Olave St. Clair Soames
|
The Right Honourable The Baroness Baden-Powell GBE |
|
|---|---|
Lady Baden-Powell, Chief Guide
|
|
| Born |
22 February 1889 Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Died | 25 June 1977 (aged 88) Bramley, Surrey, England, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Guiding and Scouting |
| Spouse(s) | Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell (m. 1912; d. 1941) |
| Children |
|
| Parent(s) |
|
Olave St Clair Baden-Powell, Baroness Baden-Powell,GBE (née Soames; 22 February 1889 – 25 June 1977), known after the death of her husband as The Dowager Lady Baden-Powell, was the wife of Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting and Girl Guides, and the first Chief Guide for Britain. She outlived her husband, who was 32 years her senior, by over 35 years.
Lady Baden-Powell became Chief Guide for Britain in 1918. Later the same year, at the Swanwick conference for Commissioners in October, she was presented with a gold Silver Fish, one of only two ever made. She was elected World Chief Guide in 1930. As well as making a major contribution to the development of the Guide / Girl Scout movements, she visited 111 countries during her life, attending Jamborees and national Guide and Scout associations.
Born in Chesterfield, England, her father was a brewery owner and artist Harold Soames (13 Aug 1855 – 25 Dec 1918), who descended paternally from a landed gentry family, and maternally from a self-made man, Joseph Gilstrap / Gelthorpe, quondam Mayor of Newark, Nottinghamshire.
Olave's mother was Katharine (née Hill; 4 Dec 1851 – 4 Feb 1932), one of eleven children descended from a line of Russian merchants on her father's (Hill) side. Katharine's mother was Georgina Marian Wilkins (Jul 1827 – 13 Dec 1894), one of fifteen children of George Wilkins and his wife Amelia Auriol Hay-Drummond (11 September 1794 – 31 January 1871), who was the daughter of Edward Hay-Drummond, with whom (as a Curate) George Wilkins had lodged – and eloped with the daughter to Gretna Green, where they were married on 2 September 1811, ten days before her 17th birthday. The couple then returned to live in the parental home in Hadleigh. Edward Hay-Drummond was a son of Robert Hay Drummond, who was a son of the 8th Earl of Kinnoull (23 June 1689 – 1 September 1709).
...
Wikipedia