Tim Jeal - Baden-Powell: Founder of the Boy Scouts

I would like to thank the following:

1) Individuals and institutions whose manuscript collections proved indispensable.

2) People who knew Baden-Powell and agreed to meet me. All those listed helped me significantly.

3) People who communicated with me on the telephone or by letter, and in many instances sent me original material.

4) Scholars and authors who aided my research.

5) The staff of institutions and libraries providing me with information and/or material.

1) I am particularly indebted to Mr Francis Baden-Powell (Baden-Powells great-nephew) who gave me unrestricted access to his unrivalled family archive. He and his cousin, the late Miss Joan Moore (who allowed me similar access to her substantial family collection), together enabled me to give a far more detailed account of Baden-Powells youth and young manhood than has to date been possible. I am also most grateful to the British Scout Association and to the Boy Scouts of America for admitting me to their archives. In London, Mr Graham Coombe, the Scout Associations archivist, was immensely helpful during my long period of research, and subsequently assisted me with numerous queries in writing and over the telephone. My thanks to Mr J. L. Tarr (former Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America) and to Mr K. H. Stevens (Chief Executive Commissioner, British Scout Association) for enabling me to study at Baden-Powell House the complete set of microfilms of the Boy Scouts of Americas Baden-Powell Collection. I am indebted to Mr Richard H. Nicholson (whose grandfather, Major the Hon. A. Hanbury-Tracy was the Intelligence Officer at Mafeking, and whose great-uncle, Colonel J. S. Nicholson, M.P., was Baden-Powells Chief Staff Officer in the South African Constabulary) for lending me diaries, letters and other papers from his collection, as well as the Mafeking Day Book, an outstanding historical document previously unknown to scholars, in which is recorded every message sent or received during the Siege of Mafeking. Mrs Antonia Eastman lent me numerous letters from her great-aunt, Lady Baden-Powell, to her aunt Mrs Christian Rawson-Shaw (ne Davidson) who was brought up by Lady Baden-Powell as a member of her family. These gave me fresh insights into the Baden-Powells family life. I am most grateful to Mrs Honor Hurly for sending me copies of letters from Lord and Lady Baden-Powell to her father, Eric G. S. Walker (Baden-Powells private secretary 190914), and for typing an accurate copy of her fathers diaries for 190811. These papers enabled me to give the first full account of the range of problems facing Baden-Powell immediately after his inauguration of the Scouts. My thanks to Mr Paul C. Richards for allowing me to study his substantial collection of Baden-Powell papers (mainly letters from Lord and Lady Baden-Powell to Mrs E. K. Wade, Baden-Powells private secretary 191441) at his house in Templeton, Mass. Mrs Audrey Renew, Curator of the Mafikeng Museum, kindly sent me copies of six unpublished diaries written by townspeople during the Siege and directed me towards others. She also answered a wide range of queries about different aspects of the Siege. Sir John Vyvyan Bt. and Mr F. Vyvyan kindly allowed me to study Col. Sir C. B. Vyvyans Mafeking Papers: a most important collection since Col. Vyvyan was Base Commandant and Chief Engineer. Mr P. B. Boyden, the archivist at the National Army Museum, made available to me the extensive Baden-Powell collection in his care and answered many queries on general military matters.

2) I wish to thank Lord Baden-Powells daughters the Hon. Mrs Gervas (Betty) Clay and the late the Hon. Mrs John (Heather) King, who talked to me at length about their father. I am also grateful to Mr Gervas Clay for his recollections. Mrs Yvonne Broome, Olave Baden-Powells niece, talked to me about her childhood with the Baden-Powells. My series of interviews during 1983 and 1984 with the late Mrs Eileen Wade (Baden-Powells private secretary during 19141941) were invaluable. There were few days when he was in England that she did not see Baden-Powell, and there were few aspects of his life and work about which she was ignorant. My meetings with the late Mrs Annie Scofield during 1984 were no less important. As Annie Court, she had first worked for Olave Baden-Powells family in 1904 and stayed on with Olave after her marriage as her ladys maid and housekeeper for fifty years. Her memories of the Baden-Powells home life until they left England in 1938 were exceptionally vivid. Mrs Kathleen Lessiter, who was nursemaid to the Baden-Powell children from 1919 to 1922, kindly wrote down her recollections for me and amplified them when we met. Miss Grace Browning and the Hon. Mrs Richard (Elizabeth) Coke were friends of the family during the early years of the Baden-Powells marriage and recalled those days for me in person. All Baden-Powells military colleagues were long dead when I started work, but two members of the 1930s Scout Committee were still alive and agreed to meet me. My thanks therefore to Mr Richard A. Frost, and Mr Lawrence Impey, who accompanied Baden-Powell on his last tour of India in 1937. Mr Don Potter, an Assistant Camp Chief at Gilwell Park from 1922 to 1933, knew Baden-Powell personally and was able to tell me about the battle between Scout Headquarters and Gilwells Camp Chief during the early 1920s.

