TAYLOR: Scarf knitted by Queen Victoria honoured a Canadian hero

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She all the time appreciated a person in uniform — she loved the pomp and circumstance of the army, its bands, the horses and the marching males.

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Most of all, she admired the braveness and dedication to God and nation of those that marched off to struggle.

She was, in spite of everything, a soldier’s daughter, and when Britain went to struggle in opposition to the Boers in South Africa, in November 1899, she needed to do one thing particular for the Empire’s troops whom she held in such excessive regard.

That’s when this rotund, little outdated woman within the final months of her life, retired to her stitching room to crochet eight woolen scarves.

They had been khaki-coloured and unremarkable, save for a discretely woven cipher; ‘VRI’.

However they had been destined for nice significance throughout the army world, for the “little outdated woman” was none aside from the grand and superb Queen Victoria.

Accomplished not lengthy earlier than her dying, in January 1901, she directed that they be offered to “the very best, all-round males participating within the South African Marketing campaign.”

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4 scarves had been to go to members of the British Armed Forces and 4 to excellent troopers from New Zealand, South Africa’s Cape Colony, Australia and Canada.

When Britain determined to confront the Boers for the second time, Canada was anticipated to rise to the event.

It was a troublesome choice that cut up the nation, with French Canadians, below Henri Bourassa, siding with the Boers and British Canadians lining up behind the Crown.

It was political hazard writ giant for then prime minister Wilfrid Laurier, whose cupboard was divided and thrown into turmoil over the problem.

A reluctant Liberal authorities lastly handed laws permitting Canada to lift a regiment and ship it off to Africa.

With no skilled military on the Canadian panorama on the time, a primary contingent of 1,000, volunteer squaddies was quickly despatched throughout the ocean because the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR), commanded by Lt.-Col. William Dillon Otter.

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Otter would, later, change into the primary Canadian-born officer to guide the nation’s armed forces, and in 1890, he would set up the Royal Canadian Navy Institute which, 132 years later, nonetheless thrives from its College Ave. headquarters in Toronto.

Earlier than lengthy, 6,000 extra volunteers flying banners of regiments like The Royal Canadian Dragoons and Lord Strathcona’s Horse, enthusiastically joined their comrades in Africa.

They had been the primary troopers to set foot on overseas lands sporting Canadian uniforms and 280 by no means returned, whereas greater than 250 had been wounded.

Misplaced throughout the first contingent was a younger personal soldier named Richard Rowland Thompson.

He was born in Cork, Eire in 1877, the youngest of eight youngsters.

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After failing to finish his Queen’s Faculty medical research, he immigrated to Canada on the age of twenty-two and was dwelling in Ottawa when the South African struggle broke out.

A eager supporter of British imperialism, he was among the many first to enlist and shipped out as a medical assistant.

Throughout the RCR’s first Battle of Paardeberg — starting on Feb. 18, 1900 — Thompson noticed a wounded comrade mendacity on the sphere of battle a number of hundred metres in entrance of him.

With out hesitation, he raced to the person’s facet, stored his hand on a burst jugular vein for seven hours and, miraculously, saved his life, whereas the battle raged round him.

For this, Thompson was talked about in dispatches.

In a repeat efficiency, 9 days later, he dashed some 300 metres by means of a storm of bullets solely to search out one other wounded soldier had already died.

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Heedless of livid preventing and in defiance of the enemy, he strolled again to his personal traces with no regard for private security.

On reflection, Thompson stated, “I jumped over the trenches and ran straight for the Boer place in broad daylight … I used to be heartily complimented by the officer commanding. I feel now it was pure foolhardiness.”

5 Canadians earned the Victoria Cross over the course of the South African Conflict, however Thompson was not amongst them.

It was not for need of attempting, since Otter made the nomination on two events and even governor basic Lord Minto put his tuppence price into the dialogue — all to no avail.

Some say it was as a result of Thompson had been awarded the Queen’s Scarf in July 1900 and there was a concerted effort to make sure that the headband had no equivalency to the VC.

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Nonetheless, 1,358 Crosses have been awarded and there’ll solely ever be eight Queen Victoria’s scarves so, though they haven’t any standing as an official ornament and commendation for bravery, they’ve monumental significance all of their very own.

Thompson died younger, of appendicitis, in 1908 and was buried with full army honours at Chelsea Pioneer Cemetery in Quebec.

His story and his neckpiece had been largely forgotten till 1965 when his nephew in Eire discovered the headband and donated it to Canada.

Immediately, Thompson’s scarf and his brave story are preserved and specifically displayed within the Canadian Conflict Museum, as silent testomony to Queen Victoria’s needs that he be acknowledged for his conspicuous gallantry within the South African battle.

— Col. Gilbert Taylor (HCol. retired) is the speedy previous president of the Royal Canadian Navy Institute and Ontario Department of the Final Publish Fund