B-P's footprint is a casting, usually in bronze or brass, of the right foot of Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scout Movement (and whose sister founded the Guides movement), who is known as "B.-P." The idea is that people may put their foot into this casting, so that they can say that they have "walked in the footsteps of B-P."Miss Kari Aas, who also designed the WAGGGS emblem that was adopted at the World Conference in 1930, attended the 1928 World Scout Conference as one of the Norwegian delegates, and much of the information herein was gleaned from her report.
History The 1928 Scouting World Conference was officially opened on 4 May in Parád, Hungary. The next day, the delegates went on an excursion to Lake Balaton and other places returning to Budapest in the afternoon. That evening, Baden-Powell, his wife Olave and Lord Hampton arrived.
On 6 May, there was a rally at the playing field of Ferencvárosi TC attended by 9,647 out of the 25,000 Scouts then in Hungary and up to 20,000 of the public. On 7 May B.-P. came to the Hárshegy Training Park. B.-P. wrote, about the rally at Hárshegy:
From this cast two bronze copies were made, one was for the Hárshegy Training Park and the other was a gift to Baden-Powell, which he passed to the British Scout Headquarters.
In November 1928, after a request for the World Chief Scout to provide another copy of his footprint was made by the Queensland Scouters in Australia, B.-P. replied: Talking of tracking, when I was in Hungary the novel idea occurred to the scout authorities there of taking an impress of my foot in concrete, as proving that I had been there. In consequence of this, I have been invited by an Australian scout training centre to send them my footprint; but for one thing, my foot is not specially a thing of beauty to set up as an ornament, nor did I quite like to send it to a spot which my foot has not, as yet, trodden. Otherwise, I should have been proud to have my visit recorded as indubitably as a criminal's thumb-print shows him to have been the guest of his Majesty—in gaol. So when next I go to Australia I shall take with me the most characterful pair of shoes that I can find.
On his Australian and New Zealand visit, on Thursday, 26 March 1931, B.-P. dutifully made an imprint of his right shoe into concrete.
In 1933, during the 4th World Scout Jamboree in Gödöllő, Hungary the British Contingent get a copy from the Hungarian Honorary Chief Scout, count Pál Teleki. One of them passed to the B-P House, London, and the other passed to the Gilwell Park. When the communists took over and banned Scouting in 1948, the training ground was confiscated and houses were built on the land; neither the original concrete footprint, nor the "Hungarian original bronze" has been seen since.
The text is the next on the bronze statue: at right side: 'The Footprint in the Sands of Time', at the left side: 'To Gilwell Park the home of Scoutcraft from Hárshegy Training Park /Hungary/ in memory of the visit of the Chief Scout'.
Norway The Norwegian Boy Scout Organization received a copy of the B.-P. Footprint as a gift from Gilwell Park by Camp Chief John ThurmanVisitors' book, Sverveli in the summer of 1959. A Kudu horn was presented at the same time. The footprint then was mounted in front of the house at the Norwegian Gilwell Training Ground on the farm "Sverveli" in Telemark, Norway..
There it stayed for 41 years, until June 2010, when Sverveli was sold. The Norwegian B.-P. Footprint then was removed and is at present a part of the equipment used at the annual Norwegian Trefoil-Gilwell (Wood Badge) training courses.. In June 2012, a casting in brass was made from the Norwegian footprint at the Østlandske Lettmetall foundry in Elverum, Norway. It is used during the Trefoil-Gilwell courses as a symbol of the Baden-Powell spirit, along with a 6-bead woodbadge suspended from a tripod..
United Kingdom Gilwell Park Before World War II a copy of the "British original bronze" was cast and placed at Gilwell Park, the original remained at Scout Headquarters in London. Gilwell was requisitioned by the War Ministry from 1940 to 1945 as a local command, training, and ordnance centre. During this time the footprint was left undisturbed.
In 1991 four Members of the Hungarian Scout Headquarters team visited England, and saw the Baden-Powell footprint at Gilwell. At their request, a plastic mould was taken of the first "British original bronze", by this time at Baden-Powell House, and from this the Hungarians cast a new footprint, which was installed in their new Scout Training Park, given them in 1991 by the Hungarian Government.
Brownsea Island On Friday 3 August 2012, there was a dinner to close the 67th Norwegian Trefoil-Gilwell Training course held on the island. A copy of the B.-P. footprint was presented by staff member Øystein Gonsholt to Brownsea Island, represented by the warden for that weekend, Claire, as a symbol of the deep-felt gratitude felt by the course attenders and staff, but also on behalf of former, present and future Scouts and Guides of Norway as a tribute to B.-P., his Scouting idea and Brownsea Island – the cradle of Scouting.
In 1963 the National Trust (the owner of Brownsea Island) opened the Island to the public, in a ceremony conducted by Olave Lady Baden-Powell, the World Chief Guide. On 13 May 2013, as part of the celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the opening, the Brownsea Island footprint was installed beside an existing bust of Lord Baden-Powell and unveiled by one of B.-P.'s grandchildren, Gill Clay, daughter of the B.-P.'s daughter Betty Clay. It is the donors' highest wish that their gift will benefit Brownsea Island and give joy and good B.-P. spirit to visitors to Brownsea Island for many years to come.Øystein Gonsholt, staff member 65. Trefoil-Gilwell training
List of copies
+ Apart from those mentioned above, a number of copies exist around the world, among them: Country City Location Provenance Notes Australia Victoria Point Eprapah Made by B.-P. on his 1931 Eprapah visit. Original is now at the Baden-Powell Scout Park (Samford, Brisbane), with a copy at Eprapah. Right foot. El Salvador San Salvador Scout Association of El Salvador headquarters Gift of William D. Campbell, Provenance unknown Hungary Budapest Sztrilich Pál Scout Centre Copy of the Scout Association copy HungaryBudapestHárshegy Training ParkThe original – lost in 1948 – copy of the Scout Association copy Kenya Nairobi Rowallan Scout Centre Unknown Mexico Córdoba Paso Coyol Ecological Park Unknown. Right foot. Mexico Tepoztlán, Morelos Meztitla Scout Camp School Gift of John Thurman, Copy of the Scout Association footprint Norway Telemark Sverveli Gift of John Thurman, Copy of the Scout Association footprint In storage United Kingdom Poole Harbour, Dorset county Brownsea Island Copy of the Norwegian footprint United Kingdom Chingford, London Gilwell Park Copy of the Scout Association footprint. Right foot. United Kingdom London Scout Association Only copy of the Hungarian original United States Elbert, Colorado Camp Cris Dobbins Provenance unknown United States Ward, Colorado Tahosa High Adventure Base Provenance unknown United States Miami Lakes, Florida Thomas L. Tatham Scout Service Center Copy of the Meztitla footprint Zimbabwe Gordon Park, Matopos Zimbabwe Scout Centenary Camp Provenance unknown
See also Petrosomatoglyph
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