THE statue of Lord Baden-Powell looking across the harbour has become a favourite with photographers visiting Poole Quay and now features in a new book about the founder of the Scout movement.
The bronze statue of B-P, as he was known, was unveiled two years ago to commemorate the centenary of the experimental camp for 20 boys he held on Brownsea Island that gave rise to Scouting.
In his book, entitled Baden-Powell’s Footprint across Britain (Lewarne Publishing, £18.95), London-based author Steven Harris interviews the sculptor David Annand, who reveals that it took 10 months to make and weighs 200kg (just under four hundredweight).
This statue’s completion followed £25,000 of fundraising by Brian Woolgar, chairman of Poole District Scout Council, and £10,000 secured from developers by Poole council.
Lord Baden-Powell and his wife Olave had strong links with Poole – they were married at St Peter’s Church in Parkstone in 1912.
B-P was made a Freeman of the Borough of Poole in 1929, and a photo of the scroll is one of more than 300 images in Harris’s book.
The Freeman motion was seconded by Charles Green who, coincidentally, had been a Boys’ Brigade officer helping B-P at the experimental Brownsea camp.
Other Scouting memorials featured in Harris’s 200-page book (which has a foreword by artist and conservationist David Shepherd) include the floor memorial tablet to Robert Baden-Powell and Olave at Westminster Abbey.
Lady Olave also unveiled a memorial stone to her husband in 1967 on Poole’s Evening Hill, and another stone on Brownsea Island commemorates the 1908 camp. A granite statue also stands outside Baden-Powell House in London’s Kensington.
B-P is buried near Mount Kenya, where his gravestone bears a circle with a dot, which is the Boy Scout trail sign for: “I have gone home.”
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