Early discussion of Baden-Powell's sexuality focused on his relationship with his close friend Kenneth McLaren.[48]:217–218[49]:48 Tim Jeal's later biography discusses the relationship and finds that there is no evidence that this friendship was physical.[7]:82 Jeal then examines Baden-Powell's views on women, his appreciation of the male form, his military relationships, and his marriage, concluding that Baden-Powell might have been a repressed homosexual.[7]:103 Jeal's conclusion is shared by some biographers and disputed by others, but is not yet examined in any detail by other scholars.[50]:6
In their customary style, homosexuals use the thinnest threads of conjecture to dispirit boys. It is a common technique. Refer, for example, to Wikipedia's biography of that other Powell, Enoch.
I read Tim Jeal’s exhaustive biography of B-P, The Boy-Man: The Life of Lord Baden-Powell, 13 years ago. I thought it was very well researched. The evidence has to be viewed in the context of the times (just like studying the Bible), i.e., Victorian England. It is difficult for modern Americans to appreciate this. Having said that, below is what I remember ...
His father was an Anglican minister. He died when B-P was 3 years old. His widowed mother raised him along with 6 siblings. She was a strong woman who was determined that her children would succeed.
B-P had a very close friendship with Kenneth McLaren in their early army service years. McLaren would later marry and die while relatively young.
He had very few, if any, female friends over the course of his life.
There is no evidence of him ever having a romantic girl friend.
His record of correspondence showed apathy for the female body.
His record of correspondence showed a keen appreciation for the male body.
His record of correspondence with the headmaster of his old public school, Charterhouse School, included a request to see, again, a photo album of nude male students. Such photos were taken in those days for medical evaluation of range of motion of the limbs, to assess spinal alignment (detect scoliosis) and polio development. This was done for males and females, and was part of medical training in orthopedics and pediatrics and was a standard of medical practice. It was done in the U.S. starting in the 1880’s in the Ivy League colleges. Charterhouse was a school for the affluent.
As a child, his sense of dramatics was encouraged which developed into a fondness for acting out skits and plays.
He was especially fond of the play/book, “Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up” which appeared in 1904.
He married Olave St Clair Soames in 1912 when he was 55 and she was 23 (5 years after he founded the Scouting movement in the UK.) Her father thought B-P led her own in hopes of marriage. The evidence does not indicate B-P behaved improprely. Her father would have publicly humiliated B-P had B-P not married his daughter.
The evidence suggested that their marriage was not romantically passionate.
After siring 3 children with Olave, he arranged separate bedrooms for Olave and him in their home for the rest of his life.
1919 - British Scout Commissioner William de Bois Maclaren bought the dilapidated Chinnery estate north of London in Sewardstonebury, Epping Forest, close to Chingford, for £7,000. He spent an additional £3,000 for improvements to the house that was on the estate. He donated all of it to the Scout Association of the U.K. to provide a camping ground for London scouts and a training site for scouters. It was re-named Gilwell Park. The 1st Wood Badge course was held at GP during 9/08-19/1919. Wood Badge training continued at GP, and it became the home of leadership training in the Scout movement. During the early 1920s there were several officially reported incidents of adult male volunteers sexually molesting male youth campers at GP.
I thought Mr. Jeal's book was presented even-handedly. I did not detect an agenda to tarnish the reputaton of B-P. It did not diminish my great appreciation for B-P.