had meant so much in his life, to live in
semi-retirement in Nyeri, Kenya. Even here he found it
difficult to curb his energies - he still produced many
books and sketches.
On January 8, 1941, Baden-Powell died. He was 83
years of age. He is buried in a simple grave at Nyeri within
sight of Mount Kenya. On his headstone are the words,
'Robert Baden-Powell, Chief Scout of the World' surmounted
by the Boy Scout and Girl Guide Badges. His memory remains
for all time in the hearts of millions of men and women,
boys and girls. It is up to those who are, or have been,
Scouts or Guides to see that the two Movements he so firmly
established continue for all time as living memorials to
their Founder.
William D. Boyce
Founder of The Boy Scouts of America
 Stop
me if you've heard this, and if you haven't, you must have
joined Scouting very recently. It's the story of the Unknown
Scout who guided Chicago publisher William D. Boyce through
a pea-soup fog in 1909 in London, and that led him to the
office of Robert S.S. Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting.
There Boyce picked up a trunk load of literature about the
young movement for British boys, leading him to incorporate
the Boy Scouts of America on Feb. 8, 1910, soon after
returning to the United States.
Without doubt it is the most enduring legend in
Scouting, and it has the virtue of being true, at least in
essence, since it is mentioned in the first annual report of
the BSA.
It is a fact that William D. Boyce visited London in
late 1909 and picked up Scouting literature, and it is also
true that he incorporated the BSA Feb 8, 1910. During the
infant organization's first year, Boyce kept it afloat by
donating a crucial $4,000. In 1915, he organized the Lone
Scouts of America, bringing Scouting to boys in rural areas
who had no chance to join one of the hundreds of troops that
were springing up in cities and small towns.
Despite these significant contributions, W. D. Boyce
is a shadowy figure among Scouting's pioneers. This is due
largely to the fact that he did not take a hands-on approach
to Scouting as did the founder, Baden-Powell, in England
and, in the United States, Chief Scout Ernest Thompson
Seton, National Scout Commissioner Daniel Carter Beard, and
Chief Scout Executive James E. West. Boyce did his thing and
left the details to others. So, who was William D. Boyce?
Getting Off the Farm
He was born to a farm
family in Plum, Pa., just east of Pittsburgh, on June 16,
1858. He decided early on that farming was not for him,
although he worked hard and willingly at farm chores. While
still in his teens, he was also a weight checker in a coal
mine and taught school for a time. Boyce's own education
ended after three years at Wooster (Ohio) Academy, a
preparatory school. At the age of 20, he was 6 feet tall,
big-framed and sturdy, with blue eyes and wavy brown hair.
Boyce was full of energy and had a decisive mind.
In 188l, he went to Chicago and took a job selling
advertising space for a monthly magazine. Not surprisingly,
he was a very good salesman. Apparently he was a quick study
in the publishing business, too, because a few months later
he was co-publisher of a weekly called The Commercial in
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. A year later he worked briefly
as a newspaper reporter in Fargo (then the major city in the
Dakota Territory, now North Dakota) and started a weekly
called the Dakota Clipper in the village of Lisbon.
Boyce's ambition went beyond small-town journalism,
so in January 1885 he sold the Clipper and headed back to
Chicago. There he established a syndicated service that
provided stories for newspapers. A year later he sold that
service, and in 1887, at the age of 29, Boyce began
publishing a weekly paper called the Saturday Blade which
soon achieved a national circulation.
By the standards of the day, the Blade was rather
sensational, with accounts of crime, maidens wronged, and
stories about expeditions to Africa, Alaska, Mexico, and
elsewhere, often led by William D. Boyce. In 1891, he bought
the Chicago Ledger. Eventually the weekly circulation of the
two papers was more than two million copies.
How William D. Boyce financed the beginning of this
publishing enterprise is unknown, but it is a tribute to his
business acumen. (Boyce was an avid poker player, but there
is no evidence that he depended on poker winnings to bolster
his empire.) He conceived the idea of using boys to sell his
papers across the country, and 30,000 youngsters were his
sales agents at the height of his success.
By the time Boyce first heard about Boy Scouting in
London, he was living like the multimillionaire he was in a
mansion on the Illinois River in Ottawa, Ill., southwest of
Chicago. At his workplace in the 12-story Boyce Building in
Chicago, he had a penthouse apartment staffed by a chef. His
annual income in those days before income taxes was said to
be $350,000.
