Robert Baden Powell short biography. History of the Scout Movement
Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell was born in 1857 in Paddington, London, England. He is sometimes referred to as Stevie Powell, and at birth he was given the name Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell.
He was the sixth of eight sons of Reverend Baden Powell, who was a professor and taught geometry at Oxford University. His father died when Robert himself was three years old. By the way, it was in memory of their father that the surname of all the children changed - the name Baden was added to their surname. The upbringing of the children was taken over by their mother, Henrietta Grace Smyth, who was an amazingly strong woman who firmly believed in her children and their future success. By the way, much later Robert confirmed her faith, saying: “ Main secret my success belongs to my mother." It is known that in addition to believing in success, Henrietta did a lot on the way to it - she raised her children in strictness, teaching them early years to work.
On a scholarship, Robert got into the very prestigious Charterhouse School in London, where he did not show much diligence in his studies, but gained the goodwill of his classmates. Robert was loved for his cheerful disposition, and he was also very active in sports and any extracurricular activities. He was an excellent artist, played the piano and violin, and also enjoyed performing on the theater stage. In the summer, Robert and his brothers traveled a lot - they organized real expeditions, with canoes and sometimes yachting.
After graduating from school, at the age of 19, Robert went to military service, after passing the officer's exam and receiving the rank of junior lieutenant; he was sent to the 13th Hussars. Robert's military service took place in India, and by the age of 26 he received the rank of captain.
In an effort to increase his income, the young officer wrote articles for several magazines, which he himself illustrated.
In 1887, Baden-Powell served in South Africa, fighting on the side of the British colonialists who faced desperate local resistance. Thus, Robert took part in suppressing the uprising of the Zulu, Ashanti and Matabela.
In 1899 Baden-Powell
and was promoted to colonel, in addition, he received the post of commandant of the Mafeking fortress, a very important strategic site. During the Boer War, the fortress was besieged for seven long months, but Baden-Powell skillfully led his small garrison. In 1901, Baden-Powell was promoted to major general, and in 1908 received the rank of lieutenant general.
After serving in the British colonies until 1910, Baden-Powell returned to England, where he settled in military intelligence. Thus, pretending to be an eccentric butterfly collector, he traveled a lot, and in his sketches, the diagrams of the structure of butterfly wings hid important information about military installations and strategically important points.
While remaining in the service, Robert wrote a lot, and later all his books were divided into series, among which was a series and a military one. So, while in the army, he wrote "Cavalry Instruction", "The Downfall of Prempeh", "Sport in War", "Notes and Instructions for the South African Constabulary" and several other books, and in 1915 his "spy" book entitled "My Adventures as a Spy" was published. Among other things, a considerable amount of very interesting information could be gleaned from Powell's books. practical advice for intelligence officers, soldiers, officers, and all people involved in military service.
However, a wonderful person and outstanding officer Robert Baden-Powell did not go down in history thanks to his military exploits. Thus, today his name is primarily associated with the formation of the Scout movement. So, having returned from the war, Baden-Powell was a real hero; from all over England he received letters from children, and especially from boys who were literally raving about military exploits. He answered them, and also traveled a lot around the country with lectures and conversations, and was soon surprised to learn that his book “Aids to Scouting for N.-C.Os and Men” with advice to scouts was widely used by teachers who, reworking during the educational process, they brought up the necessary qualities in children. Thus came the need to rework his “advice to intelligence officers” into “advice for boys.” And in 1908, the famous book “Scouting for Boys” was published, written in the form of conversations around the fire.
His theories, which Robert outlined in the book, he
I checked it in practice beforehand. So, in 1907, he and a group of 22 boys spent 8 days in a tent camp on Brownsea Island. Baden-Powell divided the children into groups, appointed elders, assigned roles and instructed leaders. He taught the children the basics of colonial geography, history, the structure of the army and navy, and explained civic responsibilities.
This is how the famous Scout movement began, and this was especially useful against the backdrop of a clear lack of youth movements at that time, not only in England, but also in other countries.
Soon, spontaneous scout groups began to appear everywhere in England, and they all took Baden-Powell’s book as a basis. By the spring of 1908, the whole country was swept by a new youth movement. Later the movement spread to the colonies, and just a year later the king hosted the first parade of Scouts in England.
The Girl Scout movement was born in 1909, and in 1912 the movement received legal status as the Scout Association of Great Britain.
As for Robert’s personal life, in January 1912, 55-year-old Baden-Powell met 23-year-old Olave St Clair Soames on board the ocean liner Arcadian, with whom they also shared the same date of birth. - February 22. They got married in October 1912, at St Peter's Church in Parkstone. By the way, the Scouts of England donated a penny each, and this was later enough for a luxurious gift for the newlyweds - a Rolls Royce; and a monument was even erected on Brownsea Island in honor of their marriage.
The couple lived in Hampshire until 1939 and had three children – a son and two daughters. Later they moved to Kenya, settling near Mount Kenya in a small cottage. It is known that Robert’s sexual orientation has more than once been the cause of controversy, but the homosexuality of which he was suspected was not confirmed.
Robert Stevenson Smith Baden-Powell died on January 8, 1941 in Nyeri and was buried in St. Peter's Cemetery, and the road to the cemetery is named after him. At the house where Baden-Powell lived and died, the Scouts of Kenya erected a memorial plaque.
It is noteworthy that Baden-Powell was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize, but for one reason or another he never received it.
