Pewter hip flask owned by Major-General R S S Baden Powell, 1900 (c)

Inscribed to reproduce the owner's manuscript initials 'B P'.

As the sixth of ten children of an Oxford professor, Baden-Powell had little money of his own and he sought to minimize his expenditure by giving up smoking and limiting his drinking. While the ownership of this hip flask suggests that he never became a total abstainer, Baden-Powell's advice in 'Scouting for Boys' (Boy's Edition, London, 1953) is unequivocal on the subject of drinking:

'Poverty and distress are brought about by men getting into the habit of wasting their money and time on drink, and a great deal of crime, and also of illness, and even madness, is due to the same habit of drinking too much. Liquor - that is beer or spirits - is not at all necessary to make a man strong and well. Quite the contrary. It would be simply impossible for a man who drinks to be a scout. Keep off the liquor from the very first, and make up your mind to have nothing to do with it'.

Donated by Baden-Powell House, London.