My Adventures As a Spy

“I love spy stories … especially when they are true.”
- Barthélemy Banks, Mumm

You think he was the ultimate Boy Scout, but before Robert Baden-Powell founded the Scouting Movement he was a spy. Not only did he spy for the British government, he wrote a book about those adventures -- explaining all. From the passing secret messages to using disguises, from hoodwinking the enemy to knowing whom to trust (no one). Baden-Powell tells all, and it reads like … well, like a spy novel. But it’s all true.

Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, OM, GCMG, GCVO (1857 –1941) was a lieutenant-general in the British Army and later the founder of the Boy Scout Movement. Known as B-P or Lord Baden-Powell, he was the first Chief Scout of the Boy Scouts Association. Baden-Powell served in the British Army from 1876 until 1910 in India and Africa. He developed his scouting skills amidst the Zulus. During the Second Boer War, he defended the South African town of Mafeking. Working as intelligence officer for the Director of Military Intelligence, he frequently travelled disguised as a butterfly collector. He hid plans of military installations in his drawings of butterfly wings. After retiring from the Army, Baden-Powell rewrote his military training manual for a younger audience and the Scouting Movement was born.