Baden-Powell :: essays research papers

Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, more affectionately knownas "B.-P.", was natural in London, England, on February 22, 1857.At the age of 12 he true a scholarship from CharterhouseSchool, one of Englands famous public schools. The school was past located in London, but it soon moved to Godalming in Surrey. at that place were some woods just outside the school, these were "out-of-bounds" for the pupils. It was here that B.-P. practised straw wildlife. He is said to have snared rabbits and cookedthem over a small come alive so that smoke didnt give him away to theschool masters. (This was to be semiprecious schooling for later inhis career.)Choosing a military career, B.-P. served in campaigns in India,Afghanistan and South Africa. He became world famous during theBoer War for the excuse of Mafeking, a small town in SouthAfrica. With 800 men, he was besieged by a force of 9,000 Boersoldiers. His small force held out against these immense oddsfor 217 days -- until a relief column of British soldiersarrived.At Mafeking B.-P. unionised his "Messenger Cadets". Trained inefficiency, obedience and smartness, they performed many tasks --relieving soldiers for active defense of the town. After theBoer War, B.-P. organized the South African Constabulary anddesigned a uniform for them that later became the basic Boy Scoutuniform.While cool off in Africa, B.-P. wrote "Aids to Scouting" -- a manual of armsdesigned to train soldiers to become army scouts. Many youth andorganizations in Britain used ideas from this manual as the basisof adventurous programs. He discussed this matter with SirWilliam Smith, the founder of the Boys Brigade, and some otherleading youth workers. He planned a camp to demonstrate his programideas. The camp was held from July 25 to August 9 in 1907 onBrownsea Island. The "Scoutmaster" was Lt.-Gen. Robert Baden-Powell. His assistants were B.W. Green, H. Robson and P.W. Everett.The camp was a trem endous success. Based on this experiment B.-P.wrote his record "Scouting for Boys" which was published in 6 partsstarting in January, 1908. It has been printed in many editions --the current edition is the last one edit by B.-P. By the endof 1908 this book was translated into five other languages. Thesketches in the book were all done by B.-P. -- most of them basedon his own exciting career.In 1909, King Edward VII, who had taken a colossal deal of interestin this new Movement, made the founder a Knight in recognition ofhis work for boys. At this time B.-P. was inspector General of