After incorporating the BSA in February 1910, Boyce
hired a former clergyman to promote Scouting and organize
troops, but the effort was unsuccessful. So he welcomed a
visit in May 1910 by Edgar M. Robinson and two other YMCA
men who offered to take over the organizing chores. The YMCA
already had several Scout troops. Boyce promised to help
finance the organizing effort and then dropped out of the
BSA's sight while he traveled in South America and
elsewhere.
Birth of the Lone Scouts
He re-emerged in 1915
after reading about Lone Scouting in Britain. It had been
started in 1913 based on John Hargrave's book, Lonecraft—The
Hand-book for Lone Scouts.
Boyce incorporated the Lone Scouts of America on Jan.
9, 1915, intending to appeal to his young sales agents and
other rural boys. Lone Scouting was very successful and
attracted city kids as well as farm boys. Some were Boy
Scouts and Lone Scouts simultaneously.
Lone Scouting had a distinct Native American flavor.
Its symbol was a lone Indian with arms upraised in silent
salute. The Indian appeared on Page l of many issues of Lone
Scout, the weekly (later monthly) magazine that told readers
how to earn advancement "degrees" and chronicled the
adventures of "Chief Totem" William Boyce. Lone Scout was
also a vehicle for young writers, poets, and artists. As was
true for Boy Scouting, Boyce had almost no contact with
individual Lone Scouts. He was the ultimate "big picture"
man.
William D. Boyce died of complications from pneumonia
on June 11, 1929. His grave site in the Ottawa Avenue
Cemetery is dominated by a statue of a Boy Scout.At his
death, his newspapers and his fortune were in decline
because the automobile and radio were bringing rural
dwellers into mainstream America. But he left an important
legacy to youth with his advocacy of Boy Scouting and,
especially, Lone Scouting.
Contributing editor Robert Peterson is the author of
The Boy Scouts: An American Adventure.
Founders of Scouting and the BSA
Robert S. S. Baden-Powell
As a youth, Robert
Baden-Powell greatly enjoyed the outdoors, learning about
nature and how to live in the wilderness. After returning as
a military hero from service in Africa, Baden-Powell
discovered that English boys were reading the manual on
stalking and survival in the wilderness he had written for
his military regiment. Gathering ideas from Ernest Thompson
Seton, Daniel Carter Beard, and others, he rewrote the
manual as a nonmilitary nature skill book and called it
Scouting for Boys. To test his ideas, Baden-Powell brought
together 22 boys to camp at Brownsea Island, off the coast
of England. This historic campout was a success and resulted
in the advent of Scouting. Thus, the imagination and
inspiration of Baden-Powell, later proclaimed Chief Scout of
the World, brought Scouting to youth the world over.
Ernest Thompson Seton
Born in Scotland,
Ernest Thompson Seton immigrated to America as a youth in
the 1880s. His fascination with the wilderness led him to
become a naturalist, an artist, and an author, and through
his works he influenced both youth and adults. Seton
established a youth organization called the Woodcraft
Indians, and his background of outdoor skills and interest
in youth made him a logical choice for the position of first
Chief Scout of the BSA in 1910. His many volumes of
Scoutcraft became an integral part of Scouting, and his
intelligence and enthusiasm helped turn an idea into
reality.
Daniel Carter Beard
Woodsman, illustrator,
and naturalist, Daniel Carter Beard was a pioneering spirit
of the Boy Scouts of America. Already 60 years old when the
Boy Scouts of America was formed, he became a founder and
merged it with his own boys' organization, the Sons of
Daniel Boone. As the first national Scout commissioner,
Beard helped design the original Scout uniform and
introduced the elements of the First Class Scout badge.
"Uncle Dan," as he was known to boys and leaders, will be
remembered as a colorful figure dressed in buckskin who
helped form Scouting in the United States
William D. Boyce
In 1909, Chicago
publisher William D. Boyce lost his way in a dense London
fog. A boy came to his aid and, after guiding the man,
refused a tip, explaining that as a Scout he would not take
a tip for doing a Good Turn. This gesture by an unknown
Scout inspired a meeting with Robert Baden-Powell, the
British founder of the Boy Scouts. As a result, William
Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America on February 8,
1910. He also created the Lone Scouts, which merged with the
Boy Scouts of America in 1924.
James E. West
James E. West was
appointed the first Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts
of America in 1911. Although orphaned and physically
handicapped, he had the perseverance to graduate from law
school and become a successful attorney. This same
determination provided the impetus to help build Scouting
into the largest and most effective youth organization in
the world. When he retired in 1943, Dr. West was recognized
throughout the country as the true architect of the Boy
Scouts of America.
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