We're forgetting an important birthday today!

No, not that one!

Today marks the birthday of Robert Stevenson Smyth Baden-Powell, founder of the international Boy Scout movement. Born in 1857, he went on to a career in the military, where he became a hero for his brilliant defense of Mafeking in South Africa against the Boers. For this he was honored by Queen Victoria, and made a general at a very young age. His outdoor and survival skills employed during that defense were compiled in a book entitled Aids to Scouting, which proved to be so popular among British boys, that he revised an edition tailored to their needs, known as Scouting for Boys. Then in August of 1907, on the island of Brownsea off the British coast, he led a group of twenty boys for several days of outdoor games and skill training. Thus began the phenomenon known as Boy Scouting.

The movement spread to the USA in 1910, after taking over much of Europe, and beyond. His wife, the former Olave Saint Claire Soames, was the founder of the Girl Guide movement (known as Girl Scouting in the USA).

As his service to Scouting and the Crown continued, he was elevated to the ranks of nobility, and was declared Lord of Gilwell. Before his death in 1941, brother Scouts had already gathered from around the planet to proclaim him "Chief Scout of the World."

Found among his papers after his death, was his farewell message to brother Scouts around the world, an excerpt of which follows:

"Remember, it is the last you will ever hear from me... I have had a most happy life and I want each one of you to have as happy a life too... [t]he real way to get happiness is by giving out happiness to other people. Try and leave this world a little better than you found it and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best..."

Everything else you could want to know about the man known to brother Scouts as "B-P" can be found at the The Pine Tree Web.