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Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell

Lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, founder and Chief Scout of the Scout Movement (1857-1941)

  • Fame67.0
  • Momentum0.0
  • Wikipedia37.1K
Source-basedStable
Lived 1857–1941, aged 84United Kingdom
United Kingdom flagUnited KingdomWritersWriter / Author
  • Wikipedia
    79 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Era
    1857–1941
    Aged 84
  • Awards
    29
    recognised works
Summary
Updated 2026-06-08

He turned a military field manual into the largest youth movement in history. Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys — written to train reconnaissance soldiers — landed in the hands of schoolboys and ignited something its author hadn't quite planned: millions of children pledging oaths under canvas.

Biography

About

Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell joined the British Army in 1876 and served in India and Africa until 1910, rising to Lieutenant-General. His 1899 defense of Mafeking during the Second Boer War made his name, but his reconnaissance handbooks — Aids to Scouting chief among them — had a stranger afterlife: teachers and youth groups began using them with boys. In August 1907 he ran an experimental camp on Brownsea Island to test whether his scouting methods could work for civilians, then published Scouting for Boys the following year. It spread fast. By 1909 girls in Scout uniform were showin…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell

Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell
said
Leave this world a little better than you found it.
— Baden-Powell's Last Message (1941)
Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell
said
The most worth-while thing is to try to put happiness into the lives of others.
— Letter (September 1940)
Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell
said
Somewhere about 1893 I started teaching Scouting to young soldiers in my regiment.
— "BE PREPARED", Listener Magazine (1937)
Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell
said
Happiness is not mere pleasure, not the outcome of wealth. It is the result of active work rather than passive enjoyment of pleasure.
— How to be happy though rich or poor (1930)
Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell
said
If a man cannot make his point to keen boys in ten minutes, he ought to be shot!
— The Scouter (November 1928); Reprinted in Footsteps of the Founder (1987)
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
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Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Stable
67.0
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Historical25.3
Source confidence65.0
Completeness75.0
Global rank
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Receipts

Sources

  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence