Ian Hislop's Scouting for Boys


Ian Hislop's Scouting for Boys

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At the beginning of the Edwardian era, boys of Britain were in danger.

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Unhealthy, unmotivated and under bad influences.

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They were in trouble and needed help.

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Many feared that if they didn't get it, the nation's morality would be fatally undermined

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and the Empire would rapidly decline and fall.

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Salvation came in the unlikely shape of a book.

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It was written by a war hero but was a manual for peace.

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It aimed to mould men but celebrated being a boy.

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It influenced the lives of millions, and it introduced a code of common values around the globe.

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Its name was Scouting For Boys.

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The Scouts are a British institution,

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so much part of the national consciousness that we imagine they've been going forever.

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But actually, scouting didn't win over the nation's affections gradually.

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It was an overnight sensation.

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It all began in 1908 with a best-selling handbook.

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In the 20th century, only the Bible, the Koran

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and the thoughts of Chairman Mao sold more copies than Scouting for Boys.

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How to make buttons out of bootlaces.

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How to fly Britain's flag.

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The boy who apes the man by smoking will never be much good.

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The book is definitely not the expression of a systematic ideology.

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Instead, it is a ragbag of disparate ideas

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held together only by the personality and experiences of one man,

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scouting's maverick founder and Boar War hero, Robert Baden Powell.

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He is pro British Empire but anti men with waxed moustaches.

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And he's completely obsessed by boots.

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It's surprising how much meaning you can read from the boot.

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To wear your heels down on the outside, means that you're a man of imagination and lover of adventure.

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But heels worn down on the inside signify weakness and indecision of character.

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He may have had some peculiar ideas, but Baden Powell was also very charismatic.

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Hello, you boy in the corner there, you ought to be a boy scout.

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You're a fine looking fellow and I know you'd make a jolly good backwoodsman, by the look of you.

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You're ugly enough, anyway.

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Actually, I was never in the Boy Scouts.

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I think at that age I was probably too busy making jokes about Baden Powell's Scouting for Boys...is he?

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Naughty old Baden Powell! Not realising that wasn't a very new joke,

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and that it's always been easy to laugh at Baden Powell and at the Scouts,

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and it's become something of a national tradition to do exactly that.

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But I found re-reading Scouting For Boys, it is an extraordinary book.

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It's very radical and it addresses all sorts of issues that we think

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of as modern - citizenship, what to do with disaffected youth, social responsibility.

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But it's very eccentric, very Edwardian and very English,

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and that's what appealed then, and that's what appeals to me now.

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To try and get the measure of the man behind the movement, I'm off to see the current Lord Baden Powell.

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-Hello.

-Hello, how nice to see you.

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Do come in.

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-Here it comes.

-Very old fashioned, isn't it?

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What's he doing?

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He's doing his daily exercises.

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I mean, there's no question he was quite a nutcase, really in some ways!

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Throughout his life he'd always got

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this thing he'd got to keep himself up to scratch, as he called it.

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And he was quite preoccupied by personal health all the time.

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And you knew him?

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Well, yes. I was a very little boy.

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-Is that you?

-That's me at the age of four.

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When my mother was having her second child I was shovelled off to Kenya and I spend three months with them.

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All I remember is, like a lot of children,

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I was like a rattling cage, I was always asking questions and it was "shut up, shut up, go and play."

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But for the first time in my life somebody said, "Oh yes, I'll explain that to you"

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and I do remember this incredible interest in little boys,

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and I mean that in the nicest way.

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-Yes, well, it's almost impossible to say it now.

-Absolutely.

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He could mentally bring himself down to their level and explain things to them in words of one syllable.

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Simple as that, really.

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The first step towards success in training your boy is to know something about boys in general.

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It is well to recall so far as possible what your ideas were when a boy yourself.

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Robert Baden Powell was born in 1857,

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the son of a professor of geometry at Oxford University and the eighth in a family of 10 children.

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The kind of person who was going to invent the Boy Scout which was a very odd institution, I think

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is the sort of boy who would have been thrown on his own resources

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in a way at an early age.

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Baden Powell, when he was only three, lost his father.

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And he became obsessed with the idea of what was said that fathers say to boys that makes them manly later on.

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His widowed mother was, however, pushy enough to get him the best available training as a man.

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He was accepted on a scholarship to one of England's leading public schools, Charterhouse.

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Life here offered Baden Powell a wealth of new experiences.

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Most of them, however, well away from the classroom.

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Outside the school walls was the copse.

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It was here I used to imagine myself a backwoodsman trapper and scout.

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I used to creep about warily looking for signs

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and getting close-up observation of rabbits, squirrels, rats and birds.

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At Charterhouse, Baden Powell also witnessed a well-established scheme

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for turning feckless boys into responsible men.

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Baden Powell was influenced by the prefect system here, but it's not called prefects, is it?

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-It's a monitorial system.

-A monitorial system, right.

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So tell me, what is your role? What do you do?

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It is our duty to almost act as quasi teachers

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when teachers are not there.

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So it's our job to look after children

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and make sure that they are feeling comfortable within the school.

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We don't look at ourselves as policemen, we look at ourselves as carers.

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Oh right, that sounds a very thought-through line. Have you said it before?

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I've never said that before, no.

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In the Scouts, Baden Powell would transform prefects into patrol leaders.

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Give full responsibility

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and show full confidence in your patrol leaders.

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Expect a great deal from them, and you'll get it.

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The whole ulterior object of the scheme is to form character in the boys.

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To make the manly,

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good citizens.

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Baden Powell would devise other ways to introduce the public school ethos into the Scouts.

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England's young gentlemen had long been taught that good sportsmanship was not just for the playing field.

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It was an attitude for the whole of life.

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This sentiment was expressed in a popular poem, Vitae Lampada by Henry Newbolt.

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Scouting for Boys gives instructions for acting it out in a show.

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The sand of the desert is sodden red.

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Red with the wreck of the square that's broke.

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The gatling's jammed and the Colonel dead, and the regiment blind with dust and smoke.

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The river of death has brimmed its banks and England's fire and honour remain.

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The voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks.

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Play up, play up, and play the game!

