Born in London, the son of a Oxford mathematics professor, the young Baden-Powell was sent to Charterhouse Public School, where he would be amongst his own and as normal with middle class men with no career prospects, he joined the army, where he was immediately excused all training due to his magnificently high test results.
Posted to South Africa in 1887, he soon became the Intelligence officer for the “Flying Column” in the fight against the “Zulu’s”.
Three years later in 1890, he went to Malta where his uncle Sir. H. A. Smyth was the fortress commander, soon after Baden-Powell became the chief British Intelligence Officer for the Mediterranean with order to gather information on the troop movements in the Balkens, here he became one of the most successful British spies, with his ability to act out different personalities and his knack of reporting thoroughly the facts on what he has managed to seek out.
He was in a time when spying was a reserved occupation for the elite of the British Isles who would travel around as if they were on the “Grand Tour” using their stiff upper lip to overcome any obstacle that presented itself before them, Baden-Powell was this and more, yes he was an eccentric archetype who would get on peoples nerves, but he was also an accomplished spy, his flair for amateur dramatics helped him achieve his success in such a manner. This was all before the arrival of Mansfield Cumming, who put an end to these amateur spies and created MI6 with a more military style and personnel.
The Balkens sunk into turmoil, and war was inevitable the British needed to know to what extent the war would be, Baden-Powell travelled to the Balkens on his way to Herzgovinia, his disguise, an eccentric lepidopterist (Butterfly Collector), in this guise he would walk around the countryside carrying a large butterfly net and sketch pad, after a while he would be able to walk right up to the Austrian Fortifications and sketch the layout, the sketch would be incorporated into a larger sketch of a butterfly, thus he was never found out.
With the race to arms accelerating Baden-Powell found himself in Germany, this time his disguise was that of a consulting engineer, this enabled him to gain access to a restricted area in Hamburg and sketch exactly what he saw, his drawings were so accurate that the British High Command were left with no doubt that the sketches were that of a massive ship building facility and that Germany were building up a fleet of war ships.
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