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{{Cargo_Research_Articles
|date=1993-01-01
|author=Philip Weller
|topic=Scouting
|summary=This analytical article explores the intellectual parallels between Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Baden-Powell, showing how Sherlock Holmes's methods of observation and deduction influenced early military scouting and the development of the Boy Scout movement. It examines textual evidence from Baden-Powell's writings and Conan Doyle's works to assess the reciprocal influence and shared Victorian ideals of preparedness and character formation.
}}
''A.C.D. and B-P'' is an article written by [[Philip Weller]] published in the [[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 4, 1993).

This analytical article explores the intellectual parallels between [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] and Robert Baden-Powell, showing how [[Sherlock Holmes]]'s methods of observation and deduction influenced early military scouting and the development of the Boy Scout movement. It examines textual evidence from Baden-Powell's writings and [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]]'s works to assess the reciprocal influence and shared Victorian ideals of preparedness and character formation.

== A.C.D. and B-P ==
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1993-vol4-p177-acd-and-b-p.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 4, 1993, p. 177)]]
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1993-vol4-p178-acd-and-b-p.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 4, 1993, p. 178)]]
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1993-vol4-p179-acd-and-b-p.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 4, 1993, p. 179)]]
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1993-vol4-p180-acd-and-b-p.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 4, 1993, p. 180)]]

Most Doyleans will have heard the almost-certainly apocryphal story of [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] finding, during a visit to Egypt, that members of the local police force had been issued with copies of [[The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes]] in order to improve their detective skills. Fewer readers will, however, be aware that there is a far more authentic example of [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] influencing the training of certain elements of the populations of many nations.

Many will know of at least one effect which [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] had upon the youth of the world one hundred years ago, which was well illustrated in the cartoon drawing of a distraught young lad in bed, reading of the 'death' of [[Sherlock Holmes]] in the [[The Strand Magazine]] in December 1893. Some Doyleans may not, however, be aware of a far more positive effect which [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] had upon the lives of millions of young boys and girls, through the influence which [[Sherlock Holmes]] had upon the man who was to become the founder of the Boy Scout (and Girl Guide) movement: Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, later to become Baron Baden-Powell of Gilwell.

As with [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]], Lord Baden-Powell is often referred to by his initials, although only those of his surname in this case. In what is undoubtedly B-P's most important literary work, Scouting for Boys (first published in 1908), he refers to [[Sherlock Holmes]] and his deductive methods on several occasions. He also refers to a man who displayed similar skills, and who played an important part in the birth of [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]]: [[Dr. Joseph Bell|Dr Joseph Bell]] of Edinburgh University. (1)

When B-P set up his Boy Scout movement he recommended that his scoutmasters should produce mystery stories, using either the [[Sherlock Holmes]] cases or adventures which they created themselves, and that they should then have their scouts attempt to solve these mysteries using the processes of observation and deduction employed by [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]]. Even before becoming interested in youth training movements, though, B-P had recorded the usefulness of the Holmesian method. In a formal military report produced at the end of the nineteenth century, B-P described how he had encouraged his military scouts to study Holmes, and explained how they were trained to deduce useful military information from signs left on the environment by others. (2) One of B-P's junior officers at that time, Lt G. A. Swinton-Home (later Lt Col Swinton-Home), suggested that it was B-P's reading of the [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]] cases which directly led to his developing this aspect of military training: 'In my view, this started his great interest in deduction.' (3)

It should not, however, be thought that it was entirely the work of [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] which encouraged such ideas in B-P, for this is an example of two minds working along similar lines at the same time, with [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] probably providing a clarifying effect upon the ideas of B-P. Before the publication of the first [[Sherlock Holmes]] case, although in the same year that [[A Study in Scarlet]] was written, B-P had published a training analysis entitled Cavalry Instruction. In this he emphasised the importance of the study of all kinds of evidence, and of the practice of then '... putting things together.' (4) This might well be considered an excellent summary of the most important part of the Holmesian method. It was almost inevitable that [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] and B-P should follow such parallel lines of thought, for they each shared many common interests, and a certain degree of experience and fame, particularly in connection with the Boer War.

It was in this context that B-P's awareness of the work of [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] was reciprocated by [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]], when the latter recognised something in B-P which many others were only later to appreciate. In producing a glowing account of the Siege of Mafeking and the way in which B-P conducted that famous defence, [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] commented: <q>'An impish humour broke out in him, and the mischievous schoolboy alternated with the warrior and the administrator.'</q> (5) [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] might almost have had B-P in mind in 1912, when he expressed his own aims: (6)

: I have wrought my simple plan
: If I give one hour of joy
: To the boy who's half a man
: Or the man who's half a boy.

