Lady B.P( Olave St Clair Baden-Powell)

Olave Baden-Powell

Born	22 February 1889 Chesterfield, England
Died	25 June 1977 (aged 88) Bramley, Surrey, England
Occupation	Guiding and Scouting
Spouse(s)	Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell (m. 1912; d. 1941)
Children	Peter Baden-Powell, 2nd Baron The Hon. Heather King The Hon. Betty Clay
Parent(s)	Harold Soames Katherine Mary Hill

Olave St Clair Baden-Powell, Baroness Baden-Powell, GBE (22 February 1889 – 25 June 1977) was born Olave St Clair Soames in Chesterfield, England. After the death of her husband, she was known as Olave, Lady Baden-Powell, or The Dowager Lady Baden-Powell. She outlived her husband, Robert Baden-Powell (22 Feb 1857 – 8 Jan 1941), the founder of Scouting and Girl Guides, by over 35 years. He was 32 years older than her.
Olave became Chief Guide for Britain in 1918. Later the same year, at the Swanwick conference for Commissioners in October, she was presented with a gold Silver Fish, one of only two ever made. She was elected World Chief Guide in 1930. As well as making a major contribution to the development of the Guide / Girl Scout movements, she visited 111 countries during her life, attending Jamborees and national Guide and Scout associations.

Ancestry

Olave's father was a brewery owner and artist Harold Soames (13 Aug 1855 – 25 Dec 1918), who descended paternally from a landed gentry family, and maternally from a self-made man, Joseph Gilstrap / Gelthorpe, quondam Mayor of Newark, Nottinghamshire.
Olave's mother was Katharine (née Hill; 4 Dec 1851 – 4 Feb 1932), one of eleven children descended from a line of Russian merchants on her father's (Hill) side. Katharine's mother was Georgina Marian Wilkins (Jul 1827 – 13 Dec 1894), one of fifteen children of George Wilkins and his wife Amelia Auriol Hay-Drummond (11 Sept 1794 – 31 Jan 1871), who was the daughter of Edward Hay-Drummond, with whom (as a Curate) George Wilkins had lodged – and eloped with the daughter to Gretna Green, where they were married on 2 September 1811, ten days before her 17th birthday. The couple then returned to live in the parental home in Hadleigh. Edward Hay-Drummond was a son of Robert Hay Drummond, who was a son of the 8th Earl of Kinnoull (23 Jun 1689 – 1 Sept 1709).

Early life

Olave Soames was the third child and youngest daughter of her parents. She was educated by her parents and by a number of governesses at home. She lived in seventeen homes in the first 23 years of her life. Olave became keen on outdoor sports including tennis, swimming, football, skating and canoeing, and also played the violin.

Marriage and children

Olave Baden-Powell with her husband and their three children in 1917.

In January 1912, Olave met Second Boer War hero and founder of the Scouts, Robert Baden-Powell, on an ocean liner (RMSP Arcadian) on the way via the Caribbean to New York to start a lecture tour. She was 23, he was 55, and they shared the same birthday. They became engaged in September of the same year, causing a media sensation. They married on 30 October 1912 in a very private ceremony, in St. Peter's Church, Parkstone, her Parish Church. She was given away by her father; apart from clergy, the only other people present were his brother and sister and Robert Kekewich, a close friend of his, her mother & brother, her brother-in-law and Miss Sie Bower, a close friend of hers.
The Scouts and Guides of England each donated a penny to buy the Baden-Powells a wedding gift of a car (note that this is not the Rolls-Royce known as "Jam-Roll" that was presented to them in 1929). Olave's father assisted 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.
The Baden-Powells had three children — a son and two daughters (who took the courtesy titles of Honourable in 1929; the son later succeeding his father as the 2nd Lord Baden-Powell upon his father's death in 1941)

Growing involvement in Scouting

Olave and Robert moved into Ewhurst Place (see photograph on the right), outside Robertsbridge in Sussex in April 1913. In June of that year, the 1st Ewhurst Scout Troop was inaugurated. Olave was the warranted Scoutmaster of this troop, assisted by the family's housemaid and the gardener. Olave accompanied Robert on many of his Scouting tours and to events. She also typed letters for him. In 1915, the Baden-Powell's bought a small car, and after Robert taught her to drive, Olave often drove him to engagements.
Although most famously connected with the Girl Guides, Olave's first offer to help them in 1914 was turned down. The Girl Guide Movement had started following pressure from girls who wanted to become Scouts; the Movement was set up by Robert Baden-Powell and his sister Agnes Baden-Powell, but was not progressing well. After the reorganisation of the Girl Guides in 1915, Olave again offered to help, this time successfully, and she started organising Guiding in Sussex. She became the County Commissioner for Sussex in March 1916.In October 1916, the first conference for County Commissioners was held and it was here that the Commissioners unanimously requested that Olave take the role of Chief Commissioner – she was just pregnant with her third child. During this period she organised a great number of women in other parts of Britain to take up roles in Guiding. In 1918, Olave was acclaimed Chief Guide, a title she much preferred to Chief Commissioner.