Alfred Pickford

Who was Alfred Pickford?

Sir Alfred Donald "Pickle" Pickford OBE was an English businessman who made his wealth from jute in British India and was an official of The Boy Scouts Association.

Pickford was nominated as Sheriff of Calcutta in 1920 and as a member of the Indian Legislative Assembly in 1921. He was knighted in the same year. Pickford received the OBE in the 1946 New Year Honours.

Pickford was appointed as The Boy Scouts Association's Calcutta District Commissioner in 1916, and in May 1919 was promoted to Chief Scout Commissioner for India. Pickford met and accompanied Robert Baden-Powell and his wife, Olave Baden-Powell when they toured India in 1921. In 1922, having returned to England and bought a Surrey estate, Pickford became The Boy Scouts Association's London 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 by obtaining statutory monopolies from respective governments. This was the major purpose of the visits by Overseas Commissioners Pickford and Lt. Col. Granville Walton in the 1920s and 1930s.