by Paul Almond
Jack looked up and saw the sun dipping towards the horizon. His companions had gathered on the flat surface, collapsed on the ground, panting, leaning on boulders, exhausted. With a smile, still panting, he pulled out his prayer book. In a loud voice, he began to read the service of Evensong.
One after another, the men rose. They cheered as Chaplain Jack praised the Good Lord on High for having given them the victory. Then they joined him in the Lord’s Prayer.
But Jack could not take his eyes off the men as they looked to him for the prayers. In the eyes of each and every man, Jack saw admiration blossoming, and, yes, a love returning in full force. Had he finally vindicated himself?
As he read the closing prayer, Chaplain Jack Alford decided that he was indeed a happy man.
Afterword
The Reverend John M. Almond, upon whom this story is based, continued to serve in the Royal Canadian Regiment while they fought more battles over the next few days, culminating in the battle of Zand River. On the fifth of June after more skirmishing, he marched with the regiment (38% of their original strength) into Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal, which had surrendered to Field Marshall Roberts.
The remainder of their tour in South Africa became mainly guard duty, protecting railway lines and troop establishments through these winter months, June to October. The next phase of the war, which began after they left, lasted two long years — years when many of the criteria set out by Saint Thomas for a “Just War” were overlooked. It was brought to a close by the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging in May 1902, ending the Transvaal and the Orange Free State as Boer republics. However, the British in 1907 granted the Boers £3 million for restocking and repairing farm lands and promised eventual self-government.
Their one year of duty over, on the seventh of November the Regiment sailed on the Hawarden Castle to Liverpool. Although aching to get home, they spent ten days being, quite literally, royally entertained. At Windsor Castle, the good Queen Victoria (shortly before her death in January 1901) greeted and honoured them in special ceremonies of thanks.
On the tenth of December, they boarded the Lake Champlain, crossed the Atlantic, and arrived back in Canada two days before Christmas 1900.
Acknowledgements
This book required a good deal of research. As with The Pilgrim, I patterned my hero, Rev. John Alford, after my Uncle, Col. the Ven. John Macpherson Almond, M.A., D.C.L., C.B.E., C.M.G., V.D. (1871-1939), the eldest brother of my father, Eric. First, I must acknowledge the help of my cousin, Ted Wright, who discussed many aspects of this novel over breakfasts as the sun rose around five in the mornings, or as we weeded our fava beans and cabbage in late afternoons. When not building crab traps, splitting the winter’s wood or hanging nets, Ted spent days trolling the Internet for many of the facts I needed. When something eluded him, I relied upon my young graduate friend now at Google, the dazzling Ksenia Shubina.
I visited the Imperial War Museum in London and our new National War Museum in Ottawa, where I’d like to thank Jane Naisbitt and her helpful staff for guiding me through the books and letters in their excellent Boer War exhibit. The archivist at Bishop’s University, Anna Grant, found aspects of Uncle Jack’s early life in The Mitre, including the actual text of Canon Scott’s sermon, and in the Diocesan Gazette, with its astonishing account of how John Almond got to serve in the Royal Canadian Regiment, and so be awarded the Queen’s Medal with three clasps. I acknowledge also the helpful guidance of the Archbishop of Quebec, the Most Rev. Bruce Stavert, his archivist, James Sweeney, and his brilliant historian, Dr. Mary Ellen Reisner, who also helped with my opening chapters. Moira McCaffrey of the McCord Museum in Montreal took time to guide me through its collection of useful rare photographs.
Rather than make these acknowledgments longer than the book itself, I shall just mention below some of the more important. First, the most vivid moments in the book would not have seen the light of day had I not chosen to adapt some of the stunning material in letters written by our soldiers in South Africa. Our army at that time was unusually literate, and indeed, not censored in their writings, as in later wars. Imagine how I felt when I held with gloved hands the actual pages written in the Karoo desert to loved ones in Canada and thence, by their good graces, sent on to Ottawa to be preserved in our fine national institution, Library and Archives Canada (LAC), which the Conservative Government seems intent on destroying.
To make this book as lively as possible, I borrowed liberally from these letters and books. I did this in all conscience because I believe the soldiers themselves, authors of such devastating descriptions, would have been pleased to have their writings made more widely available. I mention especially Russell Hubly (Everyday Life of the RCR, [J&A McMillan, 1901] available in the McGill University Library), whose marvellous personal account of Paardeberg I translated into the last words of my fictional George Bursey, his account of drinking the Modder River water into the dialogue of Eamon McAndrews, and also his account of the aftermath into the mouth of correspondent Brown on the station platform. Several long pages of beautiful remembrances written from the trenches by another soldier, I translated into the vernacular of Corporal Ferguson on the platform. Just wonderful writers, those soldiers; no one could ever hope to create anything to compare with their descriptions. At LAC I also copied the daily diaries of Colonel Otter, carefully preserved on microfilm, so useful on the whereabouts and other details of our Royal Canadians. Otter’s biographer and grandson, the McGill historian Desmond Morton, provided in The General any further background I needed. Finally, I want to acknowledge the contribution of Corel’s Canadian WordPerfect, the superb program by which I entered the text of all eight books.
