Sir Alfred Donald "Pickle" Pickford

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(20 May 1872 – 7 October 1947) was an English businessman who made his wealth from

jute Jute ( ) is a long, rough, shiny bast fibre that can be Spinning (textiles), spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus ''Corchorus'', of the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

and was a Boy Scouts Association official. Pickford was nominated as Sheriff of Calcutta in 1920 and as a member of the

Indian Legislative Assembly * Central Legislative Assembly * State legislative assemblies of India The State Legislative Assembly, also known as the Vidhan Sabha or the Saasana Sabha, is a legislative body in each of the states and certain union territories of India. Me ...

in 1921. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

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, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies 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, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He met and accompanied

Robert Baden-Powell Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, ( ; 22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941) was a British Army officer, writer, founder of The Boy Scouts Association and its first Chief Scout, and founder, with ...

and his wife,

Olave Baden-Powell Olave St Clair Baden-Powell, Baroness Baden-Powell (; 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 of Girl Guides). ...

when they toured India in 1921. In 1922, having returned to England and bought a Surrey estate, The Boy Scouts Association 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 or the Scout Movement is a youth movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including ...

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 beginn ...

References

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 British people in colonial India Officers_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire {{Scout-bio-stub