Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB, KStJ, DL (/ˈbeɪdən ˈpoʊəl/ BAY-dən POH-əl;[3] 22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941) was a British Army officer, writer, founder of The Boy Scouts Association and its first Chief Scout, and founder, with his sister Agnes, of The Girl Guides Association.

After his father died in 1860, his mother, to identify her children with her late husband's fame, styled the family name Baden-Powell.

Baden-Powell's first introduction to outdoor skills was through stalking and cooking games while avoiding teachers in the nearby woods, which were strictly out-of-bounds.

He enhanced and honed his military scouting skills amidst the Zulu in the early 1880s in the Natal Province of South Africa, where his regiment had been posted, and where he was mentioned in dispatches.

In 1890, he was brevetted Major as military secretary and senior aide-de-camp to the Commander-in-Chief and Governor of Malta, his uncle General Sir Henry Augustus Smyth.

[24] This was a formative experience for him not only because he commanded reconnaissance missions into enemy territory in the Matopos Hills, but because many of his later Boy Scout ideas took hold here.

[25] It was during this campaign that he first met and befriended the American scout Frederick Russell Burnham, who introduced Baden-Powell to stories of the American Old West and woodcraft (i.e., Scoutcraft), and here that he was introduced to Montana Peaked version of a western cowboy hat, of which Stetson was a prolific manufacturer, and which also came to be known as a campaign hat and the many versatile and practical uses of a neckerchief.

[14] Baden-Powell was accused of illegally executing a prisoner of war in 1896, the Matabele chief Uwini, who had been promised his life would be spared if he surrendered.

Although instructed to maintain a mobile mounted force on the frontier with the Boer Republics, Baden-Powell amassed stores and established a garrison at Mafeking.

[32][35] Ultimately, his failure to understand properly the situation, and abandonment of the soldiers, mostly Australians and Rhodesians, at the Battle of Elands River Pakenham claimed led to his being removed from action.

[31][32] Briefly back in the United Kingdom in October 1901, Baden-Powell was invited to visit King Edward VII at Balmoral, the monarch's Scottish retreat, and personally invested as Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB).

[41] While holding this position, he was instrumental in reforming reconnaissance training in British cavalry, giving the force an important advantage in scouting ability over continental rivals.

During this appointment, Baden-Powell selected the location of Catterick Garrison to replace Richmond Castle which was then the Headquarters of the Northumbrian Division.

[44] On 19 February 1909, facing censure for his public comments about Germany as an enemy, Baden-Powell abruptly sailed in the SS Aragon via Portugal and Spain to South America.

The Belfast Newsletter reported that when in March 1909 he visited Santiago de Chile for three days, "He was given a warmer reception than had ever been afforded a foreigner in South America.

Further for Powell, Rhyme it with Noel 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,[49] including Charlotte Mason's House of Education.

[52][53] Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys was published in six installments in 1908 and has sold approximately 150 million copies as the fourth best-selling book of the 20th century.

Another passenger was Juliette Gordon Low, an American who had been running a Guide Company in Scotland and was returning to the U.S.A. Baden-Powell encouraged her to found the Girl Scouts of the USA.

[58] In 1929, during the 3rd World Scout Jamboree, he received as a present a new 20-horsepower Rolls-Royce car (chassis number GVO-40, registration OU 2938) and an Eccles Caravan.

[63] Nazi Germany banned Scouting, a competitor to the Hitler Youth, in June 1934, seeing it as "a haven for young men opposed to the new State".

[66] Based on the regime's view of Scouting as a dangerous espionage organisation, Baden-Powell's name was included in "The Black Book", a 1940 secret list of people to be detained following the planned conquest of the United Kingdom.

[75] Baden-Powell published books and other texts during his years of military service both to finance his life and to generally educate his men.

[83] Compilations and excerpts comprised: Baden-Powell also contributed to various other books, either with an introduction or foreword, or being quoted by the author, A comprehensive bibliography of his original works has been published by Biblioteca Frati Minori Cappuccini.

[87] In January 1912, Baden-Powell was en route to New York on a world speaking tour, on the ocean liner SS Arcadian, when he met Olave St Clair Soames.

The small one-room house, which he named Paxtu, was located on the grounds of the Outspan Hotel, owned by Eric Sherbrooke Walker, Baden-Powell's first private secretary and one of the first Scout inspectors.

[14] Walker also owned the Treetops Hotel, approximately 10 miles (17 km) out in the Aberdare Mountains, often visited by Baden-Powell and people of the Happy Valley set.

[118]: 113  In 1931, Baden-Powell received the highest award of the First Austrian Republic (Großes Ehrenzeichen der Republik am Bande) out of the hands of President Wilhelm Miklas.

Police believed it was on a list of monuments to be destroyed or removed,[128] and that it was a target for protestors due to perceptions that Baden-Powell had held homophobic and racist views.

[132] Following opposition to its removal,[133] including from residents, and past and present scouts, some of whom camped nearby to ensure it stayed in place, BCP Council had the statue boarded up instead.

[134] Mark Howell, deputy leader of the BCP Council was quoted as saying, "It is our intention that the boarding is removed at the earliest, safe opportunity.