75 years ago, in 1929, the King of Great Britain granted the title of baron to the founder of the scouting movement, General Robert Baden-Powell. Now the world's first boy scout is being accused of homosexual tendencies and claims that he had severe mental problems. But several generations of teenagers around the world, including in Russia, grew up strengthening their body and spirit in strict accordance with the scouting precepts of Baden-Powell.The camps to which many parents send their children in the summer are now called children's camps, and before that for many years they were known as pioneer camps. Meanwhile, the Soviet pioneers who spent time there did not even suspect that the tie and fireworks, the cry “Be ready!”, the game “Zarnitsa”, songs around the fire, the flag raising ceremony and even the word “pioneer” itself were borrowed by the creators of the children's communist movement among bourgeois boy scouts. The first scout camp opened in August 1907, and by the beginning of the Second World War there were already millions of scouts all over the world. The 1908 book Scouting for Boys was second only to the Bible in sales in the last century, and its author, General Robert Baden-Powell, who failed to even get into Oxford University, became the most widely read British author after Shakespeare. The founder of scouting wanted to strengthen the body and spirit of British boys, and, as it turned out, he invented a universal recipe for a children's organization, according to which they created everything: some - a union of environmentally savvy and morally stable young scouts, some - pioneers, and some - the Hitler Youth.
Siege Hero
One day at the very beginning of the 20th century, a British general was returning home on horseback and heard his son shout from somewhere above: “Dad, I shot you! A good scout looks not only around, but also up, but you didn’t notice me!” The general raised his head and saw a boy sitting in a tree, and even higher, almost at the top, his new governess. "For God's sake, what are you doing there?" — the general was amazed. “I’m teaching him to be a scout,” the girl answered.
100 years later, this remark in Russian translation would sound different: “I’m teaching him to be a scout.” The word "scout" translated from English actually means "scout". At the beginning of the twentieth century, the most famous British expert in the field of military intelligence was Colonel Robert Baden-Powell. When tutorial For the soldiers, “To Help the Scout” was published; the author was under siege in the British fortress of Mayfking in Africa, on the territory of the Cape Colony. The Anglo-Boer War was going on, which turned out to be extremely painful for the British Empire. It turned out that Boer farmers were able to fight with the regular army almost on an equal footing. The siege of Mayfking lasted seven months, until May 1900, and ended with the arrival of British reinforcements.
Robert Baden-Powell had all the qualities required of a national hero. During the siege he turned 43 years old. He was handsome, with a sense of humor, a great lover of hiking, fishing and boar hunting, who wrote a whole treatise about this British pastime, an excellent draftsman, a talented storyteller and actor. This is exactly the kind of hero the British, depressed by a long and not very successful war, needed.
Subsequently, however, many noted that the Boers did not pose any serious danger to the British in Mayfking and that even, scary to say, this whole grandiose siege was partly provoked by Baden-Powell himself, who was in no hurry to break out of it. He considered his main responsibility to be making boastful reports, as well as inventing more and more funny pranks for the enemy. The Boers were most infuriated by Baden-Powell's habit of playing polo on Sundays and staging performances in front of them, during which he liked to dress up in ball gowns. Many of Mayfking's defenders later claimed that they could more easily endure the fear of death at the hands of the Boers than the inexhaustible gaiety of Baden-Powell, who was so obsessively concerned with ensuring that the besieged did not lose heart.
The teams of young scouts created in Meifking became especially famous. To free up all adult men for the defense of the fortress, Baden-Powell mobilized teenage boys to carry out minor tasks. They were proud of the trust placed in them and soon they were not only delivering important information about the enemy’s movements, but also carrying letters through the ring of the besiegers.
Baden-Powell later admitted: “I thought that the sure way to success was to develop your own, original point of view, but I discovered that I was wrong. You just have to say what society wants this moment wants to believe." Baden-Powell unmistakably felt that the public wanted a resounding victory, and the Mayfking fortress became its symbol. And the public also wanted someone to take care of the youth - puny, pimply youths, disrespectful to their elders and indifferent to the fate of the empire. And General Baden-Powell took up the education of the younger generation.
Sherlock Holmes off-road
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When the time came to choose a profession, Baden-Powell made a desperate attempt to enter Oxford, but failed. For a man of limited means, there were not many options, and Robert, following in the footsteps of his maternal grandfather, Admiral Smith, chose a military career.
After several years of service in the British colonies - in India and Afghanistan - Baden-Powell returned to England and moved into military intelligence, which, undoubtedly, was his true calling. As a scout, he visited South Africa, Turkey, Italy, the Balkans, and Russia. He later said that the rebel blacks feared and respected him so much that they nicknamed him “the wolf who never sleeps.” Subsequently, it turned out that the word, so flatteringly interpreted by Baden-Powell, is actually translated as “hyena.”
Based on his own experience, Baden-Powell developed a system for training military intelligence officers who can observe and draw conclusions from what they see, as well as navigate by the stars, make fires, spend the night in the forest and much more, just like Sherlock Holmes, but not just puffing on a pipe in office, but adapted to survival in the wild.
Baden-Powell outlined the main elements of his intelligence training system in a book, which he called “To Help the Scout.” Returning to England after the siege of Mayfking, he unexpectedly discovered that his highly specialized textbook was actively used in working with children and even in training teachers. Teachers and leaders of children's organizations began to persuade Baden-Powell to write a children's version of the manual.
First camp
Before risking acting as a teacher, Baden-Powell decided to test the effectiveness of his scheme in practice - away from prying eyes. An acquaintance invited him to set up a camp for boys on her property on Brownsea Island, south coast England. In 1907 Baden-Powell recruited a group of about 20 boys of different origins— there were his nephew Donald, the children of his friends, and also children who were complete strangers. In letters to the parents of the experiment participants, Baden-Powell explained what he would do with their children physical training, will teach them life in the forest, including providing assistance to victims, the art of observation, and instill in them discipline, chivalry and patriotism.
