BADEN-POWELL AT THE MOST IMPORTANT TIME IN HIS SCOUTING CAREER BADEN-POWELL (Robert, Lord, 1857-1941, Defender of Mafeking & Founder of the Boy Scouts)

Exceptional early postcard photo signed "Robert Baden Powell" and dated with an autograph amendment next to the printed title "Chief of Scouts Lt Genl Baden Powell", he has overwritten the initials which must have been 'CB' with 'K.C.B.', the image shows him three quarters length in ceremonial scouting uniform & hat, leaning on a staff, 5½" x 3½", no place, November

On his return from Africa in 1903, Baden-Powell found that his military training manual, Aids to Scouting, had become a best-seller, and was being used by teachers and youth organisations. Following his involvement in the Boys' Brigade as Brigade Secretary and Officer in charge of its scouting section and with encouragement from his friend, William Alexander Smith, Baden-Powell decided to re-write Aids to Scouting to suit a youth readership. In August 1907 he held a camp on Brownsea Island to test out his ideas. About twenty boys attended: eight from local Boys' Brigade companies, and about twelve public school boys, mostly sons of his friends.
Baden-Powell was also influenced by Ernest Thompson Seton, who founded the Woodcraft Indians. Seton gave Baden-Powell a copy of his book The Birch Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians and they met in 1906. The first book on the Scout Movement, Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys was published in six instalments in 1908, and has sold approximately 150 million copies as the fourth best-selling book of the 20th century.
Boys and girls spontaneously formed Scout troops and the Scouting Movement had inadvertently started, first as a national, and soon an international phenomenon. The Scouting Movement was to grow up in friendly parallel relations with the Boys' Brigade. A rally for all Scouts was held at Crystal Palace in London in 1909, at which Baden-Powell discovered the first Girl Scouts. The Girl Guide Movement was subsequently formalised in 1910 under the auspices of Baden-Powell's sister, Agnes Baden-Powell. Baden-Powell's friend Juliette Gordon Low was encouraged by him to bring the Movement to the United States, where she founded the Girl Scouts of the USA.
He was made a Companion of the Bath in 1900 and in 1909 elevated to the rank of Knight Commander of the Bath.

Item Date:  1909

Stock No:  55082      £1250

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