Lord Baden-Powell: Connections with Scouts in Spain

In January 2016 a monument was unveiled to pay tribute to the founder of the Scout movement, Robert Baden-Powell (London, 1857-Kenya, 1941) in a park in Malaga city that also bears his name.

The inauguration was attended by numerous Scouts, as well as the mayor, Francisco de la Torre and other dignitaries.

The statue commemorated 100 years of Scouting in Malaga which was celebrated in 2013. The Scout movement first arrived in Spain in 1912, the year after it was founded in Britain. Its first incarnation was the Exploradores Barceloneses, a local version of Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts, founded by cavalry captain Pedro Roselló Axet in Barcelona.

By 1912 the movement had spread across the country and was by then affiliated with the international Scout movement. However, in 1940 Franco banned the institution in Spain believing that it had connections with the Freemasons.

In the late fifties the dictator relaxed the rules a little, but the movement was always tightly controlled and Franco assigned the direction of the Scouts to the Church.

Baden-Powell visited Spain in February 1909 when he sailed on the SS Aragon, making stops in both Portugal and Spain, before heading to South America.

There is also a statue of Baden-Powell in Parque de la Casa de Campo in Madrid, which was unveiled in 1982 and in Mallorca the Sir Robert Baden Powell ship is a luxury schooner built in 1957 and is available for private hire.

Today there are over 300 Spanish Scout groups throughout the country with more than 34,000 Scouts.

The British Scouting movement is also present in Malaga province with the 1st Fuengirola Scouts. They have Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers.

La Federación de Escultismo en España (FEE) is the national Scout organisation recognised by the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM).