Portal:Scouting/Selected biography archive/2010

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

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 * Jan 31, 2010 - Rose Kerr (1882–1944) was a pioneer of the Guiding movement from Great Britain. Born as Rose Margaret Guthrie Gough, she was one of the founders of the Rangers section of Girl Guides and was involved in the formation of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) and authored numerous publications on Guiding. She was awarded the Silver Fish. In 1906 Rose Gough married Admiral Mark Edward Frederick Kerr, CB MVO, RN; they had two children: Alix Liddell (1907-1981, née Kerr) and Luise Rosemary Kerr (1908-1986). Robert Baden-Powell proposed to Rose Gough first, but was refused in December 1905. However they remained close friends.


 * Feb 28, 2010 - Dr. Rudolf Plajner (April 5, 1901 in Prostějov – June 23, 1987) was declared the Chief Scout of the newly unified Czech Scouts and Guides association called Junák, after its inception on January 22, 1939. Junák was abolished by force and Scouting prohibited by German State Secretary Karl Hermann Frank during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia on October 28, 1940. After World War II, the association was reborn. His function was confirmed at the third Junák council or meeting (cs:sněm) in 1968, and served in this function until the end of his life. Plajner took part in building Defense of the Nation (cs:Obrana národa) and in other resistance organizations. He was arrested in 1943, and released after two months. He again joined the Czech resistance to Nazi occupation and cooperated with guerilla brigade "Jan Žižka". After the war Plajner received several honors and Junák started to work again in 1945, but in 1948 was included in the Socialist Youth Union (cs:Socialistický svaz mládeže, SSM), the Czechoslovakian Communist youth organisation, and dissolved in 1950. Plajner was arrested and imprisoned shortly in 1949 in Uherské Hradiště. Junák shortly renewed its existence between 1968 and 1970 after the Prague Spring. Later in this period he received several state and Scout awards due to his work for the Scouting movement, including the Silver Wolf.


 * Mar 31, 2010 - Alix Liddell (1907–1981) is the daughter of Guiding and World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) founder Rose Kerr and Admiral Mark Kerr. The Kerr family was close friends with Robert Baden-Powell. She was a Brownie as a young girl and went on to write several books on the history of Guiding. She also held numerous positions at national level within UK Guiding including Chairman of Publications Committee, International Commissioner, and member of the Education Panel. She attended nine of the ten World Conferences between 1950 and 1975. She was editor of The Council Fire, a World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) publication, for nearly 30 years. Liddell was awarded the Silver Fish.


 * Apr 30, 2010 - Alexander Lion a Jewish surgeon, who converted to Catholicism at age 16, who was the co-founder of the German Scout Movement along with Maximilian Bayer. In March 1908 Lion read an article in The Times entitled "Scouting as a Sport" and in August he began corresponding with Robert Baden-Powell Shortly after Lion wrote his first article about Scouting in the magazine "Ärztliche Rundschau". During a month long study tour of England in 1909 he spent three days in London with Baden-Powell. Following this meeting he set up the German Scout movement, writing the book "Das Pfadfinderbuch", (the Scouting book). He was awarded the Iron Cross while serving as a surgeon in World War I. The Nazis considered him a Jew and sentenced him to 10 months in prison for "treasonous" Scouting activity. He was denounced during World War II but survived and was instrumental in getting Scouting restarted after the war.


 * May 31, 2010 - Ezra Taft Benson was the thirteenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1985 until his death and was United States Secretary of Agriculture for both terms of the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was a lifelong supporter of Scouting, beginning as an assistant Scoutmaster in 1918. On May 23, 1949 he was elected a member of the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America. He received the three highest national awards in the Boy Scouts of America—the Silver Beaver, the Silver Antelope, and the Silver Buffalo—as well as world Scouting’s international award, the Bronze Wolf.


 * Jun 30, 2010 - Bronisław Komorowski is the Acting President of Poland. When Lech Kaczyński, the President of Poland, died in a plane crash on 10 April 2010, presidential powers and duties automatically transferred to Komorowski because he was Marshal of the Sejm (Speaker of Parliament). His position as Acting President is temporary, and Komorowski remains in his role as Speaker, at least until a presidential election can be held. Komorowski is also the Civic Platform government's presidential candidate in that election, due to be held on 20 June 2010. For many years he was connected with the Scout Movement. He belonged to the 75th Mazovian Scout Team in Pruszków. During his studies he was a Scout instructor in 208 WDHiZ "Parasol" Battalion in Mokotów. He met his future wife through Scouting.


