A very modern Baden Powell

Amongst the many new faces at the Sunrise ceremony, one man with a familiar name came out to join the celebrations. Lord Robert Baden Powell, grandson of our founder was there to see the lasting legacy of his namesake.

It’s a difficult equation to think about, what would a man steeped in the past think of the legacy and modern fresh appeal of the movement now. He was clear: “Something like this, particularly this jamboree with its motto would have sent him round the bend, he would have been so excited so pleased, and here at this jamboree that people are mixing together and there just becoming friends as they have something in common, it’s lovely.”

The current Baden Powell has clearly defined memories of his grandfather after listening to him as a small child.

“I do know he was very egalitarian, democratic, and free. He was very keen that everybody in this life should be made aware that no one is better than anyone else, nobody has a god given right to be superior to anybody else that everybody is the same. The first world war very much upset him because it was so terrible that there was this war going on, he saw that there could be a message for peace if only the people dropped this thing of nationality”

So it’s clear our founder would have approved of the Jamboree’s ethos where race or religion is no barrier to communication, something the modern day Baden Powell saw for himself.

“The sunrise ceremony was very moving; it was quite exciting standing on the stage. When they mentioned Lord Baden Powell was coming out, it’s the one thing that all the people of this jamboree have in common, the name Baden Powell, it means something to them. When we came on you just got this great wave, like a magnetic current, I’d experienced that two or three times before but to experience that today it was the most powerful.”