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It's the ultimate Victorian public school poem - the equation of playing field and battlefield.

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The Empire as a great game.

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All wrapped up in as sentimental hymn to decent, understated patriotism.

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It is ridiculous, of course.

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But hugely effective.

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Baden Powell wanted to use it to inspire boys of every class.

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Many Edwardians assumed public school values were the privilege of public schoolboys.

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But Baden Powell was more ambitious.

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Baden Powell wanted scouting to cross to traditional class divides,

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which he called artificial, anyway.

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His vision was not just for boys from the cloister, but boys from the inner-cities.

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The fourth Scout law states that "a scout is a friend to all"

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and underneath that it says, in big letters, "a scout must never be a snob".

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For a man of his class, Baden Powell's insistence that all scouts

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were equal may have been surprising, but it was genuine.

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At this time, cricketers at Lords went in through different entrances -

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players and gentlemen.

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And " It's not cricket" is a phrase that denotes everything

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that we like to think of as British fairness but, society in Edwardian England was anything but fair.

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And he had a pretty good gut feeling that that was so.

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At the same time he was frightened by the Labour Party.

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So he had these two sort of almost schizophrenic, opposite ideas to motivate him.

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We are all socialists, in that we want to see the abolition of the existing brutal anachronism of war

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and of extreme poverty and misery shivering alongside superabundant wealth, and so on,

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but we do not quite agree as to how it is to be brought about.

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Baden Powell was very worried by what he called

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professional agitators, going round, stirring up trouble.

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He writes, "there are a lot of men howling about their rights,

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who have never done anything to earn their rights.

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Do your duty first, and you will get your rights afterwards.

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I was once accused of mistrusting men with waxed moustaches.

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Well, so, to a certain extent, I do.

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It often means vanity, and sometimes drink.

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But why should anyone listen to the thoughts of Baden Powell?

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Well, because he was the most famous man in Britain.

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This is just the tip of the iceberg of all the merchandise devoted to celebrating Baden Powell.

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It is all here - there is the Baden Powell alarm clock, Baden Powell shaving mirror,

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Baden Powell spoons ,

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Baden Powell egg cup.

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There is an ostrich egg,

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painted with the face of Baden Powell.

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The Baden Powell's cigars.

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He would have hated that, because he hated smoking.

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And it wasn't just artefacts - there was music to accompany them.

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Here we have the Baden Powell March - "a patriotic song for Our Hero, BP."

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Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah, whizz-bang, whizz-bang.

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Lots of rhyming of the word "fought" with "jolly good sort".

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Why was he so ridiculously famous?

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Well, he was the heroic defender of Mafeking,

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a small town in South Africa.

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# Hurrah, oh be free for who they have fought

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# Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah

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# He's just the right sort

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# Our hero, BP

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# Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! #

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Baden Powell was the surprised recipient of national fame and military glory.

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After school, he joined the Army and for over 20 years served diligently, right across the empire.

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He was never a standard-issue military man.

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Instead he was fascinated by a form of reconnaissance work, known as scouting.

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The covert scrutiny of an area, to gather information.

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It needed initiative, observation skills, and self-reliance,

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and Baden Powell excelled at all of them.

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He gained a reputation as a bit of a maverick.

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But became one of the army's youngest colonels.

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In 1899, the Boer war broke out.

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Baden Powell was sent to South Africa,

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under orders to engage the enemy in the north of the region, with the help of local recruits.

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It soon became clear that the advancing Boers had superior manpower,

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so Baden Powell decided to hold out in the town of Mafeking.

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Even 70 years later, Baden Powell's exploits at Mafeking can inspire small boys.

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Including me - I wrote a project about the Boer War when I was 11.

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I wrote, "Baden Powell, though remembered for the Boy Scouts,

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"is hardly ever given credit for his defence of Mafeking."

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Not strictly true.

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But controversial openings are very important in histories.

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"He got the men to obey him to the letter, and they succeeded, doing as they were told.

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"He baffled the enemy with bluff and tactics."

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And here he is.

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About to do it.

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Right from the outset, Baden Powell was heavily outnumbered.

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There were about 2,000 armed men in Mafeking.

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1,100 of them white, the rest, native.

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Only about a quarter of all of them had any sort of military training.

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These lot were facing 6,000 Boers.

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This was no ordinary engagement.

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And it tested Baden Powell as a leader and as a strategist.

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It also crystallised the ideas that would later form the core of Scouting for Boys.

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Baden Powell was assisted in his defence of the town by an unlikely force, a group of boys,

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gathered together before the siege started.

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They became a sort of unofficial cadet corps.

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They performed a vital role, taking messages between the various defenders.

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Often on bicycles and under fire.

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In later life Baden Powell would recount the stirring story

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of the cadets at Mafeking to inspire English boys.

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I said to one of these boys on one occasion,

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"You will get hit one of these days riding about like that when shells are flying."

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And he replied, "I pedal so quick, sir, they'd never catch me."

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Could any of you do that?

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Much of Baden Powell's subsequent reputation

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was based not on his complex military strategies, but on his use of tricks and ruses,

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to try and fool the Boers into thinking the British were better equipped than they were.

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They didn't have any mines, but Baden Powell got these men

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to walk out beyond the perimeter carrying big black boxes.

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Then to bury them deep in the sand at intervals.

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Then, later on, he let off a stick of dynamite in the same area,

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and the Boers were convinced they were laying a minefield.

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Another of his tricks was to stake out all these posts along the front,

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and then to have men moving between them as if they were laying barbed wire.

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They weren't, because they didn't have any barbed wire.

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But the Boers couldn't see that, and so, they believed that the whole of this front was fortified.

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Again, it was slightly bonkers but a brilliantly effective ruse.

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Despite such daring innovations, Baden Powell's problems magnified.

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The town was shelled.

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Many were injured or died.

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Horses were killed for meat,

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and food was heavily rationed.

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Yet convinced he must lead by example, Baden Powell's positive attitude remained unshaken.

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People expect you to be able to give them an idea of how long the food's going to hold out.

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And you have to, effectively, pretend to be omniscient.

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You have to be ultra-calm.

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And Baden Powell had been a very successful amateur actor and he knew what was required.

