English soldier, writer and educator Robert Baden-Powell was BOTD in 1857. Born in London to a prominent military family, he was educated at the Charterhouse School, before joining the Hussars in British-controlled India. He rose to public attention during the Second Boer War in South Africa, successfully defending a siege in the town of Mafeking. In 1903, he published a military training manual, Aids to Scouting, which became a national bestseller. Encouraged by his friend William Alexander Smith, he rewrote the guide to suit a youth readership, holding a demonstration for boys to test out his theories. The resulting book, Scouting for Boys, became a publishing sensation, becoming the fourth best-selling book of the 20th century. He retired from the Army in 1910 to form The Scout Association, a programme of informal education for boys modelled on military lines, complete with uniforms and a merit system with badges, emphasising outdoor activities and manly pursuits like woodwork. Baden-Powell acted as the first Chief Scout, leading uniformed rallies in London with recruits. With his sister Agnes, he also founded the Girl Guide and Girl Scout organisations, leading both movements for over 25 years. He remained a popular author, publishing adventure stories for boys. To everyone’s surprise, the confirmed bachelor married Olave St Clair Soames in 1912, with whom he had three children. Baden-Powell’s sexuality has been extensively debated by historians and biographers. In his 1989 biography, Tim Jeal argued that Baden-Powell’s antiquarian views on women, appreciation of the male form and close relationships with men (including his friend Kenneth McLaren) suggested that he was a repressed homosexual – a theory greeted with howls of protest by the Scout Movement and patriotic Britons. He died in Kenya in 1941, aged 83, where his tomb is a national monument.