Baden BADEN-POWELL (1860-1937)

Group of fourteen Autograph Letters Signed (“Baden”), to “Dear John” [Capt. Sir John Shelley], four in pencil and one in indelible blue pencil, six of the letters in their envelopes (three of which are marked “Passed by Censor”).
In all, 44pp. 8vo and 1½ pages 4to. Havre, Boulogne, Guards Div. HQ [London], 23 October 1914 – 15 December 1916.            
Baden Baden-Powell, younger brother of Robert Baden-Powell, served in Africa, and also in South Africa during the Boer War. By the start of the First World War, he was 54, but soon had a post as censor at Boulogne. The recipient of these letters, Sir John Shelley, 9th Baronet of Michelgrove, was in his mid-sixties by 1914.
23 October 1914, [Havre]: “. . . I am stuck here for the present time . . . We go through all the letters . . . This is rather interesting as we get a good idea of what the Tommies really think of it & though we don’t get much news of the ground movements get . . . interesting anecdotes every day . . .”
4 November 1914, [Havre]: “. . . I heard yesterday, from a Coldstream officer passing through, that our 2nd batt had had a bit of knock with many losses, but I didn’t like to report such details . . . We certainly are having some shocking losses – but what else is to be expected with such a war! . . . If we drive the Germans back Ostend may be opened as a port . . . The Base Commandant has issued an order . . . that officers are to be civil but not familiar to all ladies . . .”
24 November 1914, Havre: “. . . Everybody here – especially those from up country – seem more cockahoop & optimistic than usual . . . This place is really very dull . . . No theatres or music halls or anything of the kind.”
7 December 1914, Havre: “Absolutely nothing to report! . . . We sit on here cursing just as I expect you do at home . . .”
26 December 1914, Havre: “. . . I applied for leave “to visit my old regiment” but they absolutely refused. . . So here I stick – getting very sick of the place . . .”
2 February 1915, Boulogne: “. . . I have changed to Boulogne. . . I am not sure that it is not a case of out of the frying pan into the fire. . . This is one vast hospital. All the principal hotels, casino &c &c are British Hospitals & the streets are occupied by continuous streams of ambulances. I expect I shall find a lot of pals in the hospitals when I get to know my way about. . . Poor old Charles! He dined with me at Havre & I saw him on his way - & now missing! . . .”
8 February 1915, Boulogne: “. . . I have heard about poor old Charles. They were all in a trench & the Germans sent over word to say they had mined the trench & it would be blown up in ½ hour. . . Charles sent back word that they could go to the – They could not of course abandon the trench for such a reason – but in due time the explosion came & from the other trenches they saw the Germans run in & saw them moving some wounded. So that there is just a chance that he may have been taken off wounded. . .”
4 April 1915, Boulogne: “. . . My brother came out the other day, to go up & see French [Sir John French, Commander of the BEF]. So I stuck on to him like a dog . . . After a day at HQ . . . we were sent off in a Rolls-Royce with chauffeur & servant to go all round & see everything. . . We. . . met a lot of other friends. Went into the advanced trenches. Got a shell . . . on the road - watched them shelling our aeroplanes – visited many ruined towns &c &c &c. . . Unfortunately they have absolutely forbidden all cameras out here . . .Mrs. Ashton Hubard [?] suddenly turned up the other day. She had come about Satorius, who died only this morning, of a nasty wound in the stomach. . .”
12 July 1915, Boulogne: “. . . I have at last got a job with the new army, & am coming home in a few days – temporarily – and in command of a K battalion at Romsey. . . I shall be in town for a few days.  Guards Club will find me . . .”
9 September 1915, 10 W. Yorks [in pencil]: “. . . I am back in my old wood – never . . . trenches . . . They keep on bursting shells all round us . . . today we had 2 right in among the huts, but the only harm they did was to smash to bits a stretcher . . . We’ve just had the excitement of a German airplane passing over. It was being bombarded from all our anti aircraft guns (eg about 2) & was soon followed by a British aero . . . about this battalion . . . on the whole they are a very good lot. The officers are decidedly mixed – socially – but some are very good sort & most of them wonderfully keen & efficient . . . The corporals are the weak spots. They seem to have no self reliance & no authority.. . .”
26 March 1916, Guards Division HQ [in pencil]: “. . . we are settled down to steady work . . . dug away at . . . trenches &c and just when all complete . . . along comes . . . the RFC, & said they wanted, & must have . . . ground. . . We ask no questions . . .”
29 May 1916, Guards Division HQ [in pencil]: “. . . There are, I believe, no books on bombing, bar 2. One is a most rotten little pamphlet . . . The other is the official work out here which tells a certain amount (of course it does, because I wrote some bits of it) . . . my job will soon come to an end! We’ve taught everybody everything - & those coming on can easily be taught in battalions . . .”
20 August 1916, Guards Division [in pencil]: “. . . Was up in a . . . balloon yesterday . . . most interesting – we were at 2000 ft. & clouds came under us & almost out of sight of the ground. They strap us on to parachutes & say if the string of the balloon breaks, or a Hun airplane comes over, we have got to jump overboard! but I didn’t try that . . . P.S. . . . just as I was finishing this letter I heard someone should out “the balloon’s adrift” – I ran out . . . & saw the old sausage . . . soaring off rapidly towards the German lines! Then one of the occupants jumped out & came down in a parachute. The other apparently tried, but his parachute somehow got hung up & he dangled below for some minutes. Then . . . he must have unstrapped his belt - & fell . . . The balloon got away . . . fired on by our AA guns to destroy it . . . I am awfully sorry about it. The man killed was the one I went up with – a very good chap . . .”
15 December 1916, n.p. [in indelible pencil]: “. . . My jobs here, bombing & camouflage, have both come to an end . . . I don’t know what they will do with me. Do you know of any sort of comfy billet I could fill? You might be able to hear if there is anything going especially connected with bombing or trench warfare . . .”

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