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He could act really cool.

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The siege lasted 216 days but, throughout it,

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Baden Powell's performance - because, in a sense, that's what it was - was extraordinary.

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He managed to maintain not only a stiff upper lip but a smile, as well.

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When he wasn't pulling stunts against the Boers,

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he was putting on plays in the town or staging games,

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and when the public at home heard of his exploits, they glowed with pride. This was true British grit.

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# Bravos for BP

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# Ring, ring the bells, ring

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# Bravos, bravos, bravos

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# For Mafeking's king

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# Our hero... #

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When Mafeking was finally relieved in May 1901, the nation erupted with joy.

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Baden Powell was proclaimed a national hero.

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# ..To die for our duty

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# And we'll never give in

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# Said BP! #

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The British may have been the ultimate victors, but the Boer War left the nation badly shaken.

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Mafeking was one redeeming highlight in an otherwise undistinguished colonial war.

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One of the reasons the British army performed so badly was that, compared to the Boers,

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the healthy outdoor farmers-turned-soldiers,

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the British troops had been weak and sickly.

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The director general of the War Office had even issued a memo warning that between 40% - 60%

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of the men trying to enlist, had been declared unfit for service.

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The Edwardian establishment was terrified that, after a century of rapid industrialisation,

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Western society might be, in their words, "degenerating".

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A deeply influential book at the time was Max Nordau's Degeneration,

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which saw, in modern urban culture,

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a kind of frantic pace that he believed would lead to the decline of the West.

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The dead, carried off by heart and nerve diseases, are the victims of civilisation,

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the consequences of states of fatigue and exhaustion,

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of the vertigo and whirl of our frenzied life.

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The Victorian factories had made the nation wealthy,

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but they had also manufactured a urban underclass.

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Undernourished and underexercised, their offspring were now the Edwardians' problem.

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Some thinkers suggested that degeneracy was hereditary,

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and should be eradicated by enforced sterilisation.

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But Baden Powell was no pessimist.

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And he was not prepared to write off the nation's youth.

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When somebody's a great national hero, they're a great national hero to boys,

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and quite spontaneously, little boys' groups,

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they might be choirs, they might be little local clubs,

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who had asked him to be their patron, he sent them advice.

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When ordinary people began to buy a book he'd written called "Aids to Scouting"

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he realised that, although they were originally designed for soldiers,

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the same techniques could work for civilian boys.

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Scouting is a character-building exercise.

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It teaches self-discipline,

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observation, inquisitiveness, these are all, to Baden Powell, good qualities.

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Baden Powell agreed to use Aids to Scouting as the basis for a new work,

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which would promote the health and well-being of British youth.

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The Edwardians were the first generation to go football-crazy.

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But then, as now, not everybody approved.

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The idea of being a fan, of spectating

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rather than participating, did not appeal to Baden Powell.

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He believed in a healthy mind in a healthy body.

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Mens sano in corpore sano.

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That was the real goal for a boy.

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My heart sickens at thousands of boys and young men,

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pale and narrow-chested, hunched up miserable specimens,

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smoking endless cigarettes, numbers of them betting.

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All of them learning to be hysterical, as they groan or cheer in panic unison with their neighbours.

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For Baden Powell, physical and moral health went hand in hand.

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And when the men of Britain were strong, so was the country itself.

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No body part was neglected in the quest for national vitality.

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To be healthy and strong,

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you must keep your blood healthy and clean inside you.

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This is done by breathing in lots of pure, fresh air

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and by clearing out all dirty matter from inside your stomach.

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Which is done by having a rear, daily, without fail.

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If there is any difficulty about it one day, drink plenty of good water

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and practice body twisting exercises. And all should be well.

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What struck me, editing the book,

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was the number of times Baden Powell talks about orifices.

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Mouths, anuses,

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eyes, ears, all the openings of the body.

0:25:080:25:11

It seems to me that this reflects Baden Powell's concern with national self-defence,

0:25:110:25:19

with the keeping the body of the nation disciplined and controlled.

0:25:190:25:25

Not allowing any inroads to disease and infection.

0:25:250:25:29

Unlike traditional educationalists, Baden Powell believed it was in the national interest

0:25:310:25:36

for boys to show initiative.

0:25:360:25:39

And he charged each scout with doing a good turn every day.

0:25:390:25:43

Do you need a hand with that box?

0:25:470:25:51

There we go.

0:25:550:25:57

Good morning. Would you like some help crossing the road?

0:25:590:26:02

'Despite his best efforts, many of the issues a century ago are still high on the social agenda today.'

0:26:020:26:09

I'm going to see David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, in London,

0:26:130:26:17

Minister for Culture, and more importantly,

0:26:170:26:20

former cub scout, to discuss Baden Powell's influence on New Labour.

0:26:200:26:26

At what age did they get you?

0:26:260:26:29

-Oh God! Seven?

-Seven. Right.

0:26:290:26:32

And you, All joking apart,

0:26:320:26:34

a pretty formative four years at that time?

0:26:340:26:38

Oh yeah. I remember...

0:26:380:26:41

a particular week in which the whole purpose

0:26:410:26:46

was to knock on people's doors, to say, "Can we wash your car?"

0:26:460:26:51

in a Cubs' uniform.

0:26:510:26:53

You would get money...

0:26:530:26:54

It was Bob-A-Job Week.

0:26:540:26:57

You would get money for doing that.

0:26:570:27:00

But it was also, this was bringing you into contact with the neighbourhood.

0:27:000:27:05

It was that, or Knock Down Ginger - knock the door up and run away.

0:27:050:27:08

But this time you knocked on the door, you got some money and you did something useful. It's a great thing.

0:27:080:27:14

The subtitle for Scouting for Boys, is actually "a handbook for instruction in good citizenship".

0:27:140:27:21

He says "Indifferent citizenship is and always has been the progeny of indifferent government."

0:27:210:27:27

Yeah... I...

0:27:300:27:33

I suspect what Baden Powell would say is that citizenship

0:27:330:27:38

is not just something that is kind of learned in the classroom.

0:27:380:27:42

It is something about being a citizen and learning that,

0:27:440:27:48

with a group of other people, and with a wider community.

0:27:480:27:53

At one point, he's talking about socialism.

0:27:530:27:57

I hope he's nice about socialism...

0:27:580:28:00

Well, he claims to be a socialist at one point, which, again, I think would surprise a lot of people.

0:28:000:28:06

He is less the sort of Tory...

0:28:060:28:09

hate-figure that people imagined.

0:28:090:28:12

What Baden Powell was keen on was community.

0:28:120:28:15

I suspect that he had a kind of Gordon Brown sense of prudence

0:28:150:28:21

and hard work...

0:28:210:28:24

Oh yes! It's all in there.

0:28:240:28:26

And of thrift, and of duty.

0:28:260:28:28

So there's a lot there for Labour folk, but there's a lot there, also,

0:28:280:28:34

for the kind of One-Nation Tory.

0:28:340:28:36

But, are the virtues Baden Powell encouraged in Scouts really as highly valued today?

0:28:360:28:43

Baden Powell writes about boys sort of loafing around on street corners, smoking, doing nothing.

0:28:440:28:50

He said he wanted to teach them something useful. Do you do first aid?

0:28:500:28:54

Yeah, on a number of camps, everyone has to know a certain amount of first aid, on camp.

0:28:540:29:00

In here, he describes an incident.

0:29:000:29:02

A woman was drowning in a pond and there were five useless boys on the side,

0:29:020:29:07

who didn't save her, because they couldn't swim, and couldn't do first aid.

0:29:070:29:11

-That wouldn't be you, would it?

-I've been trained in first aid, to a fairly moderate level,

0:29:110:29:16

but we're given the skills so that we know what to do...

0:29:160:29:19

Right, if I had a heart attack now, could one of you save my life?

0:29:190:29:23

-Probably.

-I'm hoping.

0:29:230:29:26

By 1906, Baden-Powell was convinced that his scheme could turn dissolute boys into decent citizens.

0:29:300:29:37

And he began to write a version of what would become Scouting For Boys.

0:29:370:29:41

But it took the help of a hard-nosed salesman to galvanise him

0:29:420:29:46

and turn his modest proposal into a national sensation.

0:29:460:29:50

Arthur Pearson was proprietor of the Daily Express, and a media magnate of his day.

0:29:500:29:56

Baden-Powell, who had a suspicion of business people,

0:29:560:29:59

also knew how the world worked, that he needed a man like Pearson.

0:29:590:30:03

He didn't want to need him.

0:30:030:30:05

In fact, he hated the idea of it, but without him, it couldn't happen.

0:30:050:30:10

By summer 1907, Baden-Powell had completed a first draft.

0:30:120:30:18

He was now ready to put his theories into practice.

0:30:190:30:23

He invited 20 boys for a camping holiday off the coast of Dorset,

0:30:280:30:32

on Brownsea Island.

0:30:320:30:35

Some came from public schools, others, already working, were from local church boys' clubs.

0:30:370:30:43

But for all of them, it was a unique opportunity.

0:30:490:30:53

For Edwardian boys, the idea of camping on a small island

0:30:560:31:00

conjured up images of exoticism and intrigue.

0:31:000:31:03

They were following in the footsteps of Robinson Crusoe and Treasure Island.

0:31:030:31:07

And Baden-Powell wanted to reinforce this idea of being cut off from civilisation

0:31:070:31:12

and forced to depend on their own resources.

0:31:120:31:14

So he didn't have them camp here, within sight of Poole,

0:31:140:31:18

but he had them camp a mile away, on the wildest, furthest side of the island.

0:31:180:31:24

The native boys of the Zulu and Zwazi tribes

0:31:270:31:31

learned to be scouts before they're allowed to be considered men.

0:31:330:31:37

When a boy is about 15 or 16, he is taken by the men of his village,

0:31:370:31:42

stripped of all his clothes...

0:31:420:31:45

and painted white from head to foot.

0:31:450:31:48

He is given a shield and small spear,

0:31:480:31:51

and he is turned out of the village

0:31:510:31:53

and told that he will be killed if anyone catches him

0:31:530:31:56

while he is still painted white.

0:31:560:31:59

Many Edwardians had only a superior curiosity about other races, but some, like Baden-Powell,

0:32:020:32:09

had a genuine admiration for those they ruled.

0:32:090:32:13

Within British imperial law,

0:32:130:32:15

there was a social, Darwinist ranking of the nations,

0:32:150:32:20

in which, of course, British were at the top,

0:32:200:32:25

but they were recognised to be a certain noble tribe's noble peoples

0:32:250:32:29

who distinguished themselves by their muscle on the battlefield.

0:32:290:32:33

Despite his admiration for some African traditions,

0:32:370:32:40

Baden-Powell thought better of sending British boys naked into the Dorset woods.

0:32:400:32:46

Instead, he'd arranged for basic amenities to be provided on a small campsite.

0:32:460:32:51

The trip was covered by a lot of the local newspapers

0:32:530:32:56

and, clearly, their editors were thrilled to have a national hero operating on their patch.

0:32:560:33:01

This is the Bournemouth Guardian.

0:33:010:33:03

It explains how the camp was set up, and then says,

0:33:030:33:06

"The boys are to learn how the experienced scout can find life wherever he may find himself,

0:33:060:33:11

"to taste the delights of wild adventure and to track Red Indians."

0:33:110:33:17

This being Dorset, there weren't any red Indians, but there were pheasants.

0:33:170:33:22

The idea was the boys had to track the pheasants,

0:33:220:33:25

get close enough to them, not to kill them, but to photograph them, then report back to camp.

0:33:250:33:30

And this was a classic Baden-Powell technique -

0:33:300:33:33

to relocate the thrills of the Wild West in the South West.

0:33:330:33:37

This is a set of extraordinary photographs, taken on that first camp in 1907,

0:33:470:33:54

and it shows the boys literally here,

0:33:540:33:56

taking part in the various exercises that Baden-Powell had dreamt up.

0:33:560:34:00

Now, that looks like a game boys would enjoy.

0:34:000:34:04

Jump head first out of a tree and see if anyone catches you.

0:34:040:34:09

That does look fun!

