Formal portrait of Colonel Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden Powell, Commandant of the Mafeking ...

Formal portrait of Colonel Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden Powell, Commandant of the Mafeking Garrison. In the late 1870s he was commissioned straight into the 13th Hussars, bypassing the officer training establishments. As a young Army officer, he went to India and later was stationed in the Balkans, South Africa and Malta. He served with distinction in South Africa during the Boer War, and is known for his leadership role in defending Mafeking during its 217 day siege. In 1907 he held an experimental boy scout camp on Brownsea Island, Poole, Dorset, to try out his ideas. He brought together 22 boys, some from private schools and some from working class homes, and put them into camp under his leadership. 'Scouting for Boys' was published in 1908 in six fortnightly parts. Sales of the book were tremendous, and boys throughout England spontaneously 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. In September 1908 Baden-Powell had set up an office to deal with the large number of enquiries which were pouring in, and in 1910, he retired from the army at the age of 53, on the advice of King Edward VII who suggested that he could now do more valuable service for his country within the Scout Movement. He died on 8 January 1941.