Baden-Powell, Robert (1857–1941)

Baden-Powell, Robert (1857–1941), British military officer, administrator,author and the founder of the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides. Baden-Powell served with the British Army for thirty-four years beginning in 1876. Early in his career he displayed an aptitude for military scouting and in 1876 wrote a handbook entitled Reconnaissance and Scouting. Baden-Powell distinguished himself as a leader with his participation in the defense of Mafeking during the Boer War. In 1900 he organized the South African Constabulary and acted as its inspector general until 1903, when he was named inspector general of cavalry.

Baden-Powell is said to have conceived of the idea of Boy Scouting in 1908 while on a camping trip with a group of English schoolboys. Later that year his book Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship elicited public enthusiasm for a scouting organization. At the urging of King Edward VII, Baden-Powell retired from the Army in 1910 to develop the Boy Scout and Girl Guide movements. A knight commander of the Royal Victorian Order and a conferee of the Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George, Baden-Powell was named chief scout of the world at the first Boy Scout Jamboree, held in London in 1920. He was a prolific author whose books included Sport in War (1900), An Old Wolf's Favourites: Animals I Have Known (1921), and an autobiography titled Lessons of a Lifetime (1933). He also founded The Scout magazine.

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