George Baden-Powell

Sir George Smyth Baden-Powell, KCMG (24 December 1847–20 November 1898)^[1], was a son of the mathematician, the Rev. Prof. Baden Powell. He was also the brother of: The 1st Baron Baden-Powell; Baden Baden-Powell; Warington Baden-Powell; Agnes Baden-Powell; and Frank Baden-Powell. After graduating at Balliol College, Oxford, and studying at the Inner Temple, he acted as a commissioner in Victoria, Australia, the West Indies, Malta and Canada.^[2]

Birth

His father was the Rev. Prof. Baden Powell, Savillian Professor at the University of Oxford. His mother, Henrietta Grace Smyth, was the daughter of Admiral William Henry Smyth, and became the third wife of the Rev. Prof. Baden Powell (the previous two having died). She was a gifted musician and artist.

His birth was registered on Oxford.

Education

He was educated at St. Paul's School, London, and at Marlborough College, Marlborough, Wiltshire. He went on to Balliol College, Oxford University, from which he graduated as a Doctor of Law (LL.D.).

Career

He was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society (F.R.S.). He was an author on political, financial and colonial topics. He was Conservative MP for Liverpool Kirkdale from 1885 to 1898.

Honours

He was appointed Companion, Order of St. Michael and St. George (C.M.G.) in 1884. He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) (Conservative) for Liverpool, Kirkdale Division between 1885 and 1898.1 He was appointed Knight Commander, Order of St. Michael and St. George (K.C.M.G.) in 1888.

Family

In 1893 he married Frances Wilson. They had a daughter, Maud Kirkdale Baden-Powell (b. 1895), and a son, Donald Ferlys Wilson Baden-Powell (1897–1973).

Exploration

In 1896 he took his yacht Otaria to the island of Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic to observe the total solar eclipse of that year.^[3] On his return to Vardø, Norway, he met his friend Fritjof Nansen who had just returned from his three-year drift and trek across the Arctic. Having intended to start a search for him, he put his yacht at Nansen's disposal and they had only reached Hammerfest when the news arrived that the Fram had also arrived back in Norway.^[4]

Publications

George Baden-Powell (1872), New Homes for the Old Country
George Baden-Powell (1882), State Aid and State Interference
George Baden-Powell, ed. (1888), The Truth about Home Rule

References

^ http://www.thepeerage.com/p6352.htm#i63520
^ Dictionary of National Biography
^ Sir George Baden-Powell (1897), "Total Eclipse of the sun, 1896 - The Novaya-Zemlya observations", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 190, doi:10.1098/rsta.1897.0019, JSTOR 90728
^ Fritjof Nansen (1897), Farthest North, vol. 2, p. 586