The
founder of Scouting Lord Baden–Powell of Gilwell, (BP) was born in 1857 in
England. He lived a busy and adventurous life, and as a boy spent much of his
spare time in open–air pursuits hunting in the woods, joining his brothers in
expeditions by land and in their boats. Thus he developed his powers of
observation and resourcefulness and was helped to acquire many useful skills.
He won a scholarship which gave him entry into the Army, where he was sent
to India and served for many years. He tried out his ideas of training
soldiers in "Scouting" and taught them how to develop experience in
stalking and fending for themselves, and to be observant of all signs that
would give them an advantage as soldiers. He set down his ideas in the book
"Aids to Scouting", which was used as a textbook for many years. As a soldier, BP rose to public prominence during the war against the
Boers in Africa at the end of the 1800's. Most noteworthy was BP's leadership
of the defending force in siege of the South African town of Mafeking.
Baden-Powell returned to England as a national hero in 1899 having
successfully defended the town against the Boers. The First Scout Camp Scouting For Boys! In fact, "Scouting for Boys ranks third in the world's best sellers
after the Bible and Shakespeare. Although the year 1908 marks the official beginning of the Scouting Movement,
Scouting really commenced with the Brownsea Island Camp in August 1907. Every other Wednesday until the end of March, boys (and girls) all over
England eagerly awaited the next issue of Scouting for Boys. The Movement is born Two years, later Baden-Powell retired from the army as a General to devote
his life to this new movement called Scouting. A rally at the Crystal Palace,
London drew together 10,000 boys. Meanwhile Scouting spread to Australia, New Zealand, and India in 1908 and
other countries followed shortly after. Chile, in 1909 was the first country
outside the Empire to start, followed closely by France, the Scandinavian
countries and the United States in 1910. In 1937, 2,500,000 Scouts from
nearly 50 countries were affiliated with the International Bureau, which was
set up to safeguard Scouting and to prevent control drifting into the hands
of the purely religious, political or military bodies. Wood
Badge Training of Leaders commenced in 1919 at Gilwell Park, England and
has over the years become established as the method of Leader Training
throughout the Scouting World. World Chief Scout He was described as The Piper of Pax because of his
tremendous contribution to boyhood and world peace. Today, the world's largest youth organisation |