Teodoro Iradier y Herrero

Board of Directors of the Spanish Explorers (1913). Teodoro Iradier in the center.

Teodoro Iradier with explorer uniform rover in 1936. Revista The Patrol No. 91.

Teodoro Iradier y Herrero (Vitoria, August 20, 1868 - Madrid, February 24, 1940) was a Spanish soldier and writer, founder of the Explorers of Spain. He was the nephew of Manuel de Iradier y Bulfy, explorer of the Gulf of Guinea territories.

Biography

In 1887 he entered the army as a volunteer infantry soldier in the Cazadores de Estella Battalion No. 14 of the garrison in Vitoria. From August 1888 until the end of August 1890 he was at the General Military Academy of Toledo, where he began his training for a military career, and the Cavalry Academy of Valladolid, where he finished his studies on March 9, 1892.

Together with the publicist Arturo Cuyás Armengol, he formed the organizing committee of the Explorers of Spain in 1911, while promoting, thanks to his contacts in the Army, numerous local committees of Explorers in various cities. On July 30, 1912, the statutes and regulations of the Association of Explorers of Spain, the equivalent of the English scouting association, were approved, and he was elected president of the same. On August 11 of the same year, the first troop of Explorers of Spain was constituted in Vitoria, this date being considered the official start of scouting in Spain.

His dedication to youth was already evident during nine years of activity at the Santiago College for orphans of the Cavalry Weapon.

Due to his personal relationship with the monarch Alfonso XIII, to whose Military House he was added by Royal Order of February 27, 1913, he obtained his adherence to the Explorers project, which explains its rapid spread in the early years. Another Royal Order of July 3 of that same year named him the King's Honorary Assistant.

As captain of the Cavalry, director of the "Revista de Caballería".

Forced by external pressure from the ecclesiastical hierarchy, which harshly criticized scouting, and by internal conflicts caused by Alfonso XIII's entourage, who viewed with some displeasure too much complicity between the king and a simple cavalry captain, presented his irrevocable resignation as secretary-commissioner of the Explorers. One of his most incisive hoaxes was his alleged militancy in Freemasonry, about which there are no records, personal references, or evidence.

In 1917 he founded the Hidalgos de la Patria, a patriotic and self-educating group of selected youth, which offered "initiatives for the formation of our ideal people".

On June 7, 1920, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Cavalry. In June 1921 he was commissioned to travel to France, Switzerland, Italy and Portugal, on study tours that lasted until November 1922. On August 7, 1921 he received the Plaque of the Order of San Hermenegildo.

During Primo de Rivera's dictatorship he wrote the Citizen's Catechism, which, according to Eduardo González Calleja, "with a very similar structure to the books of Catholic doctrine that children had to memorize, the basic principles of Primorriverista politics were collected, such as the homeland, patriotism or citizenship, defined as the fulfillment of duties and the exercise of the rights that the fundamental laws of the State establish for Spaniards.» The Military Directorate distributed the book to all the schools in Spain. On the other hand, the experience of the Explorers of Spain was taken into account by the commission that elaborated the project that would give birth to the National Service of Physical, Citizenship and Pre-military Education, as an ideal institution model for the development of its purposes.

He voluntarily retired from active service in the Army at the age of 55, according to the Royal Order of November 13, 1923, and settled in Madrid.

At the start of the Spanish civil war in July 1936, he was imprisoned for failing to report to the Republican army, and was released in March 1938 in poor health. In April 1939 he is imprisoned again, by the national side, accused of collaborating with the Republicans.

Throughout his life he received numerous distinctions, such as the Military Cross of Merit, the Special Cross for Teachers, the Knight of the French Legion of Honor, the Order of Santiago, the Military Order of Saint Benedict of Avis from Portugal and the Knightly Order of Saint Anne from Russia.

Work

• Mandatory military service and regeneration1898;
• Patriotism and its influence on war1901;
• Special services of cavalry, awarded at the International Contest held by the magazine “Anales del Ejército y de la Armada”
• The machine gun, D.R.S.: German ideas on the importance and use of cavalry;
• Machine guns or machine guns?, awarded in international contest;
• The cavalry in modern armies, awarded in international contest, 1907;
• Nine months among the French horsemen, organization and instruction of the French cavalry1908;
• Notes from a trip to Melilla;
• The Explorers of Spain: (Boy scouts Españoles) Provisional Regulations and Rules1912;
• Towards a new type of Spanish: an approach to a national education problemBookshop of the successors of Hernando, 1917;
• Hidalgos de la Patria (Towards national ideals), Brochure No. 1, Regulations and Rules, Tip. of the "Review of Archives, Libraries and Museums", 1917.
• Citizen catechismcommissioned by the Military Board, 1923.