The Founder of Scouting

" 'Now the time has come for me to say good-bye. I want you to lead happy lives. You know that many of us will never meet again in this world. I am in my eighty-first year and am nearing the end of my life. Most of you are at the beginning, and I want your lives to be happy and successful. You can make them so by doing your best to carry out the Scout Law all your days, whatever your station and wherever you are... Now, good-bye. God bless you all.' And again, taking off his hat, 'God bless you all.' " (Wilson; p. 100 )

These are the words of the farewell message of Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of the World Wide Scouting Movement. In these words you can see the concern Baden-Powell felt for the rising generation - the concern that drove him to found and nurture movements to assist both boys and girls to become the best they could be.

It can be argued that Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell was less than a perfect man. Born in 1857, he was the eighth child of Henrietta Grace Powell, wife of the Reverend Baden Powell. When Stephe, as he was known by his family, was but three years old, his father died suddenly. Henrietta was a strong and determined mother who did everything she could to ensure that her children were brought up to be strong of character and well educated. To honor her late husband, she added his given name to the family surname creating the hyphenated Baden-Powell. This was difficult only for the youngest son, who then had the cumbersome name of Baden Baden-Powell.

In 1870, Stephe went to school at Charterhouse on scholarship. There he excelled in sports, music (singing in the chorus and playing violin), and leadership. In addition, he wrote for the school paper and helped to form a rifle team. He was an excellent artist able to sketch and paint equally well with both right and left hand. Academically, Robert was only mediocre and later was refused acceptance to Oxford where his father had taught geometry and his godfather, Jewett of Balliol, was in charge of admissions. In the summer of the year of his Oxford rejection, he tested for acceptance into the military placing second out of 718 in cavalry and fifth for infantry. Although he had not earlier considered it, he chose a career in the cavalry.

He was determined to succeed at his new career and took to it very well. By the age of 40, he was the youngest Lieutenant General in the British military. His career had been relatively uneventful until he was involved in a campaign to suppress King Prempeh on the Gold Coast of West Africa. Because of his success there, he was posted to India, Afghanistan, and later to the African veldt where he was involved in the Boar Wars. During the course of his career, he had written profusely. His most recent book, Aids to Scouting (a book about cavalry reconnaissance) was being widely read in Britain when he and his troops were taken under siege in Mafeking. Because of his actions there, coupled with the popularity of his writings, he quickly became a national hero and was well received on his return to the island.

Baden-Powell was concerned about the degeneration of English youth. The boys were becoming physically and morally weakened as the population moved from the countryside to the industrialized cities. Drawing on ideas from Ernest Thomas Seton, a youth leader in America, Baden-Powell published Scouting for Boys in 1908. The book was quickly accepted and impromptu Scout troops began to spring up all over the nation. With the help of his partner, a publisher, he organized the Boy Scout program in Great Britain.

He resigned from the military and spent the remainder of his life developing and promoting the Boy Scout Association. It has been said that in his time, his books, training materials, and articles were the most widely read materials in the world with the exception of the Holy Bible. Included in Scouting for Boys were the Boy Scout Oath and Law. The British Scout Law was the model followed by Scout associations throughout the world. It remains the set of core values subscribed to in the moral training of countless millions of boys throughout the world from 1908 until the present.

During the first few months after the birth of Scouting, hundreds of girls joined the movement. Baden-Powell quickly recognized the need for training Britain's young women as well as her young men. With the assistance of his wife, Lady Olave, he organized the Girl Guides. From then on, he served as Scouting's Chief Scout while his wife was Chief Guide. In 1920 Baden-Powell wrote:

"The term 'Scouting' has come to mean a system of training in citizenship, through games, for boys or girls . . . The girls are the important people, because when the mothers of the nation are good citizens and women of character, they will see to it that their sons are not deficient in these points. As things are, the training is needed for both sexes, and is imparted through the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides Movements. The principles are the same for both. It is only in the details that they vary." (Wilson; p. 14)

written by Steven C. Hanna