Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2014 0:05:19 GMT
5. THE WOLF THAT NEVER SLEEPS Robert Baden Powell
It was the Matabele people who gave Robert Baden Powell the name Impeesa meaning 'the wolf that never sleeps'. It was their tribute to an intelligence officer who fought against them in the rising of their people and who seemed to know as much about tracking, surprise, and the ways of the wild as they did themselves. His later worldwide service derived in the beginning, from those experiences.
Robert Baden Powell born 1857. was in his middle eighties when he died, and was buried among the uplands of Kenya, where his grave looks across the valley to the snows of Mount Kenya.
Many men have lived more than one life, few have lived two lives so distinct yet inter-related, or begun a new career in their fifties which was to alter the history of men so dramatically.
School was hard discipline, with occasional lapses into slapstick comedy when he used his considerable skill as an actor.
Going into the army instead of going to Oxford after coming second in the cavalry examinations, his first 25 years of service life were never short of interest or excitement. A spell in India and then in South Africa, ended with a return to Britain.
Holidays on the Continent, led for a while, to his becoming a spy, when his old passion for play-acting asserted itself. After a walking tour with his brother, he went eastwards through Germany on his own. The Franco-German war was over-- but what would follow next? Wearing an Austrian hat with a feather in the brim, with a walking stick, a limp and a curious German accent he turned into a Central European sightseer instead of a British officer.
He penetrated behind the German lines, watched the military manoeuvres and was a guest in an officers mess before he was finally unmasked.
Even then he managed to escape He did so again when he penetrated a German dockyard and lay on top of a wall while his pursuers ran below it, as he had done on tree branches to avoid detection in the woods at Charterhouse.
As an artist in the Balkans and in fishermen's clothing in the Dardenelles, he breached the defences of Eastern Europe and Turkey.
It occurred to him from time to time that this was real BOYS OWN PAPER stuff --- and how much the boys would have enjoyed it!.
In the South African War spying was a more serious business, and more dangerous. He learned the secrets of the African trackers themselves, and often beat them at their own skills.
He used his talents against the Boer armies. In a little manual intended for training intelligence officers in the Army he set down what he had learned and published AIDS TO SCOUTING. Courage, intelligence, quick wits, an acquaintance with tracks, skies,maps and charts, a knowledge of animals and men were not merely aids but essentials, and they were all there.
It was in the war that Baden-Powell rose unknowingly to fame, for he was besieged in Mafeking with a civilian population and a tiny garrison for 7 months. When he returned to England he was a hero. Everyone wanted to see him and listen to him. The boy's magazine GREYFRIARS, persuaded him to write some articles, and his name became even more widely known, He discovered that one of his talents was to interest boys, and perhaps to inspire them to new idealism. To his astonishment he found that the principal of a ladies teacher training college at Ambleside, in the Lake District, had got hold of a copy of his AIDS TO SCOUTING and was using it with her students.
So far these were merely different skeins of experience. It was the founder of another famous organisation that would give the twist that would turn into a rope with which B.P. would be bound to boys for ever.
Because he was not only a famous soldier but also an acknowledged Christian, he was invited to Glasgow to speak at a Boy's Brigade Rally. Afterwards he had long talks with William Alexander Smith, the founder of B.B. Two things emerged. The first was a suggestion by Smith that he should re-write his book under the title SCOUTING FOR BOYS .
The other was a concern that both men shared, that while the Brigade served boys that came to Church and were prepared to attend Bible Class there was a far greater number, even at the beginning of the century, who had no connection what ever with the church. Should not something be done for them ?
In 1907, B.P, - he was to become known everywhere by those simple initials, – took a party of some 30 boys, to Brownsea Island, in Poole Harbour, on the south coast of England, some from two local BB Companies, and some from his own relatives from public schools. There he put into practice some of the things that he had written. He saw, that given the right conditions, social differences quickly disappeared, shy boys showed unexpected signs of leadership and even those who had little to do with formal religion had an awareness of God.
Scouting, unplanned, had begun.
