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]

George Baden-Powell

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

On 8 April 1893 in Cheltenham George married Frances Annie Wilson,[3] the daughter of a wealthy Australian land-owner.[4] They had a daughter, Maud Kirkdale Baden-Powell (27 July 1895 - 6 Dec 1981), and a son, Donald Ferlys Wilson Baden-Powell (1897–1973). Frances died aged 50 in Cheltenham on 29 Oct 1913.[5]

Exploration

In 1896 he took his yacht Otaria to the island of Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic to observe that year's total solar eclipse.[6] 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. George, having intended to start a search for Nansen, put his yacht at Nansen's disposal to search for Nansen's ship, the Fram, but they had only reached Hammerfest (300 miles West along the Northern Norwegian coast) when the news reached them that the Fram had also arrived back in Norway.[7]

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
  1. http://www.thepeerage.com/p6352.htm#i63520
  2. Dictionary of National Biography
  3. https://www.freebmd.org.uk
  4. "Baden-Powell" by Tim Jeal(Hutchinson, 1989, p. 156)
  5. https://www.freebmd.org.uk
  6. 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
  7. Fritjof Nansen (1897), Farthest North, 2, p. 586
Parliament of the United Kingdom
New constituency Member of Parliament for Liverpool Kirkdale
1885 – 1898		 Succeeded by
David MacIver
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