Sir Alfred Donald "Pickle" Pickford OBE (20 May 1872 – 7 October 1947) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

businessman who made his wealth from jute in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

and was a

Boy Scouts Association The Scout Association is the largest Scouting organisation in the United Kingdom and is the World Organization of the Scout Movement's recognised member for the United Kingdom. Following the origin of Scouting in 1907, the association was for ...

official. Pickford was nominated as

Sheriff of Calcutta The Sheriff of Kolkata is an apolitical titular position of authority bestowed for one year on a prominent citizen of Kolkata (Calcutta). The Sheriff has an office and staff in Calcutta High Court but does not have executive powers. Mumbai (Bo ...

in 1920 and as a member of the

Indian Legislative Assembly The Central Legislative Assembly was the lower house of the Imperial Legislative Council, the legislature of British Raj, British India. It was created by the Government of India Act 1919, implementing the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms. It was ...

in 1921. He was knighted in the same year.PICKFORD, Sir Alfred Donald
Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007, accessed 24 Jan 2012 Pickford was appointed as The Boy Scouts Association's

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

District Commissioner in 1916 and, in May 1919, the association promoted him to be its Chief Scout Commissioner for

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He met and accompanied

Robert Baden-Powell Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, ( ; (Commonly pronounced by others as ) 22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941) was a British Army officer, writer, founder and first Chief Scout of the wor ...

and his wife,

Olave Baden-Powell Olave St Clair Baden-Powell, Baroness Baden-Powell (''née'' Soames; 22 February 1889 – 25 June 1977) was the first Chief Guide for Britain and the wife of Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting and co-founder o ...

when they toured India in 1921. In 1922, having returned to England and bought a Surrey estate, The Boy Scouts Association's appointed him as its Headquarters Commissioner for Overseas Scouts, a position he held until 1929. The Boy Scouts Association encouraged its branches to seek control of the

Scout Movement Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpackin ...

by obtaining statutory monopolies from respective governments.Robert Campbell (1996) ''Mount Morgan "Blue" Boy Scouts'', http://www.netpages.free-online.co.uk/sha/governor.htm This was the major purpose of the visits by Overseas Commissioners Pickford and Lt. Col. Granville Walton in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1922, Pickford became a member of the committee that wrote the inaugural constitution of the International Conference of the Boy Scout Movement. In 1930, The Boy Scouts Association appointed him as its Headquarters Commissioner of its new Development Department. In 1946, the association appointed him as its Headquarters Commissioner for Publicity.John S. Wilson (1959), Scouting Round the World. First edition, Blandford Press. p. 19-21, 46, 83, 127, 155, 246 Pickford received the OBE in the

1946 New Year Honours The 1946 New Year Honours were appointments by many of the Commonwealth Realms of King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and to celebrate the passing of 1945 and the beginni ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pickford, Alfred The Scout Association International Scouting leaders Scouting pioneers 1872 births 1947 deaths World Scout Committee members Scouting and Guiding in India Sheriffs of Kolkata Members of the Central Legislative Assembly of India