At the age of 51, B.P, started a new career.
Within a few years a haphazard idea had grown into an organisation, complete with South African hats, badges for achievement [ which B.P, had first used with his soldiers in India], a code of behaviour – a good turn to be done every day – and a basic rule. This rule was “To Honour God and the King”.
B.P. Lived in an age when patriotism was undiminished, but he soon began to make it clear to his Scouts that a love for one's own country must be matched by an appreciation of other people's cultures and inheritance.
Scouting began to 'go international' very soon after it was born.
So swift was it's growth and so evident it's influence for good that by 1910 a Scout Rally, had been arranged in Windsor Great Park. Unhappily King Edward the Seventh was almost dying at the time the arrangements were in hand. Yet, standing outside the bedroom door, B.P. heard the King's word of encouragement and his charge to carry on. The Rally took place and Prince George [ later King George the Fifth ] held the inspection.
Finally, in 1912, the Boy's Scouts were granted a Royal Charter.
Two huge wars came and went, drenching the world with horror and blood, but Scouting survived, lived on, and flourishes still with millions of Scouters, Scouts and Cub-Scouts in well over 100 countries to which a younger group was later added Beavers.
The wars created division and hatred between the nations. But Scouting remained a bond of union and understanding.
Few occasions demonstrated so clearly the ideals of Scouting as the World Jamboree held at Arrowe Park, in Birkenhead in 1929. There, 56,000 scouts and scouters forming an immense wheel of friendship, each spoke consisting of thousands of boys, radiating outwards from the centre, and B.P. stood at the hub of the wheel. He took a hatchet and thrust it into a barrel of earth. He cried out loudly
“Here is the hatchet of war, of bad feeling, of enmity. I bury it now in Arrowe” then he lifted a bundle of golden arrows and they were passed one by one from hand to hand down the long columns of the spoke of the wheel and B.P. spoke again
“Today I send you from Arrowe into all the world. Bearing this symbol of peace and fellowship on the wings of sacrifice and service. Carry it fast and far so that all men may know the Brotherhood of Man.
Within a few short years war had broken out again in Europe. The Youth of Germany were united into a new movement, the Hitler Youth. Across the Communist world young people were united into the Communist Youth League movement especially in Russia, and China. Japan and Italy, took up war and the USA became the cavalry brought in to end it, but today in all those countries there are growing Scout movements.
The Centenary of Scouting brought an even bigger World Jamboree, and regional continental Jamborees continue around the planet.
What began in a little town in South Africa, and in an army unit it India, and joined with a gang of boys playing soldiers in Scotland, and boys doing first aid and lifesaving in Nottingham formed the BB, the BLB, The CLB and then Scouting to which was added the GLB and Guiding for Girls, and Brownies and Rainbows. Now Scouts accept girls as well as boys.
Long may this movement last and spread until every boy and girt on the planet has the opportunity to share in its programmes.
////////////////////
OUR NATIONAL YOUTH SERVICE The aim being a place for every one
B.L.B = Boys Life Brigade which merged eventually with B.B. and there was also a GLB = The Girls Life Brigade , now the Girls' Brigade
There were too the CLB. The Church Lads Brigade, and the Church Lasses Brigade which are now united operating within the Church of England. At one time in the 19th century before Scouting got going there was too a Roman Catholic Boys Brigade and a Jewish Boys Brigade.
Today too since early in the 20th century we have the Sea Scouts, the Army Cadet Force, the Air Training Corps Cadets and the Red Cross Cadets, the St John's Ambulance Brigade Cadets and their junior movement Badgers, the Fire Service Cadets, and many other Christian and Secular Youth organisations including Campaigners, the Sunday Schools Movement, Crusaders, Woodcraft Groups, and the National Association of Boys and Girls Clubs. The Duke of Edinburgh Awards Scheme has branches operating in many schools.
The Princes Trust formed by Prince Charles does a great deal of valuable work helping to create jobs, careers training and business starts for young people.
Along with many youth movements in all the major sports, including all the Sunday Youth Football Leagues.