The events of Black Week are chronicled in a clear fashion by Rayne Kruger in Goodbye Dolly Gray (Cassell 1959), from which I fashioned my truncated description, and wish also to thank Stephen A. Pagaard for his recent scholarly treatise Disease and the British Army (Military Affairs, Vol. 50, No. 2). The lectures of Lieut.-Col. G. Sterling Ryerson, Canadian Commissioner for the Red Cross (published in Toronto, 1900) gave me useful descriptions of wounds, fevers, cures, and hospitals in this, Canada’s first foreign war. I also want to thank Duff Crerar for his excellent Padres in No Man’s Land where I found the tip about my Uncle’s indiscretions (Otter to Molly Otter 26 June, 1900) that led to the final section of this book. He has been most helpful with advice and reading the manuscript.
My South African friend, Bernard Unterhalter, helped with the habits of the Boers of the time, and lent me Van Riebeeck Society’s Reminiscences of A E Hilder, (a Canadian) as well as The War Diary of Burgher Jack Lane, (a Boer Farmer) He also read drafts, and advised me on the era.
And for a proper perspective and narrative of what happened, no historian is better than my friend Carman Miller, Canada’s leading Boer War expert and a distinguished professor at McGill. I thank him for allowing me to use some of his actual phrases verbatim from Painting the Map Red and Canada’s Little War, and also for reading and correcting a draft.
With the help of Abe Books, forever my stand-by, I was able to snaffle many of the accounts written in 1900 and out of print for over a century. Dear Stanley Brown in With the Royal Canadians (Publishers’ Syndicate, 1900) gave such a graphic detailing of our first contingent from its departure from Quebec city right through and past Paardeberg, including the attack on Lubbe’s Farm. Brown was wounded in the Zand River engagement and invalided home. E.W.B. Morrison, an Ottawa war correspondent and Gunner Officer with the Second Contingent, collected his equally brilliant columns into With the Guns in South Africa (Hamilton, 1901). T.G. Marquis’s Canada’s Sons on Kopje and Veldt (Toronto, 1900) was my other favourite stand-by. A lively, illustrated British book, Private Tucker’s Boer War Diary, though mainly British, provided background. Winston Churchill’s account of his experiences as a correspondent in that war (which he covered for the Morning Post, for a princely monthly £250) also gave me revealing insights.
I was surprised, after writing the book, to discover that Dr. Fiset, later Sir Marie-Joseph-Eugène Fiset, KCMG, three years after the war became a Colonel and Director-General of the Army Medical Service. In December 1939, he was appointed the first lieutenant governor of Quebec. Mr. Morrison was also a soldier and won the DSO for bravery at Leilifontein. Harry Burstall retired in 1923, as Lt.-Gen Sir H.E. Burstall, KCB, KCMG after 35 years in uniform. Among the Canadians, only Arthur Currie was more highly decorated than Burstall in the Great War. This was all pointed out by splendid Major Marc George, my main advisor on Book Six, and head of the Canadian Artillery Museum in Shilo, Manitoba, who read and made some final, but crucial, corrections. He was also a great help with many of the army terms and information, and corrected much else. He has been a tower of strength for my war books in the Saga.
The actual daily weather and the conditions faced by the Royal Canadians herein are all accurate. But this is after all, historical fiction, and let me be clear that I have imagined Jack’s actual story, as well as some of the characters he interacts with: correspondent Kandinsky, Adjutant Brown, Captain Forbes, Privates Eamon McAndrews and George Mckinnie, Sister Kelsie Maclean and, of course, the divine Catherina. Although no Canadian nurse died, mortality among the other nurses was significant. I have also chosen, as I mentioned, to use the language then invoked, such as Kaffir (now a slur), kharki for khaki, and the practise in wide use in 1900 of telling stories through the eyes of another narrator, as I did with Paardeberg. One might note that tracing Jack’s actual movements allowed me to look into other aspects impossible had he simple stayed with the Regiment.
Of course, the Internet (once one knows how to mine its depths, as cousin Ted does) is full of letters, essays, newspaper columns, and indeed whole books, that may be consulted. As they are publicly accessible, I shall not list them here, save to acknowledge the help of that great resource. And as is my wont, instead of a line from a poem, I have buried another secret herein: an blatant anachronism, find it who can.
Finally, I must acknowledge my many readers, who have through so many pages detected errors, infelicities of style, awkward sentences, and all manner of little ineptitudes and anachronisms that creep into my writing: Peter Duffell, that wise and wonderful film director; Diana Colman Webster, the J.K.Rowling of textbooks; Nicolas Etheridge, a talented diplomat: all got out their blacksnake whips to force me back at it just when I was sure I had finished. I’d also like to include: Philosopher Lou Marinoff, canal-boater Dr. Rex King, my step-son Chris Elkins with his scapel-like eye for detail, a dear friend and linguist Prof. Danielle Cyr, the Rev. Susan Klein who has read and advised on all my books, and the brilliant ex-ambassador, Jeremy Kinsman. And the novelist and friend, David Stansfield, edited and did his utmost to perfect this book after I thought it well finished.
