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Lieutenant General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell served in the British Army from 1876 until 1910. For part of that time he served in South Africa during the second Boer War. He wrote several books, particularly about being able to find out where and what the enemy was doing. Such work was known as scouting.
In 1907 he held a camp on Brownsea Island in Dorset for young boys. The following year he wrote a book called “Scouting for Boys”. I think you can tell where this is going because, in 1910, Baden-Powell (and all his other names) retired from the army and set up the Boy Scouts Association. The first Scout rally was held in 1909 and, so it is reported, some girls turned up dressed in Scout uniforms and said they were “Girl Scouts”. So, in 1910, along with his sister, Agnes Smyth Baden-Powell, they set up the Girl Guides.
There are now over 31 million scouts and guides around the world and it all started from one man serving in the army and deciding to run a camp on an island in England. See what you can find out about scouting from their website.
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