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Scouting for a better world
He was a soldier and war hero who had been praised by Queen Victoria herself. But Robert Baden-Powell considered himself a man of peace, and he had a great idea for building a better world.
During the war in South Africa in 1899, Baden-Powell had managed the impossible. He and 1,000 men had saved the village of Mafeking from a long siege by 6,000 enemy soldiers. They succeeded because Baden-Powell had trained his soldiers in the unique scouting skills he had mastered himself—field survival, how to judge the land, and how to be runners and lookouts, working together as a trusted team.
After the war, Baden-Powell thought these skills would help young people. In 1907, he took a group of 20 boys on a camping trip to the English island of Brownsea, where he taught them outdoor survival skills, teamwork and the value of fair play. This experiment was so successful that Baden-Powell soon wrote a book called Scouting for Boys. Suddenly, all over Britain and around the world, boys and girls began organizing themselves into Scouting groups. The Boy Scouts came to Canada in 1908, and the Girl Guides were formed soon after.
For the rest of his life, Baden-Powell and his wife, Olave, promoted the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides. They hoped that young people all over the world would develop bonds of friendship and understanding, so international conflicts would one day be solved peacefully. In honour of this goal, Canada Post issued a domestic rate (52¢) stamp to celebrate 100 years of Scouting.
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