When BP was a boy at boarding school, he loved to escape and hide in the nearby forest. When he grew up and joined the British army, he taught his soldiers how to live in the woods too. BP showed them how to use maps and compasses, how to tell directions from the stars, and how to read tracks and trail signs. BP wanted his soldiers to be able to survive in the wilderness. He called these soldiers Scouts. He also wrote a book called Aids to Scouting.

In 1900, BP and his soldiers were defending a town during a war in South Africa. BP taught the boys of the town to do important jobs the soldiers usually did. He learned that boys could be taught to do important things and do their best at it.

In 1907, BP took 20 teenage boys to camp on Brownsea Island and taught them to do everything Scouts do. The next year, he wrote a book called Scouting for Boys.

By 1909, there were already 11,000 Boy Scouts. BP later wrote a book called The Wolf Cub's Handbook for even younger boys who wanted to be Scouts. There were girls who wanted to be Scouts and BP wrote a book for them too. Cubbing and Scouting spread from Britain to Canada, the United States, and all over the world. Thanks to Lord Robert Baden-Powell, there are now millions of people joined together in the worldwide community of Scouting.