Lord Baden Powell
The Boer war – Англо-Бурская война;
Brownsea Island Brownsea Island- Браунси - самый крупный из восьми островов в заливе Пул у английского берега Ла-Манша;
Lord Baden Powell (1857-1941) was a British general and founder of the
modern Scouting movement. He studied
at Charterhouse school and served in the British army from 1876 -1910. He
became a national hero during the Boer
war* of 1899-1900 when, with a small garrison, he commanded the defence of
Mafeking. It was during the Boer war that Baden Powell wrote down a guide to Scouting. Initially meant
for military purposes, after the war
he felt it could be used as a focus for young boys to give them more meaning in
life.
First Scout Camp and Foundation of Scouting Movement
In August 1907, Baden Powell
organized a scouting camp to be made up of 20 boys from a diverse social background. They spent a week on Brownsea Island** and it proved to be a
great success. From this initial starting point, the scouting movement soon
blossomed and within a few years had become a national institution.
In 1910, a parallel
organization The Girl Guides was founded, and later run by his sister. The Scouting movement also became an
international phenomenon with scouting groups forming around the world.
Unfortunately, the First World War temporarily destroyed much of this
international feeling; instead the Scouts used much of their training in the trenches on the Western Front.
However, in 1920, two years after the end of the First
World War, an international scouting convention was held in Olympia where Baden
Powell was declared Chief Scout.
He retired from the Scouting
movement in 1937. After retirement,
in 1938, he returned to Africa where he lived at Nyeri***, Kenya.
He died in 1941 at the age of
83. He was buried in Nyeri in sight of Mount Kenya. On his headstone are the words “Robert
Baden-Powell, Chief Scout of the World” surmounted by the Boy Scout and
Girl Guide Badges.
In his last letter to the
Scouts, he wrote: “I have had a
most happy life and I want each one of you to have a happy life too. I believe
that God put us in this jolly world to be happy and enjoy life. Happiness does
not come from being rich, nor merely being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence.
Try and leave this world a little better than you
found it and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at
any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best. ‘Be Prepared’
in this way, to live happy and to die happy — stick to your Scout Promise
always — even after you have ceased to be a boy — and God help you to do it.”
I. Match the definition with the words in bold.
1. the time when you stop working, especially because you have reached the age when you are officially too old to work, or the act of doing this;
2. a long narrow open hole dug in the ground used by soldiers to protect themselves from enemy attack;
3. a book about a particular subject or type of activity;
4. the practice of allowing yourself to have or to do something special that you like very much, often something that you should not have or do;
5. a piece of stone with a name and dates on it that marks a grave;
6. to control and organize something such as a business, organization, or event;
7. relating to armies or armed forces and the way in which they are organized;
8. a group of people who share the same goal and work together to achieve it;
9. very different from each other.
2. a long narrow open hole dug in the ground used by soldiers to protect themselves from enemy attack;
3. a book about a particular subject or type of activity;
4. the practice of allowing yourself to have or to do something special that you like very much, often something that you should not have or do;
5. a piece of stone with a name and dates on it that marks a grave;
6. to control and organize something such as a business, organization, or event;
7. relating to armies or armed forces and the way in which they are organized;
8. a group of people who share the same goal and work together to achieve it;
9. very different from each other.
Answer the questions
1. When
did Lord Baden Powell write down a guide to Scouting?
2. What
event is considered to be the starting point of the Scouting Movement?
3. Who
was the head of the Girl Guides?
4. Why
did the Scouting Movement become an international phenomenon?
5. When
was the First World War over?
Discuss in pairs
What does “a
happy life” mean from the point of view of Lord Baden
Powell? Do you agree with him? Why? Why not?
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