The children were divided into several groups - patrols - and each was assigned a commander. In the camp, each patrol had its own tent, name and color. "Wolves" wore blue stripes on their sleeves, "bulls" - green, "curlews" - yellow, "crows" - red. There were also corresponding flags with the image of an animal or bird. The schedule included rising at 6 a.m. and retiring at 9:30 p.m., camp cleanup, exercise, flag-raising parade, swimming, games, campfire stories, and prayers. Scout exercises included orientation, plant and animal recognition, knot tying, and even a night watch when Baden-Powell himself, or BP as the Scouts called him, tried to "invade" the island, and the Scouts had to track him down and stop him. .
All participants in the island adventure were very pleased with it. And the next year, the manual “Intelligence for Boys” was published, which as a result gave rise to a massive social movement. Very quickly the word “scout” became international, and its original meaning was somehow erased. By the way, after some time a similar story happened with the word “pioneer”: the discoverer forever turned into “an example to all the guys.”
Sources and components
"Reconnaissance for Boys" was published in separate issues in 1908 in the form of recordings of conversations around the fire. Even before the last issue was printed, scout patrols began to spring up spontaneously throughout England. In the book, republished in England this year, you can find a lot of advice that has lost its relevance - for example, what to do if a horse carries a cab with passengers. Nevertheless, it is immediately noticeable that Baden-Powell knew his reader very well. The example of Sherlock Holmes, the Knights of the Round Table and the warlike Zulus could not help but capture young minds. Teachers and parents are hardly mentioned in the book, but there are many songs, games and jokes. Baden-Powell plays spy with the reader so selflessly and seriously that one doubts whether this book teaches boys how to become men, or vice versa, how adults can remain children. The Boy Scout manual, like any reputable educational manual, contains lists of recommended literature, but the author himself was a slight reader. It’s not a boy’s thing to sit behind books; it’s much better to combine study with adventure.
It is worth noting that Baden-Powell willingly appropriated other people's ideas if they fit into his system. The famous Canadian writer and naturalist artist Ernest Seton-Thompson wrote a series of articles about Indian forest experts back in 1902. In the same year, during the Easter holidays, he organized an “Indian” camp on his American estate for local urchins who considered this territory theirs and therefore constantly raided the writer’s property. Instead of pursuing them, Seton-Thompson decided to take advantage of the situation and turn enemies into friends. Program document A new movement based on this experience was the book “Birch Bark Scroll of Indian Forest Experts” published in 1903. In the summer of 1906, Seton-Thompson sent it to Baden-Powell, and in the fall he himself came to England, where he gave a course of lectures and personally met the future chief scout of the world. Scout Baden-Powell, apparently, borrowed many of the laws of scouts, the very idea of a children's camp, classes devoted to the study of nature and life in the forest, from the naturalist Seton-Thompson. He eventually came to terms with this and in 1910 became the first chief scout of America. The American Scouting textbook was written one-third by Baden-Powell and two-thirds by Seton-Thompson.
Baden-Powell treated Rudyard Kipling, his good friend from his service in the colonies, more delicately. Having decided to base the program for junior scouts (“cubs”) on stories from “The Jungle Book,” he at the last moment received, at the insistence of the publishers, the formal consent of its author. So from the tales of a scout, the observations of a naturalist, forest romance and army discipline, it turned out dangerous mix— scouting.
Lucky moment
The phenomenal success of scouting was explained not only by the successful form of activities with children, found, let us assume, by Baden-Powell. While several thousand Boers resisted the British army for two and a half years, the authorities of the metropolis discovered with displeasure that the manpower available in the country was puny, sickly and absolutely not ready to defend their homeland, either morally or physically. It is not surprising that at the beginning of the new century, a movement whose task was to strengthen the physical and spiritual conditions of adolescents and, moreover, led national hero Baden-Powell, was enthusiastically supported at all levels.
After the publication of Scouting for Boys, Baden-Powell began to receive dozens of letters asking him to help organize a scout patrol, find an adult troop leader, and send a form. It was clear that the spontaneous movement needed coordination. After hesitating, Baden-Powell opened a small office in London. There was a stack of Scout hats in the room - 12 pieces, and no one hoped that they would be able to sell out quickly. However, the reality turned out to be more beautiful than the most optimistic forecasts. In 1909, King Edward VII, who had great sympathy for the new movement, knighted its founder. And by 1910, there were already about 100 thousand scouts in Great Britain alone. At this time, Baden-Powell held the position of inspector general of cavalry, but the king expressed the view that the general would bring more benefit to the homeland as a mentor to young people, and not as a career military man. Baden-Powell took the hint and resigned, devoting himself entirely to scouting.
The personal life of the confirmed bachelor and eternal boy has also changed dramatically. During one of his trips to Europe, Baden-Powell met Miss Olav Soames. In 1912, 55-year-old Baden-Powell got married. His chosen one had a full range of scouting qualities: she loved nature, hiking, riding a bike and was full of energy. “This is the most cheerful girl I know,” the general, who did not age at heart, wrote to his mother. His young wife bore him three children, actively participated in the scouting movement, and after some time replaced Robert Baden-Powell’s sister Agness as the head of the girls’ organization that arose within scouting.
Law and order
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The rule of daily good deed, which every Scout must religiously observe, has become widely known and has been a favorite source of jokes in the last century. On the posters, the boy scout was leading old Britannia across the road, who is not afraid of anything with such a gentleman, and in Wodehouse’s novels about Jeeves and Wooster, the character Edwin, the disaster boy, was always trying to do something useful at the last moment, for example, polish brown shoes with black polish Worcester.