/////////////////////////
It was the Matabele people who gave Robert Baden Powell the name Impeesa meaning 'the wolf that never sleeps'. It was their tribute to an intelligence officer who fought against them in the rising of their people and who seemed to know as much about tracking, surprise, and the ways of the wild as they did themselves. His later worldwide service derived in the beginning, from those experiences.
Robert Baden Powell born 1857. was in his middle eighties when he died, and was buried among the uplands of Kenya, where his grave looks across the valley to the snows of Mount Kenya.
Many men have lived more than one life, few have lived two lives so distinct yet inter-related, or begun a new career in their fifties which was to alter the history of men so dramatically.
School was hard discipline, with occasional lapses into slapstick comedy when he used his considerable skill as an actor.
Going into the army instead of going to Oxford after coming second in the cavalry examinations, his first 25 years of service life were never short of interest or excitement. A spell in India and then in South Africa, ended with a return to Britain.
Holidays on the Continent, led for a while, to his becoming a spy, when his old passion for play-acting asserted itself. After a walking tour with his brother, he went eastwards through Germany on his own. The Franco-German war was over-- but what would follow next? Wearing an Austrian hat with a feather in the brim, with a walking stick, a limp and a curious German accent he turned into a Central European sightseer instead of a British officer.
He penetrated behind the German lines, watched the military manoeuvres and was a guest in an officers mess before he was finally unmasked.
Even then he managed to escape He did so again when he penetrated a German dockyard and lay on top of a wall while his pursuers ran below it, as he had done on tree branches to avoid detection in the woods at Charterhouse.
As an artist in the Balkans and in fishermen's clothing in the Dardenelles, he breached the defences of Eastern Europe and Turkey.
It occurred to him from time to time that this was real BOYS OWN PAPER stuff --- and how much the boys would have enjoyed it!.
In the South African War spying was a more serious business, and more dangerous. He learned the secrets of the African trackers themselves, and often beat them at their own skills.
He used his talents against the Boer armies. In a little manual intended for training intelligence officers in the Army he set down what he had learned and published AIDS TO SCOUTING. Courage, intelligence, quick wits, an acquaintance with tracks, skies,maps and charts, a knowledge of animals and men were not merely aids but essentials, and they were all there.
It was in the war that Baden-Powell rose unknowingly to fame, for he was besieged in Mafeking with a civilian population and a tiny garrison for 7 months. When he returned to England he was a hero. Everyone wanted to see him and listen to him. The boy's magazine GREYFRIARS, persuaded him to write some articles, and his name became even more widely known, He discovered that one of his talents was to interest boys, and perhaps to inspire them to new idealism. To his astonishment he found that the principal of a ladies teacher training college at Ambleside, in the Lake District, had got hold of a copy of his AIDS TO SCOUTING and was using it with her students.
So far these were merely different skeins of experience. It was the founder of another famous organisation that would give the twist that would turn into a rope with which B.P. would be bound to boys for ever.
Because he was not only a famous soldier but also an acknowledged Christian, he was invited to Glasgow to speak at a Boy's Brigade Rally. Afterwards he had long talks with William Alexander Smith, the founder of B.B. Two things emerged. The first was a suggestion by Smith that he should re-write his book under the title SCOUTING FOR BOYS .
The other was a concern that both men shared, that while the Brigade served boys that came to Church and were prepared to attend Bible Class there was a far greater number, even at the beginning of the century, who had no connection what ever with the church. Should not something be done for them ?
In 1907, B.P, - he was to become known everywhere by those simple initials, – took a party of some 30 boys, to Brownsea Island, in Poole Harbour, on the south coast of England, some from two local BB Companies, and some from his own relatives from public schools. There he put into practice some of the things that he had written. He saw, that given the right conditions, social differences quickly disappeared, shy boys showed unexpected signs of leadership and even those who had little to do with formal religion had an awareness of God.
Scouting, unplanned, had begun.
At the age of 51, B.P, started a new career.
