B-P's Brother: Major Baden Baden-Powell

B-P's Brother Baden

Major Baden F. S. Baden-Powell

Like his older brother, Robert, Baden Baden-Powell was an Army Officer. He served with the Scots Guards, one of England's most distinguished regiments. Major Baden F. S. Baden Powell was a pioneering thinker in the use of military aviation and a Fellow and later President of the Royal Aeronautical Society and was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Major Baden-Powell was the author of In Savage Isles and Settled Lands published in 1892. It recounts his "journey of some 50,000 miles ... extending over three years" as he traveled around the world to his duties as Aide-de-Camp and Military Secretary to the Governor of Queensland, Australia, and thence home via the Pacific, America and across the Atlantic. Some details of his career are found in Robin Baden Clay's work on the Powell family history.

Baden Fletcher Smyth BADEN-POWELL
Born 22 May 1860.
Educated at Charterhouse School, 1873-1877.
Commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Scots Guards, 1882.
Served in the Nile Expedition in and was a member of the Guards Camel Corps, 1884-1885.
Received the Egyptian Service Medal and Clasp and the Khedive of Egypt’s Star.
Served as Aide-de-Camp to Sir Anthony Musgrave, Governor of Queensland, Australia, 1888.
Served as Private Secretary to General Sir Henry Wylie Norman, Governor of Queensland, Australia, 1889.
Served in New Guinea (British New Guinea became the Crown Colony of Papua in 1888).
Served in South Africa on the Boer War, 1899-1902. (Present at the Relief of Mafeking).
Served in France & Belgium in World War One on the New Army on Staff of The Guards Division, 1917-1918
Served as Camouflage Officer to XIV Corps.
Retired as a Major, Scots Guards.
Baden Baden-Powell was a member of the Guards' Club.
He was President, Royal Aeronautical Society 1902-09. (Considered a pioneer of military aviation).
He was elected a Member of the Mercers' Company 1881 and elected as Master in 1917.
Baden Baden-Powell died 3 Oct 1937 at age 77.

EGYPT, 1884-1885.

1st Battalion Scots Guards disembarking
at Alexandria on 12 August 1882
From: Michael Barthorp, Blood-Red Desert Sand:
The British Invasions of Egypt and the Sudan 1882-1898, London, 1984.



Lieutenant B. F. S. Baden-Powell, Guards Camel Regiment, Scots Guards. From: Michael Barthorp, Blood-Red Desert Sand, London, 1984. National Army Museum		Egyptian Service Medal and Clasp and the Khedive of Egypt’s Star

NEW GUINEA (PAPUA), 1888.

Last Charge at Huhuna. New Guinea, 1888.

From: B. F. S. Baden-Powell, In Savage Isles and Settled Lands, London, 1892

SOUTH AFRICA, 1900.

Officers of the Mafeking Relief Column.
Top row (left to right): Major Karri Davis (Imperial Light Horse), Major Baden-Powell (Intelligence Department), Captain Robinson, R.A., Major Weil (Transport), Captain Peakman (Kimberley Corps), Prince Alexander of Teck, A.D,C., Captain Cobb, A.S.C. Second row: Captain Donaldson (Imperial Light Horse), Captain Maxwell (Kimberley Corps), Colonel King (commanding Kimberley Corps), Colonel Mahon, Colonel Edwards (Imperial Light Horse), Captain Bell-Smyth (Brigade- Major), Captain Barnes Adjutant, Imperial Light Horse). Bottom row: Captain Ker (commanding Infantry detachment), Sir John Willoughby (D.A.A.G.B.), Colonel F. Rhodes, D.S.O. (Chief of Intelligence Department), Captain Smyth (Galloper), Captain Du Plat Taylor (R.H.A.).

From: H. W. Wilson, With the Flag to Pretoria: A History of the Boer War, 1899-1900, London, 1901.

		Background of the Eqyptian Campaigns, 1882-1889. From: Major L. L. Gordon, British Battles and Medals, 5th Edition, London, 1979.
		H. W. Wilson, With the Flag to Pretoria: A History of the Boer War, 1899-1900, London, 1901. Chapter XXV: "The Relief of Mafeking." [Note: Thumbnail of Major Baden F. S. Baden-Powell, brother of B-P, from photo of "Officers of the Mafeking Relief Column"]
		Baden Baden-Powell is featured in an episode of National Public Radio's series, "Engines of Our Ingenuity" with Professor John Lienhard. Each program tells a story of how our culture is formed by human creativity.
		Major Baden-Powell's appointment as Aide-de-Camp and Military Secretary to the Governor of Queensland, Australia gave him the opportunity to travel around the world on a "journey of some 50,000 miles ... extending over three years." He relates this journey in In Savage Isles and Settled Lands published in 1892.
		As a member, and later as the President of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Baden Baden-Powell was an advocate of flight and its use in support of the military. In an article in the Illustrated Scientific News in 1903, he described "Progress with Airships" and the state of aerial navigation by balloon before the advent of man's first flights in heavier than air craft.
		One of Baden Baden-Powell's early experiments with flight was the design of a man-lifting kite which he patented as the "Levitor" in 1895. He featured the kite in an article "Evolution of a Kite That Will Lift a Man" in McClure's Magazine in April, 1899.
		The Cradle of Aviation Museum features a short article on the "Levitor" kite used in Marconi's early shore-to-ship communication experiments.
		Baden-Powell Family History. A series of links starting with the research of Robin Baden Clay, a grandson of Baden-Powell. These links are focused on the genealogy of the Powell family. The author is extremely grateful to Mr. Clay for sharing the results of his labors with the Scouting community. Links are provided to pages for three of B-P's brothers: Baden, Warington and Sir George Baden-Powell, to members of his extended family, and to the genealogy of the Smyth and Warington families.
		Baden-Powell Home Page

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