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B-P’s Brother Sir George

Sir George Smyth Baden-Powell, M.P.

B-P’s second oldest brother, Sir George Smyth Baden-Powell, was born in 1847. He was educated at St. Paul’s, London, Marlborough, and Balliol College, Oxford University. He studied the law at the Inner Temple and was admitted to the Bar. Sir George served in the colonial foreign service beginning as secretary to Sir George Brown in Victoria, Australia; joint-commissioner of West Indies, 1882. He was elected Conservative MP for Kirkdale, Manchester, and served from 1885-98. Sir George was commissioned to arrange new Maltese constitution in 1887. He was honored with the KCMG in 1888. He served on the commission on Bering Seas Fisheries in 1891 and on the Joint Commission in Washington in 1892. He was adviser on a British case in Paris, 1893 and served in a number of other political and economic capacities in the British Colonial Service. He was the author of New Homes for the Old Country (1872), The Saving of Ireland: Industrial, Financial, Political (1898) and of Policy and Wealth in Ashanti, an additional chapter to B-P’s The Downfall of Prempeh (1896). He died in 1898.

In 2000, Monash University in Australia held an Exhibition of Material from the Early Australian History from their Rare Book Collection. The exhibit included illustrations from George S, Baden-Powell’s New homes for the Old Country: A personal experience of the political and domestic life, the industries, and the natural history of Australia and New Zealand (London : Richard Bentley, 1872). The online catalogue commented:

Baden-Powell’s book is a valuable source of contemporary detail, not only in its descriptions, but also for the fine and unusual engravings. The frontispiece shows an aboriginal stalking emus. He has camouflaged himself with shrubbery and has his arm upraised to mimic the emu’s neck. The title-page vignette shows two platypuses in a bush pool.

In common with the other books written to encourage emigration, it describes the various industries thriving in Australia. The wine industry was already becoming established and Baden-Powell has some observations and advice:

There are various industries more or less common up-country in the several colonies, foremost among which stands the production of wine.

Climate and soil are all that can be desired, and it therefore depends entirely on man to render wine a source of future prosperity to the Australian world.

The proper drink of a country, of the climate and soil of Australia, is a light wine, which should be saleable at about twopence or threepence per half-pint.

It will be a great object when Australia can supply the market with a dependable wine, Russia, England, and the United States are great markets for any good wine; and the numerous passenger vessels trading to Australia might well be supplied for the voyage in Sydney or Melbourne instead of being stored with wines from Europe.

Champagne, rapidly becoming an essential medicine, is a species of wine that would do well in Australia. Very good wine is already made in Australia, but by far the greater proportion is taken too little care of; and again, it is drunk as if it were a strong brandied wine (as port or sherry), in small glasses and at about the same price. Whereas it is evident that the want of the country is a light wine, of similar strength and price to beer. (p. 213-216)

		The State Library of Tasmania has three additional illustrations from New Homes from the Old Country (1872) in their collection of images. These include "Eagle Hawk Neck," "Hobart Town from Mount Nelson" and "Signal Semaphore at Port Arthur."
		Sir George S. Baden-Powell, K.C.M.G., M.P., "Policy and Wealth in Ashanti" published in R. S. S. Baden-Powell. The Downfall of Prempeh (1896).
		Baden-Powell Family History. A series of links starting with the research of Robin Baden Clay, a grandson of Baden-Powell. These links are focused on the genealogy of the Powell family. The author is extremely grateful to Mr. Clay for sharing the results of his labors with the Scouting community. Links are provided to pages for three of B-P’s brothers: Baden, Warington and Sir George Baden-Powell, to members of his extended family, and to the genealogy of the Smyth and Warington families.
		Baden-Powell Home Page

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