Famous Left-hander Birthday, February 22

Boy Scout Founder Lord Baden-Powell

Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell (22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941), also known as B-P or Lord Baden-Powell. He was a British Army lieutenant-general but he was most famous as the founder of the Scout Movement. Lord Baden-Powell was also a writer.  He was educated at Charterhouse School.

Lord Baden-Powell served in the British Army from 1876 until 1910, in India and Africa. During the Second Boer War in South Africa (1899), he defended the town in the Siege of Mafeking.

As a writer, he wrote military books, written for military reconnaissance and scout training in his African years. He wrote Scouting for Boys (1908), for youth readership. It was during his writing, that Baden-Powell tested his ideas about scouting through a camping trip on Brownsea Island. This was with the local Boy’s Brigade and his friends’ sons that began on 1 August 1907. This is now seen as the beginning of Scouting. The rest is history about Boys Scouting.

Lord Baden-Powell, along with his wife, Olave St Clair Soames, and his sister, Agnes Baden-Powell, gave guidance to the Scouting Movement and the Girl Guides Movement. His last years were spent in Kenya, where he died.

Trivia:

Lord Baden-Powell made left-handed handshake a part of the scouting movement ritual. According to the Scout Manual, the left hand is extended in friendship because it is the hand nearer the heart.

Dateline: November 30

Lefty Birthdays

• Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain

• Ridley Scott, Director

• Ben Stiller, Actor

• Mark Twain, Author / Writer

Did you know?

It was lefty Julius Caesar who instructed all of his subjects to adopt the right-handed shake.

Perhaps it was his strategy leaving his left hand free for his mighty sword?  Who knows.

Famous Lelfthander Birthday, November 30

Former Prime Minister of Britain, Sir Winston Churchill
Politician, Leader, Britain’s Prime Minister (1940-45, 1951-55)

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, born on November 30, 1874, was an English statesman, best known as the Prime Minister of the UK during the Second World War. One of the most important leaders in modern British and world history, he was a famous orator and strategist. He was also a writer, historian and a painter.

Churchill married Clementine Hozier on September 12, 1908 at St. Margaret’s, Westminster. He had five children: Diana; Randolph; Sarah, who co-starred with Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding; Marigold, who died in early childhood; and Mary, who has written a book about her parents. Churchill’s son Randolph and his grandsons Nicholas Soames and Winston all followed him into Parliament. The daughters tended to marry politicians and support their careers.

Read full article —>   Sir Winston Churchill, Leader, Writer and Painter

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Photo source:   Wikimedia Commons

Famous Lefthander Birthday, October 7

Lt. Colonel Oliver North

Oliver Laurence North, born in San Antonio, Texas, on October 7, 1943, is a retired Lieutenant Colonel of the United States Marine Corps. He is famous for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal. He is a political commentator and a best-selling author. His latest book, American Heroes, offers a first-hand account of his extensive coverage of U.S. military units engaged in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Philippines.

He is a 1968 graduate of the US Naval ACademy and was a career officer in the Marine Corps, retiring at the rank of Lt. Col. after 20 years service.

Famous Lefthander Birthday, September 29

Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson

In 1797′s battle, Lord Horatio Nelson’s right arm was shattered and had to be amputated. Admiral Horatio Nelson thought his career was over. As a left-hander, he went on to lead the British navy to greater glory.

Famous Lefthander, September 20

Alexander the Great

Around the 4th century B.C.,  lefty Alexander the Great was heir to a small kingdom in Greece in what is now known as Macedonia. He became the king of all of Greece, pharaoh of Egypt, as well as the ruler of Asia Minor by the time he died, aged 33.

It has been said that Alexander the Great discovered an entire tribe of left-handed people.

Photo credit:  Wikimedia Commons

Famous Lefty Military Leaders:

• Horatio Nelson

• George Patton

• William Perry

• Colin Powell

• H. Norman Schwarzkopf

Famous Lefthander Birthday, August 22

General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

General (Herbert) Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., also known as “stormin’ Norman” and “The Bear,” born on August 22, 1934, is a retired U.S. Army General who, while he served as Commander of U.S. Central Command, was commander of the Coalition Forces in the Gulf War pf 1991.

Schwarzkopf was born in Trenton, New Jersey to Norman and Ruth Schwarzkopf. His father served in the US Army before becoming the Superintendent of the N.J. State Police, where he worked as a lead investigator on the infamous Lindbergh kidnapping, but returned to an Army career and rose to rank of Major General. In January 1952, Schwarzkopf’s birth certificate was amended to make his name “H. Norman Schwarzkopf”.

It’s interesting to note that his connection with the Persian Gulf region began very early on. When he was 12, he and the rest of his family joined their father, stationed in Tehran, Iran, where his father would go on to be instrumental in Operation Ajax. He attended the Community High School in Tehran, later the International SChool of Geneva at La Chataigneraie and attended and graduated from Valley Forge Military Academy. He is a member of Mensa, with a tested I.Q. of 168.

Photo credit:  Russell Roederer, Wikimedia Commons