3) Mrs J. P. B. Agate, Mrs Virginia Ashton, Lord Baden-Powell, Miss M. de Beaumont, Mr William Beckwith, Mrs Margaret Bell, Mrs Y. Binning, Mr T. E. Bower, Mr Noel Brack, Mrs Pauline Bridger-Turner, Mrs J. Browne-Swinburne, Mrs Diana Cairns, Mrs Carp-Moore, Mr R. Chignell, Mr John Christie-Miller, Brigadier William Collingwood, Mrs Hope M. Chance, Mrs Mary Comber, Mr Spencer Copeland, Mrs J. Cotterell, Mrs Ann Crothers, Mr David Cuppleditch, Dr L. Davies, Mrs Pamela Davis, Mrs Kim Doig, Lord Downe, Miss Pamela Dugdale, the Countess of Dysart, Mr D. P. Eggar, Mr J. Elliott, Colonel T. B. A. Evans-Lombe, Dr W. Everett, Mrs E. Fawcus, Mr T. R. Fetherstonhaugh, the Hon. Mrs Elizabeth Field, Mrs Ursula FitzGerald, Lady Victoria Fletcher, Miss Sybilla J. Flower, Mr Anthony Gaddum, Miss Mary Gaddum, Veronica, Lady Gainford, Mrs M. Gaster, Major J. Gilman, Mr P. E. Gipps, Mr S. C. S. Godley, Mr C. Dymoke Green, Mr R. Goold-Adams, Lady Alastair Graham, Mr Kenneth Griffith, Mrs Marjorie M. Gubbins, Mrs Barbara Halsey, Lord Hardinge of Penshurst, Mrs Diana Hargrave, Miss Jean Harrap, Mr E. E. Harrison, Mr Rex Hazlewood, Mrs Sonia Heathcote-Amory, Mr A. J. C. Hewart, Miss B. Murray Hill, Mr S. Horniblow, Mr A. W. Hurll, Mrs L. Immelman, Mr David Jefferies, Mrs J. Jenkinson, Mr C. Judge-Smith, Mr S. Kekewich, the late Miss Rosemary Kerr, Mr H. King, Wing Commander John King, Mr A. Knight, Mr A. Longmate, Lord Lovat, Miss J. Loxton, Mrs Antoinette Lunn, Mrs M. McCloud, Miss Mary Mackenzie, Sir Alastair Mackie, Mrs M. Marwick, Mrs Joan Martin, Mrs P. Massey, Sir William Mather, Mrs Jennifer May, Mrs A. Maxton-Graham, Violet, Lady Merthyr, the late Sir Iain Moncreiffe of that Ilk Bt., Major T. Morley, Mr J. H. Morrison, Mr Michael Murphy, Mrs M. Nanney-Wynn, Mrs Joan Nevill, Mrs Billie Nightingale, Miss J. M. Nixon, Sir David Ogilvy Bt., Mr C. OFerrall, Dr N. OLeary, Mr E. Palmer, Mrs Victoria Payne, Mr C. H. Pickford, Mr Geoffrey Pocock, Mrs Josephine Pollock, the Rev. Norman Pollock, Mr Peter Pooley, Mr Robin Pooley, Mrs M. Power, Mr David Powell, Mr Roger Powell, Mr and Mrs S. K. M. Powell, Mr B. D. Price, Miss Faith Ratcliff, Lord Renton, Lord Rodney, Miss Diana R. Rodney, Mrs Elizabeth Rogers, Anne, Countess of Rosse, Mrs Rowcliffe, Cynthia, Lady Sandys, Commander Claude Sclater R.N., Mr Geoffrey Scofield, Mrs Camilla Shoolbred, Mrs Mary Siepmann (Mary Wesley), Miss J. Slade-Baker, Mr T. dArch Smith, Commodore Dacre Smyth R.A.N., Mr R. Warington Smyth, Mrs Olave Snelling, Mr P. Snyman, Mr C. G. Sowerby, Mrs Florence Thomson, Mrs R. Tilney, Mrs Fiona Turnbull, Major James Wade, Lt-Colonel John Walton, Mrs N. Wansborough, Dr M. Turner Warwick, Mr Michael Watt, Mrs Cynthia Wearing-King, Sir Osmond Williams Bt., Commander Brownlow V. Wilson R.N., Miss Margaret Wilson, Sir John Winnifrith, Mr F. Wolsey, Mr Christopher Woodford, Miss Erica Yonge, Mr J. S. Winthrop Young.