0:34:090:34:11

This is a manly game.

0:34:140:34:16

This one's called The Struggle.

0:34:160:34:17

It does look quite peculiar, but it's basically people pushing their chests against each other.

0:34:170:34:23

It's meant to get the heart pounding, according to Baden-Powell.

0:34:230:34:27

First aid.

0:34:290:34:30

This one is called Dragging An Insensible Man,

0:34:300:34:34

but in this case it's a boy sitting up and laughing, which ruins it.

0:34:340:34:38

They're clearly enjoying being outdoors,

0:34:380:34:42

playing games, dangerous games, and learning practical skills.

0:34:420:34:47

When they were camping, Baden-Powell needed to collect the boys together,

0:34:500:34:54

so what did he use? A whistle?

0:34:540:34:56

No, he used this, which is a kudu horn,

0:34:560:35:00

made from antelope, which he picked up when he was a soldier in the Matabele Campaign, in 1896.

0:35:000:35:07

The Ndebele people use it for generating fearsome war cries,

0:35:070:35:11

but it's very good for collecting together small boys.

0:35:110:35:14

LONG, DEEP NOTE

0:35:140:35:16

THEY SPEAK ZULU IN UNISON

0:35:210:35:26

At night, Baden-Powell taught the boys Zulu war chants

0:35:310:35:34

and enthralled them with tales of his overseas adventures.

0:35:340:35:39

Once, I went butterfly-hunting in Dalmatia.

0:35:390:35:42

Batteries had been built upon these mountain tops and it was my business

0:35:420:35:46

to investigate their positions, strength and armaments.

0:35:460:35:50

I took a sketch book, a colour box and a butterfly net in my hand,

0:35:500:35:56

and I was above all suspicion to anyone who met me.

0:35:560:36:01

They did not look sufficiently closely into the sketches of butterflies

0:36:010:36:06

to notice that the delicately drawn veins of the wings

0:36:060:36:09

were exact representations in plan of their own fort.

0:36:090:36:14

In Scouting For Boys, Baden-Powell concludes a letter

0:36:180:36:21

that one of the boys had written to him after the camp.

0:36:210:36:24

"The most important thing that a great many boys need to learn is to look at the bright side of things

0:36:240:36:30

"and to take everything by the smooth handle. I, myself,

0:36:300:36:33

"found that a great lesson. I shall never find words enough to thank you for teaching me it."

0:36:330:36:38

And that ethic of keep smiling through became a cornerstone of scouting.

0:36:380:36:44

Invigorated by the success of Brownsea,

0:36:480:36:50

Baden-Powell returned to civilisation and to completing Scouting For Boys.

0:36:500:36:56

His original manuscript is now kept here, at the Scout Association's headquarters

0:37:000:37:05

at Gilwell Park, in Essex.

0:37:050:37:08

So this is it? The book that launched the entire movement?

0:37:110:37:15

The manuscript for the book that launched...

0:37:150:37:18

There it is, handwritten.

0:37:180:37:21

I must say, I thought it would be more organised than this.

0:37:230:37:26

I thought Baden-Powell would have taken his motto, and been more prepared.

0:37:260:37:30

I get the impression that he was just jotting down things as they came to him.

0:37:300:37:35

I don't think he actually sat down and mapped out

0:37:350:37:39

what he was going to do before he put pen to paper.

0:37:390:37:43

These are the chapter headings here, and it says, "Chapter 3 -

0:37:430:37:46

"campaigning, camp life, resourcefulness, colonial life etc."

0:37:460:37:51

Not terribly linked, are they?

0:37:510:37:53

-I mean, it is more or less, will there be a bit of this and a bit of that?

-Yes,

0:37:530:37:57

and, to some extent, that helps the readability of the book. The boys could dip in and dip out of it...

0:37:570:38:03

Yes.

0:38:030:38:04

..as they fancied.

0:38:040:38:06

This is a bit he's just torn out.

0:38:060:38:08

Think he's borrowed a bit of President Roosevelt's speech.

0:38:080:38:13

It's about the qualities of good soldier. Baden-Powell's crossed out "soldier" and written "Scout".

0:38:130:38:18

It's a very wide selection of material that he's read from, and cross-referenced into this book.

0:38:180:38:24

There's even Greek philosophers he's quoting.

0:38:240:38:27

He's quoting American pioneers. He's lifting chunks from Kipling.

0:38:270:38:31

Here we are, we've got knots.

0:38:310:38:33

"To tie a knot seems to be a simple thing, and yet there are right ways and wrong ways of doing it."

0:38:330:38:40

He's written something else in over the top.

0:38:400:38:42

"Lives depend on an knot being properly tied," is his afterthought.

0:38:420:38:47

Which is so very true!

0:38:470:38:50

-And these are his drawings?

-They are his drawings.

0:38:500:38:53

It's quite difficult to actually draw a knot that people can follow and copy.

0:38:530:38:59

-Yes.

-There's terrible clarity. You could follow that.

0:38:590:39:02

-Do you think?

-Yes, I do.

0:39:020:39:05

Two half hitches. That one looks hard, doesn't it?

0:39:050:39:08

-No.

-Even in diagram form.

0:39:080:39:11

When you open this, your job, your movement, everything here

0:39:110:39:16

comes from his notes on some bits of lined paper, doesn't it?

0:39:160:39:19

From these pages. It is quite amazing to think that the whole Scout movement

0:39:190:39:24

has flowed from him sitting down and scribbling these notes.

0:39:240:39:30

A bit like the Ten Commandments in the Christian tradition.

0:39:300:39:33

I'm sure he'd be flattered by that.

0:39:330:39:35

In January 1908, when Scouting For Boys was set for publication,

0:39:390:39:43

Arthur Pearson orchestrated the marketing.

0:39:430:39:46

He decided that, rather than publish it as a single volume,

0:39:480:39:51

it should first be serialised in separate parts, which you had to wait for and could collect.

0:39:510:39:57

Scouting For Boys was a success virtually from day one.

0:39:580:40:02

By the time the sixth fortnightly instalment came out, boys were queuing to buy it.

0:40:020:40:09

Baden-Powell's original idea was that Scouting would piggyback on existing boys' movements.