[[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] was not averse to expressing criticism, however, if he felt it was deserved, although he was in a rather privileged position in being able to do this. Following the Boer War there was a great deal of debate over the correct use of cavalry in modern war. When Lord Roberts instructed B-P to prepare a report on this topic, B-P was not in a position to criticise his superior officers openly. He knew that Lord Roberts, his Commander-in-Chief in South Africa, favoured the use of cavalry as shock troops, whereas the specialist officer he had to consult on the subject at Aldershot, Sir John French, was in favour of using cavalry as mounted riflemen. B-P compromised in the relevant section of his report, Cavalry Action, by suggesting that there were three ways in which cavalry could fight: '1. Mounted, by charging. 2. Dismounted by rifle fire. 3. Combined action, by part firing and part charging, or preparing to charge.' (7) [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] quite rightly pointed out the logical flaw in such thinking:
'... the tactics of the shock horseman and of the mounted rifleman are absolutely contradictory ... The shock horseman is always looking for good ground and someone to charge. The mounted rifleman is looking for bad ground where he and his horse can both be concealed ... You can have it either way, but you cannot have it both.' (8)

There was another parallel in the interests of the two great men at the beginning of the new century, again largely derived from their experiences in the Boer War, although a divergence of primary aim was gradually to develop. This interest also indicates that it was not only the Sherlock Holmes stories with which B-P was familiar amongst the works of [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]]. In 1904, B-P gave a lecture, entitled 'Soldiering', to a group of potential Army officers at Eton College. In his talk, he suggested that each member of the audience should, during his holidays, together and train a squad of (say) ten boys in his village or town, just as the Knights of old used to get together their "clump" (as they called it) of armed retainers and trained them to patriotism and use of arms. The way to set about it would be to get a few boys to come in the evening and read to them a book about the knights, such as Conan Doyle's White Company [sic], etc. ...' (9)

It has been suggested that this lecture was the genesis of the Boy Scout movement, (10) but this fails to recognise that B-P was at that time implementing a specific instruction from his military superiors for the encouragement of the formation of youth rifle groups, and the remainder of the lecture was directed more to the military aspects of such a policy, as is revealed by a more balanced interpretation. (11) With this development of the Boy Scout movement, B-P was to move gradually away from these militaristic elements of youth training schemes, although he never entirely abandoned them. [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]], in contrast, was to concentrate more and more on attempting to rectify the military deficiencies which he had seen in South Africa, and he formed his own rifle club at Hindhead, using a rifle range which he had had constructed in the valley below his house, to encourage the acquisition of similar levels of marksmanship to that of the Boers. He was to develop his ideas for military training further when he formed his own company of defence volunteers at Crowborough, to ensure that others would be prepared' when any future war might occur. However he was, like B-P after his retirement from the Army, reluctant to become involved in any form of military recruitment during peace-time. (12)

There was actually an enormous amount of interest shown in schemes for improving the character, health and general military potential of young lads throughout the British Empire between the end of the Boer War and the beginning of the First World War. In 1902, B-P was asked to contribute a message to the magazine of the Boys' Empire League. That organisation had achieved a membership of more than 7,000 boys, and amongst the members of the Council of the League were two dukes, two earls, two barons, several admirals and generals, and a certain Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The League was never particularly inspiring, primarily concentrating on the provision of summer camps, swimming and life-saving lessons, but it did have a very jingoistic magazine, Boys of the Empire, and B-P was quick to learn the value of magazines for popularising any topic, a lesson which [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] had learned with the [[The Strand Magazine|Strand Magazine]] in 1891.

It can be seen that there are many similarities between [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] and B-P, and most of these can be seen to represent the continuation of the idealism of the Victorian Age into an age where those ideals were beginning to decline. [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] was born just two years after B-P, but the latter was to outlive [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] by eleven years. Both men were totally dedicated to those things in which they believed, and the reputations of both were to suffer from the way in which they tried to encourage others to achieve understandings which they considered to be important. Both men have had their later detractors, B-P particularly so, but it is certain that both will continue to influence the lives of others long after their detractors have been forgotten. The admirers of B-P will continue to play the great game of life, and for the admirers of [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]], the game will long remain afoot.

'''References:'''

1. Baden-Powell, R. S. S.: Scouting for Boys; Horace Cox, 1908.

2. Baden-Powell, R. S. S.: Report on the Scouting System of the 5th Dragoon Guards; Boy Scouts of America Collection, undated but possibly written on 16 January 1899.

3. Swinton-Home, G. A.: The Scouter, December 1951.

4. Baden-Powell, R. S. S.: Cavalry Instruction; 1886.

5. [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Doyle, A. C.]]: [[The Great Boer War]], Smith Elder, 1900, Ch. XXIV.

6. [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Doyle, A. C.]]: [[The Lost World]]; Hodder & Stoughton, 1912.

7. Baden-Powell, R. S. S.: 'Cavalry Action' in B-P Diary; Boy Scouts of America Collection, dated 8 October 1903.

8. [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Doyle, A. C.]]: letter to the editor, Pall Mall Gazette; 6 April 1910.

9. Baden-Powell, R. S. S., in Eton College Chronicle; 8 December 1904.

10. Rosenthal, M.: The Character Factor: Baden-Powell and the Origins of the Scout Movement, Rosenthal, 1986.

11. Jeal, T.: Baden-Powell; Hutchinson, 1989.

12. Nordon, P.: Conan Doyle; Murray, 1966.

'''Editors' Footnote:'''

Dame Jean Conan Doyle recounts that Baden-Powell wrote to ACD seeking to enlist his help with the founding of the Boy Scout movement. Whether B-P was seeking financial aid, or someone to serve on a committee is not clear. ACD replied, wishing B-P well with his endeavours, but declining to assist. He felt that, though admirable, the movement was too idealistic to have any permanency. Oh, how wrong we can be on occasion!

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A.C.D. and B-P - Revision history