Robert Baden Powell & The Siege of Mafeking | 1899-1900 Boer War, South Africa

Robert Baden Powell, the Siege of Mafeking & the roots of the Boy Scouts.

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In 1907, 20 boys came together for a camp on Brownsea Island, in Poole harbour, Dorset.

It was the brain child of Boer War veteran, Robert Baden-Powell.

Little could he, or they, know that the camp would give birth to the World Scout Movement, which now has over 40 million members worldwide.

Whilst many people probably know that Robert Baden-Powell was the founder of the Scouts, many won’t know that the idea of this youth organisation came out of the Boer War in South Africa.

And more directly, from Baden-Powell’s own experiences during the siege of Mafeking (1899-1900)

Without the siege of Mafeking there probably wouldn’t be a Scouting Movement.

Without the young boys in the town forming a cadet force to run errands during that long siege, Baden-Powell might not have had the idea.

And, if Baden-Powell hadn’t become a national hero because he held out against the Boers for 217 days, maybe his camp on Brownsea island would never have received the publicity that helped launch the movement.

This is the story of Robert Baden-Powell, the siege of Mafeking and the birth of World Scouting.
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Videos that are good links to this story:

The Jameson Raid (1895-96)
https://youtu.be/IhNyd9iEl2w

An introduction to the Boer War
https://youtu.be/u1JAVnchZQI

Baden-Powell's plucky defence of this isolated town on the edge of the Kalahari Desert, caught the imagination of the British public.

Quite frankly, they were depseraste for any good news after the Boers inflicted three defeasts on their army in less than a week.
And whilst, imperialist and mining magnate, Cecil Rhodes, was sending doom-laden messages from the beseiged town of Kimberley, Baden-Powell seemed to almost being treating the siege of Mafeking like agame.

Od the many ingenious ways that he came up with for the town's defence was the of the Mafeking Cadet Corps, for boys below military age.
The cadets assisted in running errands, helping in the hospital anf acting as lookouts.

It was this group of boys who gave Baden-Powell the idea of establishing a similar sort of movement after the Boer War.

So whilst the camp on Brownsea Island in 1907 is officially the start of Scouting, it could be argued that those boys in Mafeking were the fore-runners of the worldwide Scouting Movement.

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Chapters
0:00 Introduction
1:23 Robert Baden-Powell
1:58 Matabele War
2:53 To Mafeking
4:33 Boer War
5:16 Siege of Mafeking
7:16 The Wolf
8:22 Food Supplies
9:56 Mafeking Cadet Corps
10:43 Unlike Cecil Rhodes
13:11 Lady Sarah Wilson
13:44 First Victoria Cross
15:09 General Snyman
15:34 Battle of Game Tree Fort
16:35 Controversy
17:55 Mafeking "Black Watch"
19:26 Boer Attack
22:02 Relief of Mafeking
23:54 BP The Hero
25:33 World Scouting Movement
26:29 The History Chap
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My name is Chris Green and I love to share stories from British history. Not just because they are interesting but because, good or bad, they have shaped the world we live in today.

History should not be stuffy or a long list of dates or kings & queens.
So rather than lectures or Youtube animations, I tell stories that bring the past to life.

My aim is to be chat as if I were having a coffee or meal with you. Jean in Maryland, USA recently wrote: "Chris, is the history teacher I wish I had at school!"

Just for the record, I do have a history degree in Medieval & Modern history from the University of Birmingham.

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