Within a few years a haphazard idea had grown into an organisation, complete with South African hats, badges for achievement [ which B.P, had first used with his soldiers in India], a code of behaviour – a good turn to be done every day – and a basic rule. This rule was “To Honour God and the King”.
B.P. Lived in an age when patriotism was undiminished, but he soon began to make it clear to his Scouts that a love for one's own country must be matched by an appreciation of other people's cultures and inheritance.
Scouting began to 'go international' very soon after it was born.
So swift was it's growth and so evident it's influence for good that by 1910 a Scout Rally, had been arranged in Windsor Great Park. Unhappily King Edward the Seventh was almost dying at the time the arrangements were in hand. Yet, standing outside the bedroom door, B.P. heard the King's word of encouragement and his charge to carry on. The Rally took place and Prince George [ later King George the Fifth ] held the inspection.
Finally, in 1912, the Boy's Scouts were granted a Royal Charter.
Two huge wars came and went, drenching the world with horror and blood, but Scouting survived, lived on, and flourishes still with millions of Scouters, Scouts and Cub-Scouts in well over 100 countries to which a younger group was later added Beavers.
The wars created division and hatred between the nations. But Scouting remained a bond of union and understanding.
Few occasions demonstrated so clearly the ideals of Scouting as the World Jamboree held at Arrowe Park, in Birkenhead in 1929. There, 56,000 scouts and scouters forming an immense wheel of friendship, each spoke consisting of thousands of boys, radiating outwards from the centre, and B.P. stood at the hub of the wheel. He took a hatchet and thrust it into a barrel of earth. He cried out loudly
“Here is the hatchet of war, of bad feeling, of enmity. I bury it now in Arrowe” then he lifted a bundle of golden arrows and they were passed one by one from hand to hand down the long columns of the spoke of the wheel and B.P. spoke again
“Today I send you from Arrowe into all the world. Bearing this symbol of peace and fellowship on the wings of sacrifice and service. Carry it fast and far so that all men may know the Brotherhood of Man.
Within a few short years war had broken out again in Europe. The Youth of Germany were united into a new movement, the Hitler Youth. Across the Communist world young people were united into the Communist Youth League movement especially in Russia, and China. Japan and Italy, took up war and the USA became the cavalry brought in to end it, but today in all those countries there are growing Scout movements.
The Centenary of Scouting brought an even bigger World Jamboree, and regional continental Jamborees continue around the planet.
What began in a little town in South Africa, and in an army unit it India, and joined with a gang of boys playing soldiers in Scotland, and boys doing first aid and lifesaving in Nottingham formed the BB, the BLB, The CLB and then Scouting to which was added the GLB and Guiding for Girls, and Brownies and Rainbows. Now Scouts accept girls as well as boys.
Long may this movement last and spread until every boy and girt on the planet has the opportunity to share in its programmes.
////////////////////
OUR NATIONAL YOUTH SERVICE The aim being a place for every one
B.L.B = Boys Life Brigade which merged eventually with B.B. and there was also a GLB = The Girls Life Brigade , now the Girls' Brigade
There were too the CLB. The Church Lads Brigade, and the Church Lasses Brigade which are now united operating within the Church of England. At one time in the 19th century before Scouting got going there was too a Roman Catholic Boys Brigade and a Jewish Boys Brigade.
Today too since early in the 20th century we have the Sea Scouts, the Army Cadet Force, the Air Training Corps Cadets and the Red Cross Cadets, the St John's Ambulance Brigade Cadets and their junior movement Badgers, the Fire Service Cadets, and many other Christian and Secular Youth organisations including Campaigners, the Sunday Schools Movement, Crusaders, Woodcraft Groups, and the National Association of Boys and Girls Clubs. The Duke of Edinburgh Awards Scheme has branches operating in many schools.
The Princes Trust formed by Prince Charles does a great deal of valuable work helping to create jobs, careers training and business starts for young people.
Along with many youth movements in all the major sports, including all the Sunday Youth Football Leagues.
/////////////////////////