Peter Baden-Powell, 2nd Baron Baden-Powell

The Right Honourable The Lord Baden-Powell
Arms of the Baron Baden-Powell
Born	Arthur Robert Peter Baden-Powell (1913-10-30)30 October 1913 Ewhurst, East Sussex, UK
Died	9 December 1962(1962-12-09) (aged 49) St Thomas' Hospital, London, UK

Arthur Robert Peter Baden-Powell, 2nd Baron Baden-Powell FRSA (30 October 1913 – 9 December 1962), known as Peter, was the son of Lieutenant-General Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting, and Olave St. Clair Soames. He served with the British South Africa Police in Southern Rhodesia, and then in the Southern Rhodesian Civil Service until the end of the Second World War, when he returned to Britain, and became a director of companies, and a Special Constable with the City of London Police.

Background[]

Peter was the nephew of Agnes Baden-Powell, Baden Baden-Powell, and Warington Baden-Powell, and the grandson of the Rev. Baden Powell. Peter was named Arthur after his mother's brother, Robert after his father, and Peter after Peter Pan, a character in a play by James Barrie, of whom Peter's father, the first Lord Baden-Powell, was a great fan. Likewise, Peter Baden-Powell named his daughter Wendy after another character in the play.^[1]

Education and early career[]

Peter Baden-Powell was educated at Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey, England, like his father, and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Berkshire, though he did not complete the course. He served in the British South Africa Police between 1934 and 1937, when he married, but this was forbidden by his terms of service, so he transferred to the Native Affairs Department, Southern Rhodesia between 1937 and 1945.

Family[]

On 3 January 1936, Peter Baden-Powell married Carine Crause Boardman (1913 - 14 May 1993). She was a nurse. The couple had two sons and a daughter:-

• Robert Crause, born 15 October 1936, the 3rd Baron Baden-Powell, who married Patience Helene Mary Batty (1936–2010) in 1963. He died childless 28 December 2019.^[2]
• David Michael, born Dec 1940, the 4th Baron Baden-Powell, who married Joan Phillips Berryman, and lives in Melbourne, Australia. They have three sons.
• The Honourable Wendy Dorothy, born 16 September 1944, unmarried, and lives in Melbourne, Australia

Later career[]

In 1948 he was elected a member of the Mercers' Company. Upon the death of his father on 8 January 1941, he succeeded to the title of 2nd Baron Baden-Powell, of Gilwell, Essex. He was invested as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (R.S.A.).

Peter was deeply involved in Scouting. He was, until his death, Guildmaster of The B–P Guild of Old Scouts.^[3] During a visit in Austria in 1957 he was awarded one of the highest honours of Austrian Scouting the Silbernen Steinbock (am rot-weiß-roten Band);^[4] that same year he also received the highest distinction of the Scout Association of Japan, the Golden Pheasant Award.^[5]

In May 1952 he visited Poole in Dorset on the invitation of Lord Llewellyn, Baron of Upton, who was at the time a Scout Master at 1st Hamworthy Scout Troop, a Troop which had been started by some of the Boys who had camped on Brownsea Island with B-P in 1907. Peter Baden-Powell opened the new Group Scout Hall which had been built following fundraising organised by Lord Llewellyn.

Peter was also a Special Constable in the City of London Police Force.

At the 50th Anniversary World Scout Jamboree at Sutton Coldfield in 1957, in a pageant showing the history of Scouting, Peter played the part of his father.

Death[]

Peter Baden-Powell camped at the Gilwell Re-union in September 1962; it was very wet and cold. Peter caught a cold, that turned to pneumonia, and then to pleurisy, from which Peter died in St. Thomas's Hospital, London, on 9 December 1962, aged only 49.^[6]

Arms[]

Coat of arms of Peter Baden-Powell, 2nd Baron Baden-Powell hide

Adopted 1929 Coronet Coronet of a baron. Crest 1st: a Lion passant Or in the paw a broken Tilting Spear in bend proper pendent therefrom by a Riband Gules an Escutcheon resting on a Wreath Sable charged with a Pheon Or (Powell); 2nd: out of a Crown Vallary Or a Demi Lion rampant Gules on the head a like Crown charged on the shoulders with a Cross Patée Argent and supporting with the paws a Sword Erect proper Pommel and Hilt Gold (Baden). Escutcheon Quarterly: 1 and 4th, Per fess Or and Argent a Lion rampant gules between two Tilting Spears erect proper (Powell); 2nd and 3rd, Argent a Lion rampant proper on the head a Crown Vallary Or between four Crosses Patée Gules and as many Fleur-de-lis Azure alternately (Baden). Supporters Dexter: an Officer of 13th/18th Hussars in full dress his Sword drawn over his shoulder proper; sinister: a Boy Scout holding a Staff also proper. Motto Ar Nyd Yw Pwyll Pyd Yw (Where there is steadiness, there will be a Powell).

Ancestry[]

References[]