Selamat Datang ke Laman Pengakap Daerah Kulim.1. BP Talks
2. BP Story
Lord Robert Baden-Powell of Gilwell (1857-1941) was a decorated soldier, talented artist, actor and
free-thinker. Best known during his military career for his spirited defense of the small South
African township of Mafeking during the Boer War, he was soon to be propelled to extraordinary
fame as the Founder of Scouting.
GROWING UP
Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, known as B-P, was born at 6 Stanhope Street (now 11, Stanhope Terrace) Paddington, London on 22nd February 1857. He was the sixth son and the eighth of ten children of the Reverend Baden Powell, a Professor at Oxford University.
His father died when B-P was only three years old and the family were left none too well off.
B-P was given his first lessons by his mother and later attended Rose Hill School, Tunbridge Wells, where he gained a scholarship for admittance to Charterhouse School. Charterhouse School was in London when B-P first attended but whilst he was there it moved to Godalming in Surrey, a factor which had great influence later in his life. He was always eager to learn new skills and played the piano and the violin. While at Charterhouse he began to exploit his interest in the arts of scouting and woodcraft.
In the woods around the school B-P would hide from his masters as well as catch and cook rabbits, being careful not to let tell-tale smoke give his position away. The holidays were not wasted either. With his brothers he was always in search of adventure. One holiday they made a yachting expedition round the south coast of England. On another, they traced the Thames to its source by canoe. Through all this Baden-Powell was learning the arts and crafts which were to prove so useful to him professionally.
Not known for his high marks at school, B-P nevertheless took an examination for the Army and placed second among several hundred applicants. He was commissioned straight into the 13th Hussars, bypassing the officer training establishments. Later he became their Honorary Colonel.
3. The Last Years of BadenPowell
In 1938, suffering from ill-health, B-P returned to Africa, which had meant so much in his life, to live in semi-retirement at Nyeri, Kenya. Even there he found it difficult to curb his energies, and he continued to produce books and sketches.
On January 8th, 1941, at 83 years of age, B-P died. He was buried in a simple grave at Nyeri within sight of Mount Kenya. On his head-stone are the words “Robert Baden-Powell, Chief Scout of the World” surmounted by the Boy Scout and Girl Guide Badges. Lady Olave Baden-Powell carried on his work, promoting Scouting and Girl Guiding around the world until her death in 1977. She is buried alongside Lord Baden-Powell at Nyeri.