0:40:090:40:16

But then, when the book came out, Scouting appealed in such a way

0:40:160:40:22

that boys wanted to Scout themselves.

0:40:220:40:25

So, Baden-Powell had more or less to scramble

0:40:250:40:29

to catch up with the wildfire success of the book,

0:40:290:40:33

so the movement followed the book.

0:40:330:40:36

It's one of the few, if not only, instances, I think,

0:40:360:40:39

in world history, of a book having generated a movement.

0:40:390:40:45

And one of the secrets of the movement's success is right there, in the opening section.

0:40:470:40:53

This is a very famous painting of a Scout, and it shows a boy in that classic Scout uniform.

0:40:570:41:02

I think we've all seen it so often that you forget how very odd it is.

0:41:020:41:07

The hat is a South African hat from the constabulary where Baden-Powell was serving.

0:41:070:41:14

Then the shirt, which is a long army shirt worn in India and Afghanistan.

0:41:140:41:19

Basically, the Army had fashioned it on the traditional Muslim shirt.

0:41:190:41:24

Shorts - which no-one in this country wore at all.

0:41:240:41:27

Parents had to cut off long trousers to make them fit.

0:41:270:41:31

So it's an odd collection of things,

0:41:310:41:33

but Baden-Powell always claimed they were all practical.

0:41:330:41:37

The hat, you could carry water in.

0:41:370:41:40

The shirt, if you put two of the shirts together,

0:41:400:41:43

shoved the staves that the scouts carry, they turn into a stretcher. The scarf turned into a sling.

0:41:430:41:50

Again, for emergencies.

0:41:500:41:52

The figure here on the right isn't a Scout.

0:41:540:41:57

The suggestion is, in a fairly obvious way, that he's blessing the entire Scout movement.

0:41:570:42:02

Baden-Powell also ordained a hierarchy of officers,

0:42:050:42:09

invented a Scout salute...

0:42:090:42:11

..and he composed a Scout oath.

0:42:130:42:15

On my honour, I promise to do my duty to God and the King.

0:42:150:42:20

I will try to help others, whatever it costs me.

0:42:200:42:23

I know the Scout law, and WILL obey it.

0:42:230:42:26

Crucially, the Scout law wasn't a list of forbidden acts, but one of positive aims.

0:42:280:42:33

A Scout's honour is to be trusted.

0:42:350:42:38

A Scout is loyal.

0:42:380:42:40

A Scout's duty is to be useful and to help others.

0:42:400:42:44

A Scout is a friend to all, and a brother to every other Scout.

0:42:440:42:49

In Scouting For Boys, Baden-Powell also gave the movement something critical -

0:42:490:42:54

the impression it already had a history.

0:42:540:42:58

The British Empire had quite a propensity for inventing traditions.

0:42:580:43:02

In other words, for making up a movement, an idea, an organisation,

0:43:020:43:08

and then passing it off, or indeed marketing it,

0:43:080:43:11

as something traditional and conventional

0:43:110:43:15

and steeped in the past.

0:43:150:43:17

Scouting, of course, does so by harking back to what Baden-Powell calls "the scouts of history".

0:43:170:43:23

In the old days, the knights were the scouts of Britain,

0:43:250:43:29

and their rules were very much the same as the Scout law, which we have now.

0:43:290:43:33

We are their descendants and we ought to keep up their good name

0:43:330:43:38

and follow in their steps.

0:43:380:43:40

Baden-Powell even suggested that Scouting had a lineage that led all the way to the king.

0:43:430:43:49

He noted that the King signs himself RI - Rex Imperator, the emperor.

0:43:490:43:54

He says "Imperator" comes from two Roman words, "Im" and "Perare",

0:43:540:44:01

which together mean "prepare for", that is, to be prepared,

0:44:010:44:05

which, rather neatly, makes the King the Chief Scout.

0:44:050:44:09

It's neat, but it isn't true.

0:44:090:44:11

"Imperator" just means he who rules, but no-one was going to object, and certainly not the King.

0:44:110:44:18

Edward VII returned the favour in autumn 1909, when he knighted Baden-Powell.

0:44:210:44:26

By now, the Scout movement had over 100,000 members.

0:44:290:44:34

Scout troops were patrolling across the country.

0:44:340:44:38

And a spin-off magazine was flying off the newsstands.

0:44:390:44:43

Scout fever had gripped the nation.

0:44:460:44:49

Scouting offered something special that other groups didn't.

0:44:530:44:56

At its core was a belief in the positive power of playing and make-believe.

0:44:560:45:01

Scouting For Boys is peppered with ideas for staging little plays,

0:45:010:45:06

dramatising poems, putting on a show.

0:45:060:45:09

It encouraged each boy to imagine himself as a potential hero on the bigger stage of life.

0:45:090:45:16

Playing and playacting had always been central to Baden-Powell's understanding of the world.

0:45:200:45:27

Peter Pan, one of the most popular shows of the age, was especially dear to him.

0:45:270:45:32

Baden-Powell was particularly fixated on it, even more so than its standard enthusiastic audience.

0:45:360:45:43

I think that was because the figure of the boy who never grows up,

0:45:430:45:49

who never loses his milk teeth,

0:45:490:45:51

who never has to confront the horrors of sexuality,

0:45:510:45:55

was to him a very, very compelling image.

0:45:550:45:59

The idea that Scouts were boys on the brink of sexual maturity was a problem for Baden-Powell.

0:46:010:46:08

And the thought that they might be tempted to indulge in self-abuse,

0:46:090:46:14

as the Edwardians termed it, horrified him.

0:46:140:46:17

But, in typically forthright manner, he drafted a section of Scouting For Boys to confront it directly.

0:46:190:46:25

No prudish sentimentality for him.

0:46:250:46:30

He even checked his copy with his mother.

0:46:300:46:32

Pearson, his publisher, however, was much more coy.

0:46:340:46:38

He rejected the original, and Baden-Powell was forced to replace it

0:46:380:46:42

with a watered-down version for instructors only.

0:46:420:46:47

This is from the appendix on masturbation, and this is what he wants to say.

0:46:470:46:53

"Now the result of self-abuse is always..." Mind you, always!

0:46:530:46:56

"..that the boy, after a time, becomes weak and nervous and shy.

0:46:560:47:00

"He gets headaches, palpitations of the heart,

0:47:000:47:02

-"and if he carries on too far, he very often goes out of his mind and becomes an idiot."

-Yes.

0:47:020:47:08

-It's quite extreme, isn't it?

-It's very extreme.

0:47:080:47:10

It's more extreme than even fairly conservative medical authority

0:47:100:47:15

would have gone in the early 20th century.

0:47:150:47:20

But there was a huge amount of anxiety about masturbation.

0:47:200:47:23

Huge anxiety around masturbation, because, on the one hand, it caused all these problems with health -

0:47:230:47:30

it led to consumption, insanity, etc - and, on the other hand, there's an argument that

0:47:300:47:36

it's a manifestation of a lack of self-discipline, it erodes the willpower.

0:47:360:47:41

If a boy gets into this habit, he will not be a fit person to govern the Empire.

0:47:410:47:48

Part of me thinks Baden-Powell is trying to do something healthy by saying,

0:47:480:47:52

"We're far too prudish about this."

0:47:520:47:54

I think it's good that he's actually ventilating, he's talking about it.

0:47:540:47:58

We want to get this out in the open, out into the healthy fresh air and sunlight.

0:47:580:48:03

Why do you think his publisher wouldn't put it in?

0:48:030:48:06

There is this concern in saying, "Oh, God, there's this terrible habit that boys get into at school,

0:48:060:48:13

"in adolescence, and they learn it from their evil companions."

0:48:130:48:17

Yadda, yadda...

0:48:170:48:18

"..We should warn them about it."

0:48:180:48:21

And then others will come back and say, "No, they are pure innocent little lambs.

0:48:210:48:25

"You will just put this evil thought into their minds."

0:48:250:48:28

It's like the sex education debate,

0:48:280:48:31

about whether you tell them, or whether you tell them about it and they go and do it!

0:48:310:48:37

Don't lark about with a girl who you wouldn't like your mother or sister to see you with.

0:48:380:48:44

Don't make love to any girl unless you mean to marry her.

0:48:440:48:49

Despite his confident assertions, Baden-Powell was no expert on the charms of the opposite sex.

0:48:490:48:56

Whereas he would often apply the word "beautiful" to a man, he would never apply it to a woman.

0:48:570:49:04

She might be good-looking, but he would then often qualify it

0:49:040:49:08

with a word like "heavy-ish" or some sort of slightly derogatory remark.

0:49:080:49:12

I obviously read Baden-Powell's diary remarkably carefully.

0:49:120:49:16

There was an entry in the diary which said, just, "Went to Charterhouse,

0:49:160:49:20

"saw Todd's photograph album, naked boys in trees - excellent."

0:49:200:49:25

I'm sure it was nothing sort of overtly sexual.

0:49:250:49:30

But, clearly, Baden-Powell did very much enjoy looking at these naked boys.

0:49:300:49:36

For Edwardian society, an aesthetic appreciation of the young male form

0:49:390:49:44

was distinct from finding it sexually arousing.

0:49:440:49:47

Whilst works like these were being exhibited in public,

0:49:490:49:53

no-one saw Baden-Powell's interest in boys' bodies as evidence of paedophilia, or even homosexuality,

0:49:540:49:59

least of all, Baden-Powell himself.

0:49:590:50:02

Times have changed.

0:50:030:50:05

If Baden-Powell tried to start Scouting today, I don't think he'd have got very far.

0:50:070:50:12

Media interest in a national hero no longer stops at the bedroom door.

0:50:120:50:16

And an unmarried, unattached, confirmed bachelor

0:50:160:50:19

who admired pictures of naked boys would be unlikely to be allowed to be in charge of a youth movement.

0:50:190:50:26

However, Baden-Powell scholars still don't agree on his true inclinations.

0:50:260:50:32

It should be possible to speak of a sexual preference that is, in a way, a non preference.

0:50:320:50:38

"I don't want to do this sex thing!"

0:50:380:50:41

I genuinely believe that Baden-Powell was the eternal Peter Pan,

0:50:410:50:47

and that, rather than being a repressed gay man, he was in fact asexual.

0:50:470:50:53

He thought that, actually, men who did commit too early

0:50:530:50:57

to sexual relationships with women were contaminated.

0:50:570:51:00

Which I think, in a way, is...

0:51:000:51:02

You don't think that unless you're gay.

0:51:020:51:05

Baden-Powell may have backed away from women, but they didn't shy away from him.

0:51:070:51:12

Yet he didn't give marriage any serious thought until his mother began to put him under pressure.

0:51:120:51:18

Olave Soames was only 23 to Baden-Powell's 54

0:51:180:51:23

when he met her in 1912.

0:51:230:51:26

She was a tomboy, interested in sports and games,

0:51:270:51:31

and they shared an instant rapport, marrying less than a year later.

0:51:310:51:36

She was completely un-clothes-conscious, never painted her face, as it was described.

0:51:360:51:43

Baden-Powell thought the best women weren't very much interested in sex,

0:51:430:51:47

and I think that that would be true of her.

0:51:470:51:50

He did get her pregnant with Peter,

0:51:500:51:53

and he managed subsequent pregnancies,

0:51:530:51:57

but after that, he slept out on a balcony for the rest of his life.

0:51:570:52:01

There was a single bed on a veranda outside the front of their house.

0:52:010:52:06

It was an open veranda, and he would go upstairs to bed,

0:52:060:52:10

having sat around a fire, sat almost on the embers to keep warm,

0:52:100:52:14

then go upstairs, climb into bed with two blankets and a pillow,

0:52:140:52:18

and they'd come out in the morning, in the winter, and dust the snow off him!

0:52:180:52:22

Quite extraordinary!

0:52:220:52:24

The boys of Britain at the start of the 20th century

0:52:290:52:32

had no interest in the romantic life of the Chief Scout.

0:52:320:52:35

They were just thrilled that, unlike most Edwardian adults, he refused to patronise them.

