Robert’s first camp scouted for success
JULY 29, 1907
AS soon as he held his first demonstration camp, Robert Baden-Powell was almost guaranteed success.
Although the first scout rally would take another couple of years, that early attempt at Brownsea Island scout camp is seen as the event that started a movement now familiar to millions.
Brownsea was at Poole Harbour, and Baden-Powell thought it up to test his ideas for a book, Scouting For Boys, which would be published in 1908.
The man himself had become a national hero during the Boer War, for the defence of Mafeking in particular, when cadets aged between 12 and 15 were used to relay messages.
Bowled over by the way they went about the vital task, and by their courage, Baden-Powell began thinking seriously about what would become a worldwide scouting movement.
After Brownsea Island and the book, 1909 saw the first scout rally at The Crystal Palace, an event that also included girls dressed in scout uniform.
Robert and his sister, Agnes, would soon form the Girl Guides from this idea, another movement that would grow swiftly and make countless young lives that bit better.
As his own father had died when Robert was just three, his later exploits say a lot about his
mother, who seems to have been a special woman.
She was determined to see her kids get on in life, and BadenPowell would say of her: “The whole secret of my getting on lay with my mother.”
As a kid himself, he was a decent pianist and could get a tune out of a violin, was a good artist, and loved acting.
Yachting and canoeing thrilled
him, and he was always pushing himself to find his limits.
It’s said, however, that his first taste of scout-like behaviour was learning to stalk and cook game in the woods, while avoiding his teachers, as this part of town was out of bounds!
A highly-decorated soldier, he was a lieutenant with the 13th Hussars and learned more skills among the Zulu.
Although he was aged 57 by the time the Great War began, he was quick to offer his services.
It’s said that Lord Kitchener believed there would be better use for him with the scouts.
Kitchener was reported to have said he “could lay his hand on several competent divisional generals, but could find no one who could carry on the invaluable work of the Boy Scouts”.
He became a national hero during the Boer War