To be always ready, you must constantly prepare. The main place of preparation is the camp. You can go to a camp for at least a day, at least for a few weeks, to the mountains or to the sea - it doesn’t matter, the main thing is that the scout will definitely learn all the intricacies of life in nature, including first aid. A rank system should encourage scouts to improve themselves. In order to turn from a sissy into a scout of the second and then the first rank, you need to pass tests in several disciplines. This is a hierarchy common to all Scouts. There are also exams in the specialty, after passing which those who wish can receive the badge of a rescuer, medic, researcher, forester, naturalist, meteorologist. Specialties are not only socially useful, but also simply useful or pleasant: artist, bookbinder, dancer, carpenter, electrician, gardener, musician, photographer.
One of the first problems of the new movement was, oddly enough, children who wanted to join it. Already in 1909, at the first big scout meeting in London, Baden-Powell was amazed to see groups of girls claiming to be Girl Scouts. The entire being of a career military man rebelled against such an invasion of purely male games. It was decided to separate the girls into a separate organization and call them guides (guides) to distinguish them from scouts. This is how girl guides appeared.
Another problem was related to age. Scouting was mainly aimed at boys 12-14 years old. But they had younger brothers, who were also eager to join scouts, and teenagers, growing up, did not want to part with the scout lifestyle. Therefore, the elders were assigned to a group of wanderer scouts (rover scouts).
War and Peace
In 1920, the first international gathering of scouts, a jamboree, took place in London. The name was suggested by BP, who once heard this word, but did not remember exactly what it meant. At the first jamboree, BP was proclaimed the chief scout of the world and remained the only holder of this title. In 1929, King George V granted him the title of baron. Lord Baden-Powell also became Gilwell in honor of Gilwell Park in the outskirts of London, where the international scout training center was located.
The social benefits of a mass movement that declared patriotism and discipline (a “factory of character” according to its creator) were obvious to both politicians and the military. It spread quickly and unhindered and did not immediately become something like a respectable club for children from families with decent incomes. Initially, it was intended to involve the poor urban population in the movement. It is no coincidence that in the first edition of Scouting for Boys, parents were absent from the list of those whom a scout must obey: they had no place in an organization that was completely totalitarian in spirit.
Baden-Powell's ideals are evident in his notes on bees: "They are a model community in that they respect their queen and kill their unemployed." No less characteristic is the image of the brick people: “If you are unhappy with your place or your neighbors, or if you are a rotten brick, you are not fit for the wall. You are even dangerous. Some bricks are high, others are at the bottom of the wall, but everyone must do their job to the best of their ability.” "It is the same with people: each of us has our own place in the world, and it is useless to be dissatisfied."
When the First World War began, the scouts showed that they were ready for it: they guarded communications, tracked down spies, and replaced adults in the coast guard. As a result, the authority and fame of the scouting movement grew, but at the same time, militaristic sentiments intensified within the movement itself. Which was one of the reasons for the break with Seton-Thompson Scouting, which insisted that the goal of the youth movement should be the education of a harmonious individual, and not future soldiers.
Baden-Powell set an example for scouts of fighting spirit and the ability to sacrifice Japanese samurai and admired German methods of education, contrasting them with British softness. In 1933, he visited fascist Italy and studied with great interest the structure of the Italian youth organization of the Blackshirts. “The new organization is built in accordance with the principles of the scout movement,” Baden-Powell said about it. However, time put everything in its place: the peaceful environmental doctrine of scouting, which Seton-Thompson personified, subsequently prevailed.
Will
The last jamboree during Baden-Powell's lifetime took place in 1937 in the Netherlands. BP was already 80, he had written more than 30 books, several universities awarded him honorary academic titles, and he had many foreign awards. There were 28 thousand Scouts at the 1937 jamboree, and many realized that they might see their main leader in last time. That same year, Baden-Powell left for his beloved Africa, Kenya, where he spent last years life. He died on January 8, 1941 and was buried in a cemetery at the foot of Mount Kenya. His name, dates of life and death and symbols of the Scout and Guide movement are engraved on the headstone.
After Baden-Powell's death, his farewell message was published. The Chief Scout's will was to "make this world a little better than you found it, and when it is your turn to die, you can die happy, knowing that at least you spent your time well and did the best you could."
The Scout movement still exists today, but does not fit well into the modern world. Baden-Powell himself is accused of misogyny, homosexual tendencies and suppression of the sexual desires of boys. A scandalous chapter entitled “Abstinence”, omitted from the first edition of “Intelligence for Boys,” was published, where Baden-Powell castigates masturbation and threatens children with the most terrible consequences of this sin, including dementia, and denotes interest in girls with a word similar to the name of the disease— "gerlitis". BP openly admitted that he enjoyed watching naked boys bathing and was obsessed with physical cleanliness, claiming that "a clean young man in the prime of health is God's most beautiful creature in this world." Baden-Powell, who until his last days appeared at all official events in scout shorts, turned from a touching eternal boy in the public consciousness into a man with severe mental and sexual problems.
His main brainchild, scouting, also ceased to be an unambiguously useful and noble cause. The first serious crisis occurred in the 60s: against the backdrop of hippies, scouts looked hopelessly outdated. It is characteristic that when in 1969 the Scout Association of Great Britain decided to modernize the movement, in particular the uniform of the turn of the century, replacing shorts with trousers, the “Old Believers” regarded this as a betrayal, broke away from the reformers and formed the Baden-Powell Scouts movement. But the uniform issue is minor compared to the lawsuits that have hit Scouts in the United States. Girls, atheists and homosexuals are seeking membership in the courts through the courts, which was originally created for boys and proclaimed loyalty to God and family values. Under pressure from the politically correct public, scouts are gradually losing ground. From a privilege that needs to be achieved and which not everyone is awarded, scouting is gradually turning into one of the forms of realizing the universal constitutional right to social activities. It is unlikely that Robert Baden-Powell would approve of this.
ANASTASIA FROLOVA
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The founder of scouting, Robert Stevenson Smith Powell, was born on February 22, 1857 in London in the family of a priest and professor of theology at Oxford University, Baden Powell. He did not remember his father, since he died when Robert was only three years old. The widowed Henrietta Grace, daughter of Admiral W. Smith, had to raise seven children alone, of whom the eldest was 14 years old. In memory of her husband, she changed the family's surname to Baden-Powell (hence the shortened form of his surname - BP, as scouts informally call him). She was a strict and demanding mother. Children not only had to serve themselves from an early age, but also had certain responsibilities around the house.
In 1870, Robert entered the London school - “Charterhouse School”. He was a good football goalkeeper, but not a particularly good student. His classmates loved him for his cheerful character and his exceptional ability to copy his teachers. During the holidays, Robert and his four brothers went to travel around England for the whole summer.
BP did not have enough stars in his studies, which was the reason for his failure to enter Oxford University. I had to think about other possible prospects, for example, the army. The method of replenishing the army's officer corps, then accepted in England, provided for a series of exams and tests for applicants. And here Stevie showed himself in all his brilliance - out of 718 candidates he came fifth. And so at the age of 19, after graduating from school, Robert passed the officer's exam, received the rank of junior lieutenant and was appointed to the 13th Hussars. His military service took place in India and Afghanistan. At the age of 26 he became captain.
Receiving a modest salary, Baden-Powell began to earn extra money by writing articles for magazines, illustrating them with his own drawings.
After eight years of service in the colonies, Baden-Powell returned to England, where he joined military intelligence. In 1915, he published a book of memoirs, “My Spy Adventures,” in which he described his adventures in a fascinating manner and illustrated them himself.
Pretending to be an old butterfly collector, Baden-Powell inspected Austrian fortifications in the Balkans. He skillfully disguised his sketches as images of butterflies. He visited Turkey, Italy and other countries, including Russia.
This was in 1886. Maneuvers took place in Krasnoye Selo, during which new searchlights and a new military balloon were to be tested. Robert Baden-Powell and his brother managed to enter the restricted area without much difficulty. William Hilcourt's biography of Baden-Powell says: "They greeted everyone who was greeted by everyone, and passed by the sentries, who asked them nothing." When the guards left for lunch, the brothers were able to get a good look at the balloon gondola, and then remained in the restricted area until the evening to observe the tests of the searchlights. Both the searchlights and the balloon did not seem as interesting to them as they expected.
On the last day of the maneuvers, the brothers wanted to see the “attack” of the fort (Baden-Powell calls it “Nikolin”). One of the brothers watched the attackers of the fort, and the other watched its defenders.
On the way back, when it was already dark, the brothers were detained on the road by officers accompanying the royal carriage. They tried to explain that they were Englishmen who were going to railway station and got lost in the darkness. They asked the officers who detained them to help them get there, but instead they were taken to St. Petersburg. There they were put under house arrest in one of the hotels, from where they later escaped without much difficulty.
That Baden-Powell was a talented spy is evidenced by another book he wrote immediately after returning from South Africa in 1901. It’s called “To Help Scouts.” It gave general tips on methods of observation and deduction to improve the quality of training of soldiers. In addition to purely military advice, other requirements for an intelligence officer formulated by the BP are noteworthy here: he must be strong, healthy, active, a real intelligence officer has good vision and hearing, he is a good rider and swimmer, knows how to explore and read his surroundings. All these requirements were later presented to young scouts (scout translated from English as scout). This book was a manual for the training of English military intelligence officers; it soon received universal recognition from specialists, was translated into Russian and published in 1902 by the St. Petersburg publishing house of V. A. Berezovsky, a commission agent for military educational institutions. Abroad, this book went through several editions and was translated into many languages. In the preface to the English edition of 1915, Baden-Powell wrote: “The Russians, who previously believed in the “machine theory,” have now also switched to individual training, which consists in raising an intelligence officer in every soldier.”
In 1887 Baden-Powell was sent to South Africa, where blacks put up desperate resistance to the British colonialists. He took part in suppressing the uprising of the Zulu, Ashanti and Matabela. In his memoirs, Baden-Powell later wrote that because of his sudden attacks, the blacks nicknamed him “The Wolf that Never Sleeps.”
With officials from the Protectorate regiment,
formed in 1899 in anticipation of the war in South Africa.
In 1899, Baden-Powell was promoted to colonel and appointed commandant of the Mafking fortress, an important strategic and administrative point and railway junction. Mafking was located in the Cape Colony, near the border of Bechuanaland, a British protectorate.
The Boer War began on October 12, 1899; Boers from the Transvaal surrounded Mafking. The siege lasted seven months (217 days), until 17 May 1900, when Field Marshal Lord Roberts, advancing on the Transvaal capital Pretoria, expelled special squad to free Mafking.
The garrison consisted of 1,250 men, but Baden-Powell mobilized all men capable of bearing arms. Among them were boys 12-14 years old. Of the most efficient, a detachment of scouts was formed, who were tasked not only with observing enemy positions, but also with carrying letters through the ring of Boers besieging the fortress.
In 1901, Colonel R. Baden-Powell was promoted to major general, and in 1908 to lieutenant general.
After the Boer War, BP returned to his homeland in England after many years of absence. One of the heroes of the war, he became very popular. Letters from children came to him from all over the British Empire. He traveled a lot around the country, giving lectures, attending parades of cadets and “brigades,” and corresponding with children and teenagers. Baden-Powell drew attention to the difference between English boys in Africa and London. It was a surprise for BP to learn that his manual “To Help Scouts” is used not only by the military, but also by teachers working with children in cadet corps, the “Boys’ Brigade” (since 1902 he became the vice-president of this “Brigade”) and church mugs. One day, W. Smith approached him with a proposal to revise the book “To Help Scouts” for children and teachers.
