Agnes Baden-Powell

Agnes "Azzie" Baden-Powell (* December 16, 1858 ; † June 2, 1945 ) was the first world leader of the Girl Scouts after they were founded in 1910.

She was the sister of Robert Baden-Powell , the founder of the worldwide boy scout movement, and was asked by him to organize the Girl Guides in the United Kingdom. She founded Rosebuds , later renamed Brownies (Girl Guides) for young girls in 1914.

Life

She and her brother Robert were two of ten children, several of whom became famous. Her youngest brother Baden Baden-Powell , for example, was a pioneer in military aviation. Her father was Reverend B. Baden-Powell, who was Professor of Geometry at Oxford University in England. Her mother was a musically and artistically as well as mathematically and scientifically gifted woman. Agnes did not marry until she was 36 and also had ten children. The Baden-Powell family was an upper class family in England , which meant money was never a problem. When she took over the Girl Scout movement, Agnes was already over 50 years old.

In April 1910, when there were already 6,000 girls registered with the Boy Scouts, she decided, together with two other friends and her brother Robert, to separate boys and girls into two groups. In the following seven years, based on the book by her brother Scouting for Boys , she wrote the “Handbook of the Girl Guides”, which was also published under the title “How Girls Can Help to Build Up the Empire” in collaboration with Robert Baden-Powell .

In 1917 she gave the leadership of the Girl Scouts to Olave Baden-Powell , Sir Robert Baden-Powell's wife. However, she remained vice-chairwoman of the Girl Guides until her death at the age of 86.

Works

• Handbook of the Girl Guides , in collaboration with Robert Baden-Powell, 1912
• How Girls can Help to Build up the Empire , follow-up book to Handbook of the Girl Guides