Baden-Powell: Founder of the Boy Scouts

Tim Jeal's Baden-Powell is a must-read resource for anyone interested in the origin of the Scout Movement and the Founder. Unlike many other authors writing on the subject, Mr Jeal is a professional biographer, with the result being that the book is both enjoyable to read and very precise in its reasoning. Indeed the best book I have read for a long time! Despite its length of nearly 700 pages, the volume is not exhaustive by any means. With so many other books available on B-P's life and work, Mr Jeal is concentrating on controversial issues and topics not covered elsewhere. Thus, for example, Brownsea Camp of 1907, which can be considered as one of the key events in the early development of the movement, merits only three pages in the book. At the same time, fully 35 pages are devoted to discussing Baden-Powell's assumed homosexuality. Due to its selective nature, Tim Jeal's Baden-Powell is probably not the best book to start with, if you are totally unfamiliar with the topic and want to get to know, how everything started. In that case you might prefer reading a less analytical book, such as The Two Lives of a Hero by William Hillcourt. For a reader, who already knows the basics, the book is a unique source of deeper understanding of what scouting is and what to think about the Founder.

About a quarter of the way through this book, I was ready to toss it. I am glad I didn't. It suffers at times from mind-numbing detail and Jeal occasionally assumes knowledge I doubt most readers possess (particularly 19th century British military minutia). The pace is very slow through most of the book - not surprising considering the volume of information covered. And I do NOT recommend it as a first book on Baden-Powell! Tackle Russell Freedman's much more readable "Scouting With Baden-Powell" or spend a week with William "green Bar Bill" Hillcourt's long but less-scholarly "Baden-Powell The Two Lives of a Hero" (written with Olave Baden-Powell, the General's wife). But the reader looking for the most comprehensive and balanced treatment of Lord R.S.S. Baden-Powell should read this book. I have a much better feeling for and understanding of BP as result of reading this book. The text is primarily chronological. However, when dealing with specific aspects in Baden-Powell's life, he sometimes discusses issues and recounts all the related incidents, which can be somewhat confusing because it interrupts the chronological flow. I found myself having to stop reading to put these "breakout" incidents into chronological synchronization with things already discussed. The illustrations and photos are excellent. The photographs are grouped into three sections on higher quality paper. They will make little sense until you read the text referring to them. I really love BP's illustrations! They are sprinkled throughout the book (and in the original hardback edition called "The Boy-Man", are on the inside covers). The footnotes are copious but very difficult to use, numbered by section, not chapter, all at the end rather than at the foot of the pages and without referring page numbers, and many referring to documents by a code name which is keyed in a bibliographic section. The index was only marginally useful, rather short for such a large book, and limited in scope. I feel as though Jeal could have made this the seven-volume "Compleat Life Of Baden-Powell" had he wished. At times, while reading this book, I wished he had (and at other times this thought sent chills down my spine). The thing that put me off was Jeal's amateur psycho-analysis of the inner "Stephe". This permeates the book and distracts from the narrative. Perhaps in reaction to the slanderous assertions of other biographers, Jeal asserts that BP was a repressed homosexual. I found most of his arguments unpersuasive and reject this suggestion. He also implied that many Guide leaders were lesbians. Since his evidence of this was sketchy at best, I found it distracting. Yet he did not go into detail about the trials of Oscar Wilde and the resulting intolerance of homosexuality, which is important to the context of this issue. Another example of this unfortunate tendency of pseudo-psychology is in the epilogue ("Curbing the Beast and Reclaiming the Child"). Jeal suddenly begins discussing

An excellent read. I was impressed at the volume of information Jeal had at his disposal in researching the book. With all the references he had I cannot but think that this book IS the definitive history of Baden-Powell. Yes the book does raise some controversial questions about Baden-Powell but Jeal does not attempt to label Baden-Powell in any way; instead presenting to the reader facts from people close to Baden-Powell including extracts from Baden-Powells own diaries. The reader can draw their own conclusions. I found Jeals book to be an excellent read and an wonderful insight into the life and culture that existed during Baden-Powells life, and in particular, his army career. The worldwide Scouting movement owes Baden-Powell so much and I think every scout leader should read this book. I did!

Tim Jeal was given unrestricted access to the unrivalled family archive by the great-nephew Mr. Francis Baden-Powell. There are many pictures in this book that cannot be found anywhere else. Tim Jeal spent five years of research prior to writing this book. There are FIVE pages of acknowledgements which include, British Scout Association, Mr. J L Tarr (Chief Scout Executive of BSA) and numerous other sources. Mr Jeal was born in 1945. He attended Westminster School and Christ Church in Oxford. His previous biography of David Livingstone was honored by the literary editors of The New York Times and the Washington Post. He lives in north London with his wife and three daughters. Tim Jeal was cognizant of the gap that existed in Lord Baden-Powell's not having a full and objective biography. He spent five years on research. He was able to obtain unique access to people who knew Baden-Powell and to a huge amount of unstudied private papers of Lord Baden-Powell. This is an EXCELLENT book and the many references from Baden-Powell's Diaries and Letters give candid and honest information that cannot be found anywhere else. A must read for those who are interested in having access to information not normally available and making up their own minds.