Baden-Powell Library
E. E. Reynolds, B-P, Chapter I. Training of a Tenderfoot An Excerpt from: E.E. Reynolds, B-P: The Story of His Life, London, Oxford University Press, 1943. CHAPTER I. THE TRAINING OF A TENDERFOOT WHEN Charterhouse School was still in London, there was a traditional feud between the scholars and the butcher boys of Smithfield Market just outside. During one of these battles, when brickbats and other missiles were being flung over the wall, a group of smaller boys were cheering on the seniors. Suddenly the door of the school opened, and out stepped the head master, Dr. Haig Brown, or "Old Bill." He too watched for a minute or so, then he said to the onlookers, "If you boys go out by that side gate, you could take them in the flank." "The gate is locked, sir!" "True, but I have brought the key." In a few minutes the sortie was made, and the enemy routed. Amongst those younger scholars was a slightly-built, sandy-haired, freckled boy who, in after life, was to achieve fame as the defender of Mafeking, and founder of the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides. Everyone came to know him as "B.-P." His full name was Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell. He was born on 22nd February, 1857, in London. His father was a clergyman and a professor at Oxford, well known as a distinguished scientist. B.-P.'s mother was the daughter of another scientist, Admiral William Smyth, who claimed descent from the same family as Captain John Smith, the Elizabethan adventurer who helped to found the colony of Virginia in America.
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