In the summer of 1906, BP received the book “Birch Whistle” by mail from the Canadian naturalist and writer Ernest Seton-Thomson. The author's appeal argued that the ills of society could be cured by the simple, natural life of a primitive tribe. The book aroused keen interest among BP.
In 1906 - 1908, having carefully studied the works of Pestalotia, Epictetus, Titus Livy, analyzing the experience of education among the Spartans, African tribes, Japanese samurai, the traditions of the British and Irish peoples, as well as his military experience as a scout and military man, Baden-Powell began working on book (“Intelligence for Boys”). It was written in the form of fireside chats.
Before publishing it, Baden-Powell decided to test his theories in practice. To do this, he gathered a group of 22 boys and spent 8 days with them in the summer of 1907 in a tent camp on Brownsea Island, off the south coast of England (Dorset). The children were divided into five patrols, each led by a designated leader. The eight-day program was intense and vibrant. On the first day, deployment was carried out, patrols were created and responsibilities were distributed, and leaders were instructed. On the second day, camp activities were studied: knitting knots, making fires and cooking, orienteering, and they also did not forget about hygiene. On the third day, BP taught to recognize details environment near and far from the observer, for example, footprints. The fourth day was devoted to the study of animals, birds, plants, and stars. Fifth - chivalry: honor, laws, loyalty to the king, officers, chivalrous attitude towards women (this BP was taken from the traditions of the knightly monastic order of St. John on the island of Malta, where he served in 1890–1893, as well as from the legend of knights Round Table King Arthur). On the sixth day, the children learned to provide assistance in case of burns, fainting, poisoning, and to act in times of panic. On the penultimate day, BP gave the children concepts about colonial geography, history, the glorious deeds of the empire, its army and navy, and explained the responsibilities of a real citizen. The last day is the day of games and competitions. Of course, there were no lectures at this camp. BP conveyed all the information to the children in an entertaining, playful way. First he showed and told, and then conducted practical classes. Everyone liked the camp, and at the beginning of 1908 the book “Scouting for Boys” was published in six separate notebooks.
The need for out-of-school education for teenagers has been felt for a long time, and many attempts have been made to create children's organizations in different countries, but what Baden-Powell proposed turned out to be the most suitable.
BP tried to fit the entire children's world into one book and give the child advice that might come in handy someday. That is why all the theoretical and practical material in the book was arranged according to topics - conversations: from “Scout Laws”, “Tracking”, “Comfort in Camp”, “How to Become Strong”, “The Nobility of Knights”, “What to Do During Accidents” to “Sobriety”, “How to Build Bridges”, etc. Emphasis is placed on developing the citizenry through small groups led by older children and guided by adults. BP aroused enthusiasm in children. No one had previously advised them to whistle in difficult moments and not to be a snob (9th law).
In the early years, the scout laws were dominated by the style of duty, service, and responsibility. For example, the first law: “A scout’s honor must be trusted” had an explanation: “If a scout dishonored his honor by telling a lie or failing to accurately carry out an order given in trust in his honor, he must return his badge and never wear it again. He may also be completely excluded from scouting.” Law two required the child to be faithful to everyone, including his parents. Law three - the duty to help others and be useful, law 7 required obedience, law 8 - ordered to whistle when receiving an order. In this general atmosphere Laws 4, 5, 6, which deal with politeness, love for animals, and frugality, did not fit in. Therefore, in 1911, a tenth law was added to the nine: “The Scout is pure in thought, word and deed.” He slightly adjusted the style of the laws.
Children's groups began to spring up spontaneously throughout the country, using his book as a basis for their work. BP began to receive a lot of letters in which adults and children demanded clarification, comments and advice. And BP gave up. After consultation with his friends, he established a Correspondence Bureau. With the participation of A. Pearson, the newspapers “Scout” (for children) and “Headwater Gazette” (for instructors) began to be published. The first detachments appeared in North London, and in the spring of 1908, the whole of England was covered with a network of spontaneously arising detachments. Then the movement spread to the colonies. A year later, King Edward VII received the first parade of fourteen thousand scouts from England. In 1909, the first Girl Scout groups appeared. The Scout Association of Great Britain received its legal status by a king's charter on January 4, 1912, and since then the next monarch has confirmed it with a special Act.
At the end of December 1910, General Baden-Powell arrived in St. Petersburg. O. I. Pantyukhov and V. G. Yanchevetsky, the founder of the legion of “young intelligence officers” in St. Petersburg, learned about this from the newspapers and hastened to meet the author of the book “Young Intelligence Officer”. Baden-Powell invited his new acquaintances to visit England and get acquainted with the organization of scouting work on the spot, and he himself soon left for an audience with Emperor Nicholas II, and then to Moscow, where a banquet was held in his honor by local “young scouts”. Baden-Powell did not have time to get acquainted with intelligence work in St. Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo.
In 1910, Robert Baden-Powell and his sister Agnes founded a separate organization for girls, the Girl Guides, and in the same year, King Edward VII persuaded Robert Baden-Powell to resign in order to devote himself entirely to working with the Boy Scouts. In 1910 there were more than 123,000 Boy Scouts in Great Britain and its colonies, scouting work began in the USA, Holland, Italy, Finland and other countries, and in 1911 scouting spread to almost all European countries.
After retiring, BP began to travel a lot around Europe. During these travels, BP met Olav Soames, a pretty, active girl. If the general owed his upbringing to his mother, then his future wife, on the contrary, loved sports, hiking, cycling, and nature thanks to her father. In 1912 they got married and, despite the large age difference, lived happily. They had two girls and one boy. At first, BP’s sister Agness tried to lead the Girl Scout movement, but gradually Olav replaced her at the helm of the girl’s organization.