 * Jul 31, 2010 - James P. Fitch worked for the Boy Scouts of America during its first decade to travel with Chautauqua circuits and set up Scout troops. He then served as a regional BSA director until 1945. He then served as general manager of Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. He was the Southern Methodist University advisor for the Alpha Omicron chapter of Alpha Phi Omega a Greek Letter Scouting fraternity.


 * Aug 31, 2010 - Hui Chung-shing, anglicized as Herman Hui, is a former chairman of the World Scout Committee, the executive board for the World Organization of the Scout Movement from 2005 to 2008. He is a Hong Kong Chinese lawyer of British nationality, working as legal advisor for governmental boards and committees, and Director of the Glorious Sun investment company. He received the Medal of Honour, an honorary Justice of the Peace appointment and the Bronze Wolf awards for his contributions to social welfare in Hong Kong and his contributions to Scouting worldwide.


 * Sep 30, 2010 - Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg was a Swedish diplomat noted for his negotiation of the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps during World War II, including 423 Danish Jews from Theresienstadt. Bernadotte was unanimously chosen to be the United Nations Security Council mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1947-1948. He was assassinated in Jerusalem in 1948 by the militant Zionist group Lehi, while pursuing his official duties. Bernadotte represented Sweden in 1933 at the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition and later served as Swedish commissioner general at the New York World's Fair in 1939-40. Bernadotte had long been involved with the Swedish Boy Scouts (Sveriges Scoutförbund), and took over as director of the organization in 1937. At the outbreak of World War II, Bernadotte worked to integrate the scouts into Sweden's defense plan, training them in anti-aircraft work and as medical assistants.


 * Oct 31, 2010 - Air Vice Marshal Sir Bernard Chacksfield KBE CB RAF (13 April 1913 – 27 December 1999) was a senior Royal Air Force officer in the 1950s and 1960s and later a chief commissioner of the Scout Association and chairman of the Burma Star Association. Chacksfield joined the Royal Air Force in 1927 and was selected for flying training and gaining a commission as a Pilot Officer in 1933. He served on the North West Frontier in 1933 as a Westland Wapiti pilot. By 1944 Chacksfield was in command of No. 910 Wing in Burma operating the Republic Thunderbolt fighter-bomber. From 1945 he became an air officer and served in the Air Ministry and later with NATO. He served in a number of senior positions until finally becoming Commandant-General of the RAF Regiment in 1963. Chacksfield retired in 1968 as an Air Vice-Marshal. With a long time interest in the Scout movement he was appointed in 1970 as chief commissioner for the Scout Association later being awarded the movements highest award, the Silver Wolf in 1975. In retirement he became chairman on the Burma Star Association until his death from cancer in 1999.


 * Nov 30, 2010 - Michiharu Mishima (三島通陽 Mishima Michiharu) was a novelist, playwright and drama critic born in Azabu, Tōkyō. He was a member of the House of Peers and the House of Councillors and was parliamentary vice-minister to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. His pen name was Shōdō Mishima (三島章道 Mishima Shōdō). Mishima formed the nationwide Boy Scouts of Japan with Count Futara Yoshinori in 1922, with Shimpei Gotō at its helm. He was elected as Associate Board Chairman at age 25. He became the first president of the Boy Scout Association of Japan and also served as the head of the central training grounds. In 1941, he was awarded the Blue Ribbon Medal for philanthropy. He held a Scouting exhibition in February 1946, the first of its kind since the end of World War II. In 1950, he transferred the Boy Scouts Association of Japan headquarters to his villa and home in West Nasuno, Tochigi Prefecture. This site is now a permanent camping grounds for the Boy Scouts of Japan known as the Nasuno Camping Grounds. In 1961, he was awarded the Bronze Wolf by the World Organization of the Scout Movement for exceptional services to world Scouting.


 * Dec 31, 2010 -