1. Olave St Clair Baden-Powell, Baroness Baden-Powell was the first Chief Guide for Britain and the wife of Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell.
27 Facts About Olave Baden-Powell
1. 2.
Olave Baden-Powell was educated by her parents and by several governesses at home.
3.
Olave Baden-Powell lived in seventeen homes in the first 23 years of her life.
4.
Olave Baden-Powell became keen on outdoor sports including tennis, swimming, football, skating and canoeing, and played the violin.
5.
Olave Baden-Powell was the sister of Arthur Granville Soames and thus aunt to his children, including Christopher Soames, Conservative politician and diplomat, who in 1947 married Mary Churchill, the youngest child of Sir Winston Churchill.
6.
In January 1912, Olave met Second Boer War hero and founder of the Scouts, Robert Baden-Powell, on an ocean liner on the way via the Caribbean to New York to start a lecture tour.
7.
Olave Baden-Powell was 23, he was 55, and they shared the same birthday.
8.
Olave Baden-Powell's father helped financially with the purchase of Pax Hill near Bentley, Hampshire, as a family home where she lived with her husband from 29 January 1919 until 25 October 1938.
9.
Olave Baden-Powell was one of the team of five men and three women who staffed the hut at the start.
10.
Olave Baden-Powell persuaded her mother to look after the children for the time she would be away.
11.
Olave Baden-Powell left for France on 7 October 1915, when her second child was five months old.
12.
Olave Baden-Powell recalled in her autobiography playing her violin and singing at the Christmas Concert.
13.
Olave Baden-Powell adopted several stray animals during her time in Val-de-Lievres.
14.
Olave Baden-Powell was the warranted Scoutmaster of this troop, assisted by the family's housemaid and the gardener.
15.
Olave Baden-Powell accompanied Robert on many of his Scouting tours and to events.
16.
In 1915, the Baden-Powells bought a small car, and after Robert taught her to drive, Olave often drove him to engagements.
17.
Olave Baden-Powell became the County Commissioner for Sussex in March 1916.
18.
In 1918, Olave Baden-Powell was acclaimed Chief Guide, a title she much preferred to Chief Commissioner.
19.
Olave Baden-Powell was presented with a personal standard by the UK Girl Guide's County Commissioners.
20.
Olave Baden-Powell outlived her husband, who was 32 years her senior, by over 35 years.
21.
Olave Baden-Powell was helped to reply to them all by Bertha Hines, the wife of David Hines, who was away fighting the Italian army that had invaded Ethiopia and Somalia.
22.
Olave Baden-Powell was on a visit when a V2 missile damaged her Hampton Court apartment in 1944.
23.
Olave Baden-Powell led the Guide Movement worldwide for forty years, travelling all over the globe helping to establish and encourage the Guide Movement in other countries, and bringing membership to over six and a half million worldwide.
24.
Olave Baden-Powell was present in Washington, DC in 1962 for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the American Girl Scouts.
25.
Olave Baden-Powell's ashes were taken to Kenya to be buried in the same grave as her husband's remains.
26.
Olave Baden-Powell was survived by her two daughters, her son having predeceased her.
27.
Day or World Thinking Day, the joint birthdays of Robert and Olave Baden-Powell, to remember and celebrate the work of the Chief Scout and Chief Guide of the World.