The First World War, which soon broke out, divided the scouts into two warring camps. On one side there were Germany and Austria-Hungary, on the other - England, France, Russia and their allies. Scouts on both front lines honestly performed their duty.
After the war, Baden-Powell took up the task of bringing together the youth of all countries and reconciling the warring peoples with even greater energy. For this purpose, the first international scouting meeting was organized in London in 1920, called the Indian word “jamboree,” in which representatives of 32 countries took part. On the last day of the jamboree, August 6, 1920, Baden-Powell was elected Chief Scout of the World. After the international scout jamboree, the International Boy Scout Bureau was created in London.
On August 30, 1922, the Organization of Russian Scouts Abroad, headed by Senior Russian Scout O.I. Pantyukhov, was accepted as a member of this bureau.
According to the rules of the bureau, each state could be represented by only one organization. If there were several scout organizations, they had to unite into a federation.
The second condition of membership was the separation of boys from girls. Mixed troops of boys and girls were prohibited by international scouting rules.
Baden-Powell was a man of exceptional energy. In 1922, he was granted a baronetcy for his scouting activities, and in 1929, the title of “Baron of Gilwell” (Gilwell is the place where Baden-Powell organized courses for scout leaders).
Baden-Powell has written many books about working with scouts. After my own famous book“Scouting for Boys”, intended for leaders of boys 12-16 years old, he published the “Wolf Cubs Handbook” in 1916 (a guide for working with wolf cubs - boys 7-11 years old), and in 1922 - “Rovering to Success” ( journey to success) about working with young men over 17 years old, who in the scouting organization were called “Rovers”. These are only three of Baden-Powell's main manuals on scouting, and there were many more in total.
The last Jamboree in which BP took part was in 1937 in Holland.
In 1937, when Baden-Powell's health failed and doctors prescribed him complete rest, he and his wife moved to Kenya (Africa). He lived there from October 1938 until his death on January 8, 1941, a month and a half before his 84th birthday.
Baden-Powell is buried in the local cemetery, and the road to the cemetery is named after him. The Kenya Scouts installed a memorial plaque at the house where Baden-Powell lived and died.
In 1938, BP was nominated for competition Nobel Prize, but the war prevented the solution of this issue.
It is said that today BP is the most widely read British author in the world after Shakespeare, and his Scouting for Boys has sold worldwide copies in this century, second only to the Bible.
D. Hargrave once remarked that Huckleberry Finn was always hiding in BP’s nature, that there was something in him that could be called “Boy Poltergeism.” Many, many children from a rationalized and dead-boring world flocked to Scouting after him.
THE LAST MESSAGE OF THE CHIEF SCOUT OF THE WORLD
Dear scouts!
If you have seen the play-performance “Peter Pan”, then you remember how the leader of the pirates always gave his dying speech, fearing that when the time to die passed, he would not have the opportunity to say everything that was in his soul. It's the same with me, although I'm not dying at the moment, I still want to send you a farewell message.
Remember, this is the last time you will hear from me, so think about it.
I had the most happy life, and I wish each of you to also have a happy life.
I believe that God placed us in this joyful world to be happy and enjoy life.
Happiness doesn't come from being rich or having great success in your career or thinking highly of yourself. One step to happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are still young, so that you can be useful in life and can enjoy life when you are an adult.
By studying nature, you will see what beauty and amazing things God has created for us so that we can admire and enjoy. Be happy with what you have and make the best of it. Look for the bright side in everything, instead of the dark - sad.
But to have real happiness, you must also give happiness to other people. Try to leave this world a little better than you found it, and when your time comes to die, you can die with the happy feeling that you did not waste your time, but did the best you could. “Be Prepared” in this direction - live happily and die happily - always stand firm on your Scout Solemn Promise - even after you are no longer a boy - and God will help you with this.
Your friend,
Baden - Powell of Gilvert.
Literature
1. Kudryashov Yu.V. Russian scout movement. Historical sketch. (Scientific ed.). – Arkhangelsk: Pomorsky Publishing House state university, 1997
2. Polchaninov R.V. KNE notes. San Francisco, 1997
3. II category ORUR. Publishing house RGK ORYUR, 2000
4. Course material for the training of scout leaders “History of the Scout Movement” Chapter 2. From the SCM archive. O.E. Levitsky, Santa Rosa, California, April 1995
From the site materials
, Great Britain
Lord Robert Stephenson Smith Baden-Powell(English) Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, ["beɪdən "pəʊəl]; 22 February - 8 January) - British military leader, founder of the Scout movement and the Guide movement. Less known as a writer and artist.
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Origin
Born in Paddington (London), February 22, 1857, was the sixth of eight sons. His family was not entirely ordinary. His father, an Anglican priest George Baden-Powell was also professor of theology and geometry at Oxford University. The mother was the daughter of the British admiral William Smith. Robert's grandfather, Joseph Brewer Smith, once went to America as a colonist, but then returned to England and was shipwrecked on the way home. In addition, the name Robert Stephenson is the name of his godfather, who was the son of the world famous inventor George Stephenson. Thus, the blood of a priest and the son of a colonist - a brave adventurer - flowed in Baden-Powell's veins at the same time.
early years
When Robert was three years old, his father died, leaving his mother with seven young children. Mother, Henrietta Grace, was strong woman, confident that her children will succeed. Baden-Powell would say about her in 1933: “The main secret of my success belongs to my mother.” She tried to raise all her children to be cheerful, physically resilient and independent. Long journeys on his own sailboat together with four brothers along the waters of the sea coast at any time of the year and in any weather and hunting in the forest strengthened Robert's body and character and instilled a love of nature.
