Kenneth McLaren DSO (sometimes given as "MacLaren"),"Captain Kenneth MacLaren, 13th Hussars, who it will be remembered was for a time adjutant of the regiment, was in July 1899 acting as A.D.C. to General Sir Baker Russell. He was then ordered to South Africa, as Colonel R. S. S. Baden-Powell had applied for his services. Captain MacLaren had been seriously wounded outside Mafeking, 31 March 1900." CHAPTER XXXVI. South African War, 1899–1900. Part Two. To December 1900.Regimental History, C. R. B. Barrett, History of the XIII Hussars, 191

(1860–1924) was a major (United Kingdom), Major in the 13th Hussars regiment of the British Army. After his military service he assisted with the growth of the

Scouting 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, backpacking ...

movement founded by his friend

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 worl ...

Military service

Son of H. McLaren, of The Chalet, Tighnabruaich, Argyllshire, Scotland (the family home was later Dunmar at Tighnabruaich) McLaren was educated at Harrow and Sandhurst before joining his regiment, the 13th Hussars in 1880.Jeal, p
66
/ref> He was posted to India, where he served as regimental adjutant and later aide de camp to General Baker Russell. In South Africa he was gravely wounded at the

Siege of Mafeking The siege of Mafeking was a 217-day siege battle for the town of Mafeking (now called Mafikeng) in South Africa during the Second Boer War from October 1899 to May 1900. The siege received considerable attention as Lord Edward Cecil, the son of ...

in March 1900, and taken prisoner by the

Boer Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape Colony, Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controll ...

s. He was created a

Companion of the Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, ty ...

(DSO) in November 1900. McLaren played

polo Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...

throughout his military service, and was

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

of one of the two matches in the

1908 London Olympics The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, United Kingdom, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were ori ...

. McLaren first met Baden-Powell (also a 13th Hussars officer) in 1881. Although McLaren was 20 at the time, Baden-Powell nicknamed him "the Boy", on account of his appearance. The two became fast friends, their relationship being one of the most important friendships in Baden-Powell's life. The character factory: Baden-Powell and the origins of the Boy Scout movement – Page 48; Michael Rosenthal McLaren volunteered his services and was recalled to military service in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, serving in France with the Casualty Records Department, but retired again in 1915 due to the onset of the first symptoms of "softening of the brain" (according to Baden-Powell his friend suffered also from "melancholia").Military career
/ref>

Boy Scouts

McLaren was one of the staff at Baden-Powell's Brownsea Island Scout camp in 1907. Baden-Powell convinced McLaren to be his first manager at the C. Arthur Pearson Limited office of ''The Scout'' magazine but McLaren resigned that position in March 1908.

Personal life

In 1898 McLaren married Leila Evelyn Landon. Their daughter, Eilean, was born in 1899; Baden-Powell was her godfather. He had been unable to return from India to serve as best man at McLaren's wedding. Leila McLaren died in 1904 aged 29 of "disseminated sclerosis". In 1910, McLaren married his wife's former nurse, Ethel Mary Wilson. She was the daughter of a "struggling south Yorkshire farmer" and Baden-Powell, who did not consider her a "lady", advised McLaren against the marriage. Although at the time of their wedding Baden-Powell was crossing the Atlantic at the time after a Scouting tour of North America, he had no intention of attending. McLaren was not invited to Baden-Powell's own wedding in 1912. Owing to Olave Baden-Powell's jealousy over Baden-Powell's friendships, the two men never met again. After retiring from the Army in 1915 due to symptoms of "softening of the brain", McLaren spent the last years of his life confined at Camberwell House Asylum and at a smaller private mental hospital in Hertfordshire. Baden-Powell did not attend his funeral, but remained in contact with his goddaughter Eilean, inviting her to stay a few days each month and sending her birthday greetings. She married a boatman, they later separated and he went to ply his trade on the Norfolk coast, and had a son; her later life was "wretched" and she drank heavily, dying of cancer in 1957. Her son Christopher found "nothing at all connected with his grandfather" in her possession.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McLaren, Kenneth 1860 births 1924 deaths 13th Hussars officers People educated at Harrow School The Scout Association Scouting pioneers British Army personnel of the Second Boer War Companions of the Distinguished Service Order British Army personnel of the Mahdist War British military personnel of the First Mohmand Campaign British Army personnel of World War I British prisoners of war of the Second Boer War