Baden-Powell: Hunter of Snipe

[Kudu 186]

 

SR540Beaver wrote:

 

I'm part of that rare breed of scouter who has not read a biography of Baden-Powell yet. I'm just curious how he utilized pranks as part of the scouting program to thicken the hides of the younger boys and turn them into manly men instead of nancy-boys?

 

In all the controversies of Scouting, Scouters would do well to model their behavior on a description of Baden-Powell from a filmed interview with Terry Bonfield (one of the boys who accompanied B-P to Brownsea Island in August 1907):

 

"He never put us in a position where we felt awkward or silly."

 

Also consider Baden-Powell's "Eleventh Scout Law:"

 

There is to the Scout code an eleventh Law, an unwritten one, namely, "a Scout is not a fool" [baden-Powell, Rovering to Success].

 

Given B-P's outspoken views on the qualities of character, example, goodwill, good turns, friendliness, courteousness, fair play, sportsmanship, honor, and straightforwardness, it is doubtful that he tolerated cheap "smoke-shifter" pranks on trusting Scouts designed to make them feel awkward, silly, and a fool.

 

However, B-P utilized the creative spirit behind such pranks in perhaps the most important part of the Scouting program: Scouting Games.

 

Many of the boys who joined Scouting in Baden-Powell's time were well aware of B-P's cunning, deception, stealth, and trickery as outlined in his military guide Aids to Scouting, especially chapters XIII: Spying; XIV: Scouting; and Appendix B: Scouting Competitions.

 

The manuscript for the book had left Mafeking in the last mail packet to leave the city before the siege. The opening sentence of the first chapter, "Pluck, Self-Reliance, and Discretion," read:

 

The main key to sucess in scouting is to have pluck and self-reliance. I will show you what these are, and how to get them.

 

Of course it was his "pluck" and self-reliance against the Boers that made Baden-Powell famous, and Aids to Scouting became a runaway best-seller during the 217 day siege of Mafeking. It was closely read by English boys who applied it to their military play.

 

The Scouting Competitions Appendix featured the application of pluck and cunning in seven military games, most of which eventually became part of Boy Scout training games including Spider and Fly, and the Flag Stealing Competition ("Capture the Flag").

 

Adults who wish to use their Leadership training in Scouting to "thicken the hides of the younger boys and turn them into manly men instead of nancy-boys," would do well to channel these creative urges into learning a few of the 84 Scouting Wide Games based on B-P's military games and incorporating them in monthly campouts.

 

See The Inquiry Net:

 

http://inquiry.net/outdoor/games/wide/index.htm

 

Baden-Powell himself tested the vigilance of his Scouts against "pranks" that employed the skills of stalking and spying learned from his Scouting Games. The game of sentry duty continued through the night during the Brownsea Campout, and he tested the sentries by "scouting" their Patrols:

 

The boys on sentry duty during night picket took their jobs seriously --

and well they might: there were 'enemies' about.

 

One night, for instance, the van Raalte's young son and daughter decided

to 'invade' the camp. They were 'arrested' and sent on their way home.

 

Another night, a party of ladies and gentlemen -- visitors at Brownsea

Castle -- were intercepted during a twilight stroll.

 

Even Baden-Powell himself became the victim of a night picket sentry on

one of this attempts to 'scout' a patrol. He was spotted by his nephew,

Donald, hanging on for dear life to a tree limb overhead [baden-Powell:

The Two Lives of a Hero Page 271].

 

A mention of Snipe Hunting in Hillcourt's biography of B-P takes place in 1890 in Malta:

 

As intelligence officer for the Mediterranean area, Baden-Powell was in

charge of gathering and submitting to the War Office information on the

disposition of troops and ships of the different countries, their armament

and other items of military value.

 

He first turned his eyes south and decided to go 'snipe hunting' in Tunis

and Algeria. On his first trip to these North African countries, both of

them French regencies, Baden-Powell focused his attention on Bizerta....

"B-P took a room in Bizerta overlooking the canal and the lake and spent

several days roaming the town and the surrounding area, ostensibly looking

for birds in the snipe bogs. When he had gathered all the data he

considered pertinent he went inland with a guide, an interpreter, and a

couple of beaters, for an honest-to-goodness snipe shoot at a farm owned by

a British settler, near Mateur....

 

On other trips to North Africa, the inquisitive Baden-Powell covered the

area from Nemours in French Algeria to Tripoli, the capital of Turkish

Tripoli, by sea, by railway, by diligence, on horseback and on foot. He

visited Oran and Algiers, Constantine and Biskra, Tunis and Kairouan,

Sousse and Gabes. He went 'snipe shooting' and snipe shooting, watched the

maneuvers of Spahis and Chasseurs d'Afrique, witnessed the obvious growth

of the harbour of Bizerta into a major French naval base -- and sent reams

of reports and scores of sketches and maps off to England."

 

When it came time for B-P to resign as military secretary and return to his

regiment in time to take part in the spring training, the Governor sent

B-P's resignation to London.

 

The War Office's telegram accepting B-P's resignation contained a bouquet

for his work as Intelligence Officer in the form of a grant of 40 [English

Pounds] for a side trip on the way home, for 'snipe hunting' in Algeria."

[baden Powell: The Two Lives of a Hero, William Hillcourt, 1992, Pages

96-101].

 

Kudu