Ancestor Details
Name of Ancestor: Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell
Ancestor's date of birth: 22/02/1857
Ancestor's date of death: 08/01/1941
Cause of Death: Natural Causes
Service Number: Officer - no number
Colony or State of enlistment: Not an Australian - was already serving in the British Army in South Africa.
Rank attained in Boer War: Major General Date Effective: 1899
Highest Rank attained (if served after war): Lieutenant General Date Effective: 1910
Decorations: Ashanti Star (1895), Matabele Campaign, British South Africa Company Medal (1896), Queen's South Africa Medal (1899), King's South Africa Medal ( 1902), Boy Scouts Silver Wolf, Boy Scouts Silver Buffalo Award (1926), World Scout Committee Bronze Wolf (1935), Order of Merit (1937), Wateler Peace Prize (1937), Order of St Michael and St George, Royal Victorian Order, Order of the Bath
Personal Characteristics: Detail not provided
Reasons to go and fight: A serving officer of the British Army in South Africa
Details of service in war: He was responsible for the organisation of a force of frontiersmen to assist the regular army. While arranging this, he was trapped in the Siege of Mafeking, and surrounded by a Boer army, at times in excess of 8,000 men. Although wholly outnumbered, the garrison withstood the siege for 217 days. Much of this is attributable to cunning military deceptions instituted at Baden-Powell's behest as commander of the garrison. Fake minefields were planted and his soldiers were ordered to simulate avoiding non-existent barbed wire while moving between trenches. Baden-Powell did most of the reconnaissance work himself.
During the siege, a cadet corps, consisting of boys below fighting age, was used to stand guard, carry messages, assist in hospitals and so on, freeing the men for military service. Although Baden-Powell did not form this cadet corps himself, and there is no evidence that he took much notice of them during the Siege, he was sufficiently impressed with both their courage and the equanimity with which they performed their tasks to use them later as an object lesson in the first chapter of "Scouting for Boys". The siege was lifted in the Relief of Mafeking on 16 May 1900.
Service and life after the Boer War: After Mafeking he was promoted to Major-General, and became a national hero. After organising the South African Constabulary, the national police force, he returned to England to take up a post as Inspector General of Cavalry in 1903. In 1907 he was appointed to command a division in the newly-formed Territorial Force.
In 1910 Lieutenant-General Baden-Powell decided to retire from the Army reputedly on the advice of King Edward VII, who suggested that he could better serve his country by promoting Scouting.
On the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Baden-Powell put himself at the disposal of the War Office. No command, however, was given him, for, as Lord Kitchener 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. It was widely rumoured that Baden-Powell was engaged in spying, and intelligence officers took great care to inculcate the myth.
General Baden-Powell was the much revered founder of the international scouting movement.
Descendant Details
Name of Descendant: Michael Baden-Powell, Camberwell VIC
Relationship to Ancestor: GrandsonName of Descendant: Alexender Baden-Powell, Redcliffe Qld
Relationship to Ancestor: Great GrandsonName of Descendant: Kylah Baden-Powell, Redcliffe Qld
Relationship to Ancestor: Great Great GranddaughterName of Descendant: Akane Baden-Powell, Redcliffe Qld
Relationship to Ancestor: Great Great GranddaughterName of Descendant: Rani Baden-Powell, Redcliffe Qld
Relationship to Ancestor: Great Great GranddaughterName of Descendant: David Robert Baden-Powell, Brunswick East VIC
Relationship to Ancestor: GrandsonName of Descendant: Myles Warrington Baden-Powell, FITZROY Vic
Relationship to Ancestor: GrandsonName of Descendant: Wendy Dorothy Lillian Baden-Powell, Camberwell Vic
Relationship to Ancestor: Granddaughter