All books in The Alford Saga are dedicated to Joan Almond, and I want to make clear that none would have been written without her support and encouragement.
Appendix
Except from the Quebec Diocesan Gazette, Jan 1901
The Bishop employed John Almond as a traveling missionary to visit Quebec districts with headquarters in Quebec City. When he was doing this, it appeared as if the First Canadian Contingent, made up as it was of the English churchmen, seemed as if it would be sent forth without an Anglican chaplain.
In the nick of time and without any suggestion from others, Mr. Almond volunteered to go if the matter could be arranged. At once therefore, very earnest representations were made to the Federal Government, and at the same time the very solemn service held at our Cathedral gave a tremendous impetus to the project. On the very day of sailing, the Bishop, the Dean, and the city clergy, introduced by Sir Henri Joly de Lotbinière, went as a deputation to Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and it was by the kindness of the Premier, ably seconded by General Hutton, that the matter was carried to a successful issue.
OTHER BOOKS IN THE BESTSELLING ALFORD SAGA
THE DESERTER
Imagine you’re in a swaying hammock on a British man-o’war around 1800, riding out a harsh spring storm in a deserted estuary of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Behind those high red cliffs lie a hundred miles of uncharted wilderness, populated only by indigenous peoples. If you jump ship and are caught, you will be branded a deserter — subject to death by one thousand lashes. What can you bring to help you survive? Within minutes, the ice-strewn waters could freeze your body and claim your soul. If this were your one chance for a life in the New World, would you jump?
Thomas Manning did, and his leap into uncertainty begins the epic tale of a pioneer family, one of the many who built our great nation. Through his and his descendants’ eyes, we watch one small community’s impact on the great events which swirl about them and bring conflicts they must face in their struggles to create homes and families.
Absorbing, touching and full of adventure, THE DESERTER is Book One of the Alford Saga, a series chronicling two hundred years of Canadian history, as seen through the eyes of a settler’s family.
ISBN 978-1-55278-977-3
mm paperback $10.99 CAD
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THE SURVIVOR
Thomas Manning, branded a deserter from the British Navy, is forced to change his name to James Alford to avoid the death penalty. Determined to forge a new life on the Gaspé Peninsula, he struggles to survive the harsh landscape and win the hand of Catherine Garrett.
After working in harsh sub-zero woods, he saves the life of an orphan working in a sawmill, and so gains crucial lumber to build a homestead out of intractable wilderness. But first he must battle murderous brigands to rescue a starving bull calf he hopes will be the first of the oxen he so desperately needs to clear his land. Finally, heroically surviving Canada’s worst famine, he faces down implacable bureaucracies to keep the farm he has been fighting to bring under cultivation.
A captivating and fast-paced adventure, THE SURVIVOR is Book Two of the Alford Saga, a series chronicling two hundred years of Canadian history, as seen through the eyes of one settler’s family.
ISBN 978-1-55278-967-4
C Paperback $19.95 CAD
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THE PIONEER
The riveting Alford Saga continues with James Alford, the Deserter, battling old age and ferocious winters, but even more crippling, the departure of his son and only heir, young Jim, who sets out on snowshoes for Montreal, seven hundred miles away from their home in Shigawake.
Arriving at last in Montreal, Jim is driven by starvation into a back-breaking job constructing the Victoria Bridge. He finds lodgings with an Irish widow in Griffintown, and falls in love. But after a stinging deception, he rejects the bitter realities of urban life and returns to the Old Homestead and its community of pioneers. His ageing father recruits him to rally recalcitrant neighbours to found a school for their children and a church for their worship in Shigawake.
Enthralling and adventurous, THE PIONEER is Book Three in the Alford Saga, a series chronicling two hundred years of Canadian history, as seen through the eyes of a settler’s family.
ISBN 978-1-77087-123-6
C Paperback $19.95 CAD
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THE PILGRIM
THE PILGRIM, the fourth book in Paul Almond’s thrilling Alford Saga, opens in 1896. After graduating from Bishop’s University, young rector Jack Alford is sent to his first parish — the implacable granite shores of the Canadian Labrador on the vast St. Lawrence River. Hazards imperil his life as he travels this harsh 450-mile coastline in summer and winter, by boat and dogsled, to visit communities in his far-flung parish.
Jack’s zeal for the welfare of Labrador’s hardy parishioners diverts him from his blossoming romance. Through summer storms that menace his tiny mission boat and fierce blizzards that almost annihilate his dog team, Jack brings succor to stranded families, care and leadership to villages perched on the windy granite, and inspir
ed teaching in hill-top churches that stand as beacons of hope among the seal-fishers and rugged pioneers of Labrador.
ISBN 978-1-77087-163-2
C Paperback $19.95 CAD