BP developed the idea of scouting quite carefully - he wanted to make sure that it was viable. Therefore, in the summer of 1907, he gathered a group of 22 boys and organized the first scout camp on Brownsea Island, located in the English Channel. This camp was a great success.
Scouting for boys
After this, in 1908, BP published the first scouting textbook, Scouting for Boys, in six two-week parts, with his own illustrations. Most likely, BP never dreamed that this book would give rise to the world’s largest youth movement and would be read by tens of millions of young people in hundreds of languages in all corners of the world (it was soon translated into 35 languages). As soon as “playing for kids” began to appear in shop windows and magazine kiosks, scout clubs began to spread en masse in England and many other countries of the world.
BP's second life
The new youth movement was constantly developing and by 1910 had reached such proportions that BP realized that scouting should become his life's work. His fertile imagination and complete confidence created the belief that he could do much more for his country by training the youth to be good citizens of the country than by training a small number of men for future wars. King Edward VII of Great Britain advised Baden-Powell to leave military service, believing that by spreading his method of education, he would be much more useful to his homeland. BP left the army and began to fully live “the other life,” as he called it, a life dedicated to serving the world through Scouting.
World Scout Fraternity
In 1912, Baden-Powell set off on a trip around the world to meet scouts in different countries. This was just the beginning of Scouting as a worldwide brotherhood. And although the First World War interrupted the development of Scouting for some time, with its end it continued to grow, and in 1920 Scouts from all over the world met for the first time at the World Scout Jamboree (meeting) in London. On the last evening of this Jamboree, August 6, a cheerful group of multilingual Scouts proclaimed BP Chief of the Scouts of the World.
The scouting movement continued to grow. On the day of its 21st anniversary, it already had more than 2 million members in most countries on Earth. King George V honored BP by ennobling him with the title "Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell". However, for all the scouts, he forever remained BP, the Chief of the Scouts of the World.
After the London Jamboree came the turn of the second, which took place in Denmark in 1924, then the third in 1929 in England, the fourth in 1933 in Hungary, the fifth in 1937 in Holland. But the Jambories were only part of Scouting's efforts for world brotherhood. BP traveled a lot, continued correspondence with scout guides in many countries and constantly wrote on educational topics, illustrating his articles and books with his own drawings. He wrote “Textbook for Wolf Cubs” (1916), “My Adventures in the Scout Service” (1916), “Textbook for Scoutmasters” (1920), “What Scouts Can Do” (1921), “The Journey for Success” (1922). In total, BP wrote 32 books. They talk about him as an outstanding military man, writer, artist, actor; he was also interested in amateur cinema; an excellent organizer, honorary doctor of six universities, recipient of 28 foreign and 19 scouting awards and honors, Baden-Powell himself was a shining example of versatile self-education for scouts.
: [in 18 volumes] / ed. V. F. Novitsky [and others]; 1911-1915, vol. 4).
She is 23, he is 55. She is an unknown, unremarkable young lady, a lover of hiking and cycling. He is a hero of the recent Anglo-Boer War, a lieutenant general, and the leader of the world youth movement. Her name was Olav Soames. His name is Robert Baden-Powell. in 1912 they married and Olav Soames became Lady Olav Baden-Powell.
Not much is known about their family. That we met in the same year 12, on the ship “Arcadia”. That, despite the age difference, they lived happily. That the family had three children - two girls and a boy. But the main thing is that his love for scouting was passed on to her - Olav turned out to be good friend to her husband and constant assistant in his work. Two people, having united their destinies, became inseparable in their service to youth.
Back in 1910, Robert Baden-Powell, together with his sister Agnes, founded a separate organization for girls - “Girl Guide” (girl guides). But gradually it was Olav who replaced her at the helm of the girls’ organization. This most likely did not happen right away, but the fact remains that the active Olav led the international Girl Scout movement.
In 1920, the First World Scout Jamboree took place. It was there that Robert Baden Powell was proclaimed the Chief Scout of the World. The subsequent international scout events confirmed that this was not only an honorary title: the scouts saw BP as a real Leader. The shouts of greeting when he arrived at meetings and the silence when BP raised his hand confirmed that he could capture the hearts and imaginations of his followers in many countries. At the third Jamboree, the Prince of Wales announced that BP would be granted a peerage. All the scouts greeted this news with great joy. BP subsequently received the title of Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell. Gilwell Park becomes an international training center created by the Founder of the Scout Movement to train Scout leaders.
What about Olav? In 1919 Olav Baden-Powell formed International Council, to provide essential connections among Girl Scouts. The council became an advisory body composed of women. First international Conference was held in England in 1920, and already in 1930 Olav was elected Senior Guide of the World. Thus, from the very beginning, the female component of the world scout movement developed independently both in content and in organizational plan. There is no doubt that Olave Baden-Powell put a lot of effort into this. By 1931, the number of guides and girl scouts in the world had already exceeded 1 million people
In 1937, when Baden-Powell's health failed and doctors prescribed him complete rest, he and his wife moved to Kenya. He lived there from October 1938 until his death on January 8, 1941, a month and a half before his 84th birthday.
Baden-Powell was buried in a local cemetery in Nyeri (Kenya), and the road to the cemetery was named after him. Olav survived him by 36 years and died in 1977. Until the end of her days, she remained faithful to the cause to which her husband was faithful - the education of youth. Olave Baden-Powell was buried there, in Kenya, next to Robert.
When talking about loving spouses, they usually say: “They lived happily ever after and died on the same day.” One can say about Robert and Olav a little differently: “They lived happily ever after because they were born on the same day.” And for many years, every year, on this day, February 22, all the scouts of the world gather for the Day of Reflection. To answer one single question - what does it mean to be a scout.
