Founder's Day

Sir Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, Lord of Gilwell, Chief Scout of the World (Image courtesy of Wikipedia).

Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell was born in Paddington, London, England, on this day in 1857. He is the founder of the worldwide Scouting movement.

He developed a handbook called "Aids to Scouting," as a reconnaissance manual duing the Boer War, where its skills were brought to bear in defending a garrison at Mafeking for 217 days, until reinforcements arrived. After the war, and upon learning of the book's popularity with young boys seeking outdoor adventure, he re-worked it to his newfound audience, and re-titled it "Scouting for Boys." In August of that year, on an island off the English coast known as Brownsea, he led an experimental training camp for twenty boys of various walks of life. Dividing them into patrols, developing team-building exercises, and teaching various "scoutcraft" skills, the experiment was a success.

The rest, as they say, is history. Today is known as "Founder's Day" by Scouts around the world. Among Girl Guides (including Girl Scouts in the USA), it is also honored as the birthday of B-P's wife, Olave, the foundress of Girl Guiding, and is known as "Thinking Day." A century after the year of Brownsea, Scouting and Guiding now have a combined membership of over 38 million in 216 countries.

B-P died on 8 January 1941, and is buried in Nyeri, Kenya, near Mount Kenya. On his tombstone is the image of a circle with a dot in the center, the old trailmarker's sign meaning, "I have gone home."

More information on the "Chief Scout of the World" can be found at the Pine Tree Web site.


Scouts and Guides from different countries on World Scout Moot, Sweden, 1996 (Image courtesy of Wikipedia).