Sherlock Holmes and the Scouts

By Giorgio Esposito Vulgo Gigante
Translated by Rosella Fresani and Isabella Bernini

Stamp-collection is my hobby and I have always given special weight to the subject I like best, that is, Scouting. A lot of stamps represent its founder, sir R. S. Baden Powell of Gilwell, a brave British officer who died in Kenia in 1941.

Baden Powell accepted several assignments all around the world: in India, in Matbele during the Zulu rising, in the Gold Coast (Ghana) and in South Africa during the Boer War.

It was there that he met A. Conan Doyle, who worked as a correspondent for the London Reuter Agency. (Later, thanks to his war reports, Doyle got the title of baronet).

B. P., as Baden Powell was usually called, had a difficult task to accomplish. He commanded the garrison of Mafeking, a north-western village near the border with Botswana, that had been surrounded and besieged by the Boers. B. P. and his few men withstood the siege for 7 months.

In the meantime, since British people were particularly interested in the developments of the war, which had become a question of honour to the Crown, Doyle telegraphed his reports to London periodically.

It was just during the siege that B.P. could appreciate the discipline and the skill of the British boys who were employed as explorers and it was there that he conceived of setting up the scout movement.

Doyle and B. P. probably met at the end of 1899, when B. P. organized a splendid party celebrating both his victory and the New Year.

He was very proud to have such an important person as Conan Doyle among his guests.

It is said that they spoke at great length about Holmes's methods, in particular about observation and deduction, which were also the basic principles of the scouting. Holmes, in fact, is quoted in B. P.'s book "Scouting for Boys".

They talked not only about scouting, but also about the war and its back-stage activities. Conan Doyle asked B. P.'s opinion and got useful information to his book "The Great Boer War".

Unfortunately, their relationship broke off when they were back home.

B. P. was sent again to South Africa, where he organized the "South Africa constabulary", a local police force. while Conan Doyle applied himself to studies on spiritism.

Both Doyle and Baden Powell have rendered the U. K. great services and founded lasting movements: scouting, as well as the studies on Sherlock Holmes, are still well known and followed by thousands of people.

Both of them have left marks that time will hardly wipe out.