Baden-Powell

Baron Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell was a British general and the founder of the Boy Scout movement. He was born in London, England, UK. After studying at Charterhouse he joined the army in 1876, served in India and Afghanistan, and won fame during the Boer War as the defender of Mafeking (1899-1900). He is best known as the founder in 1908 of the Boy Scouts and in 1910, with his sister Agnes (1858-1945), of the Girl Guides. He published Scouting for Boys in 1908, founded the Wolf Cubs in 1916, and was acclaimed world chief scout in 1920.

The Siege of Mafeking 1899-1900

The siege of Mafeking was the most celebrated siege of the second Boer War. Colonel Robert Baden-Powell and a detachment of British troops were besieged by the Boers from October 1899 until May 1900. The news of their relief aroused public hysteria in Britain, the celebrations being known as 'mafficking'.

The truth about the siege may have been rather different from the heroic action depicted by the British press. It has been alleged that the white garrison survived in reasonable comfort as the result of appropriating the rations of the blacks, who were faced either with starvation or with running the gauntlet of the Boers by escaping from the town.

The cyanotype photography process (which used paper impregnated with an iron compound, ammonium ferricitrate, which on exposure to light formed Prussian blue) was used in Mafeking during the Boer War, when Baden-Powell directed that banknotes and postage stamps be reproduced during the siege