0:52:350:52:41

He entrusted them with civic tasks, like giving first aid,

0:52:430:52:47

or directing people in fog.

0:52:470:52:49

Responsibility, he believed, developed character.

0:52:490:52:53

Of course, this had its funny side, and Baden-Powell was the first to admit

0:52:550:52:59

that his fad of Scouting might appear ridiculous,

0:52:590:53:03

and others were quick to join in the joke.

0:53:030:53:05

This is a Punch cartoon from as early as 1909,

0:53:050:53:09

which seems to be laughing at the idea of the Scouts coming to the rescue.

0:53:090:53:13

It shows a very small boy attempting to help a rather large lady across the beach.

0:53:130:53:18

And he says, "Fear not, Grandma!

0:53:180:53:21

"No danger can befall you now - I'M with you!"

0:53:210:53:24

Yet, crucially, its titled Our Youngest Line Of Defence.

0:53:240:53:29

And this isn't any old lady.

0:53:290:53:30

This is Mrs Britannia, who stands for the entire British Empire,

0:53:300:53:34

which the Scouts have been charged with saving.

0:53:340:53:38

Remember that the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago

0:53:390:53:43

was comparatively just as great as the British Empire of today.

0:53:430:53:48

It fell at last chiefly because the young Romans

0:53:480:53:52

gave up soldiering and manliness altogether.

0:53:520:53:56

Don't be disgraced like the young Romans,

0:53:580:54:01

who lost the empire of their forefathers

0:54:010:54:03

by being wishy-washy slackers, without any go or patriotism in them.

0:54:030:54:09

EXPLOSION

0:54:090:54:11

Edwardians were obsessed with the idea of losing the British Empire.

0:54:130:54:18

When thinking of a really serious enemy, like the Germans,

0:54:190:54:22

most senior Army officers were convinced that we might lose,

0:54:220:54:27

and it would be the loss of the Empire, our country, our national wealth.

0:54:270:54:30

It would have been really a catastrophe.

0:54:300:54:33

By 1914, a generation of boys had been immersed in the book's patriotism,

0:54:360:54:42

and primed to see themselves as literal protectors of the nation.

0:54:420:54:46

Every boy ought to learn how to shoot and to obey orders,

0:54:480:54:53

else he is no more good when war breaks out than an old woman,

0:54:530:54:57

and merely gets killed like a squealing rabbit,

0:54:570:55:00

unable to defend himself.

0:55:000:55:02

So it might seem that the First World War was the call to arms

0:55:050:55:09

which Baden-Powell had been preparing for all along.

0:55:090:55:12

Baden-Powell insisted that every boy be able to handle a weapon.

0:55:200:55:24

But he refused to see his Scout movement as a sort of military cadet force.

0:55:240:55:29

Indeed, Baden-Powell defended himself against charges of militarism in Scouting For Boys.

0:55:290:55:34

He said there was a world of difference between self-defence,

0:55:340:55:38

standing up to bullies on the international stage, and bloodthirsty warmongering.

0:55:380:55:42

When an eminent public man wrote to me

0:55:450:55:47

that I ought not to teach boys soldiering

0:55:470:55:50

because, as he puts it, he hates war like the devil,

0:55:500:55:54

I felt bound to reply that, had he seen anything of war himself,

0:55:540:55:59

he would, like most soldiers, hate it WORSE than the devil!

0:55:590:56:03

Rather than see his Scouts become a branch of the armed forces,

0:56:060:56:10

the Chief Scout offered his boys for civilian duties -

0:56:100:56:13

running errands, working in Red Cross centres,

0:56:130:56:17

and coast-watching.

0:56:170:56:20

But the war inevitably took its toll on the Scouting movement.

0:56:200:56:25

A quarter-of-a-million former Scouts and Scout masters fought for King and country,

0:56:260:56:31

of whom 10,000 died.

0:56:310:56:34

Among the fatalities were five of the 20 boys

0:56:360:56:40

who joined Baden-Powell on Brownsea Island back in 1907.

0:56:400:56:44

After the catastrophe of world war, Baden-Powell decided that Scouting

0:56:520:56:56

had to become a force for world peace.

0:56:560:56:59

The imperialism of the original handbook was soon eclipsed

0:56:590:57:03

by the internationalist message of global Scouting.

0:57:030:57:07

That's what we're after -

0:57:080:57:10

to try and breed, in the next oncoming generation,

0:57:100:57:13

that spirit of friendship, comradeship and goodwill,

0:57:130:57:17

which is the true foundation for peace in the world.

0:57:170:57:21

That hope proved illusory, but the Scouting ideal continued throughout the 20th century,

0:57:230:57:29

even though other youth movements with less worthy aims borrowed heavily from its trappings.

0:57:290:57:35

The communist Soviet Pioneers.

0:57:350:57:37

The Italian young fascists.

0:57:370:57:39

And, infamously, the Hitler Youth.

0:57:390:57:42

But to assume that all boys in shorts are brainwashed storm troopers in waiting

0:57:470:57:52

does a grave injustice to Baden-Powell's Edwardian experiment.

0:57:520:57:57

After all, which of these movements didn't mind what religion you were?

0:57:570:58:01

Or what colour? Or what class?

0:58:010:58:05

And which of them instructed their members to smile and whistle under all circumstances?

0:58:050:58:11

One of Baden-Powell's favourite mottos was, "get a laugh on."

0:58:130:58:18

His movement was always a mixture of earnestness and playfulness.

0:58:180:58:21

He wanted to instruct boys how to cut down trees,

0:58:210:58:25

but he couldn't resist adding, "Don't chop your leg off!"

0:58:250:58:28

That's why the book is still so engaging.

0:58:280:58:31

And despite being firmly rooted in the Edwardian era,

0:58:310:58:34

he was trying to address issues that still resonate today.

0:58:340:58:38

Inner-city deprivation, boys without role models, unhealthy lifestyles,

0:58:380:58:42

the need for citizenship.

0:58:420:58:44

Amazingly, it's all in there.

0:58:440:58:47

Which is why, 100 years later, I think it's still worth saluting.

0:58:470:58:51

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd - 2007

0:59:140:59:18

E-mail [email protected]

0:59:180:59:22

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