Giuseppe
Emeritus
Memoirs of the quintessential mountie return to Canada
Oct 21, 2008 08:51 PM
THE CANADIAN PRESS
EDMONTON?
The memoirs, journals and love letters of Sir Sam Steele, one of Canada's first Mounties and a man described as a "quintessential" but undervalued Canadian hero, have come home from Britain to go on display for the first time.
"(Steele) was the man the stereotype was built around ? the stereotypical Mountie, the stereotypical military man," said Ernie Ingles, chief librarian at the University of Alberta who helped oversee the return of the collection.
"If we were talking today in the U.S., this man would have had three movies, a half-dozen mini-series and several biographies done of his life."
More than 80 boxes of diaries, letters, photographs and other artifacts documenting the life of the militiaman, police officer and soldier will be housed at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and the Glenbow Museum in Calgary.
The material was purchased by the university from British descendants of Steele for $1.8 million and was turned over at a ceremony in London in June ? an event attended by Prince Edward.
It will be used for research work and eventually digitized and made freely accessible on the Internet.
The collection could lead to a re-interpretation of people and events that helped shape Western Canada, where Steele made a name for himself, said Ingles.
"The events won't change, but some of the nuances might, particularly in areas such as relations with First Nations and the building of the CPR."
Historians from many backgrounds should be excited about the collection for many reasons, said Glenn Wright, a former RCMP staff historian.
"Here's a very important figure in the mounted police who regularly kept a diary. The letters to his wife (Marie) are extraordinary. There are hundreds if not thousands of them. Presumably they document not only their relationship and their family, but I suspect he also talks about his day-to-day work, which he took a great interest in," said Wright.
Samuel Benfield Steele was born in southern Ontario in 1849, although there is no firm record of his birthday. He joined the militia in the 1860s and ventured west when he volunteered for the Red River Expedition of 1870.
After furthering his military career in Kingston and Toronto, Steele joined the North West Mounted Police ? the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ? when the force was created in 1873.
Sent west the following year, Steele was a member of a team that negotiated between the U.S. Army and Sitting Bull, the famous aboriginal leader who sought exile in Canada after he defeated George Custer at the battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.
By the early 1880s, Steele was helping to dispense justice to gamblers and bootleggers as the fledgling Canadian Pacific Railway worked its way west. He later commanded troops during the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 and by early 1898, Steele was keeping the peace among a flood of fortune hunters in the Klondike gold fields.
Steele also commanded a cavalry unit during the Boer War in South Africa. Because of his age, he was deemed too old for an active combat command during the First World War, but he was appointed overall commander of a Canadian military training base in England.
Steele retired from the military in 1918 and died the following year in England from influenza. He was buried in Winnipeg.
"I think mounted police history will have to be looked at again. He did write an autobiography and so his perspective is there of the historical record," said Wright.
"These documents that have recently come back to Canada have never been looked at by any kind of historian before. So I think it's going to be time to rewrite a few chapters of western Canadian history especially," he said.
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http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/521623
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Oct 21, 2008 08:51 PM
THE CANADIAN PRESS
EDMONTON?
The memoirs, journals and love letters of Sir Sam Steele, one of Canada's first Mounties and a man described as a "quintessential" but undervalued Canadian hero, have come home from Britain to go on display for the first time.
"(Steele) was the man the stereotype was built around ? the stereotypical Mountie, the stereotypical military man," said Ernie Ingles, chief librarian at the University of Alberta who helped oversee the return of the collection.
"If we were talking today in the U.S., this man would have had three movies, a half-dozen mini-series and several biographies done of his life."
More than 80 boxes of diaries, letters, photographs and other artifacts documenting the life of the militiaman, police officer and soldier will be housed at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and the Glenbow Museum in Calgary.
The material was purchased by the university from British descendants of Steele for $1.8 million and was turned over at a ceremony in London in June ? an event attended by Prince Edward.
It will be used for research work and eventually digitized and made freely accessible on the Internet.
The collection could lead to a re-interpretation of people and events that helped shape Western Canada, where Steele made a name for himself, said Ingles.
"The events won't change, but some of the nuances might, particularly in areas such as relations with First Nations and the building of the CPR."
Historians from many backgrounds should be excited about the collection for many reasons, said Glenn Wright, a former RCMP staff historian.
"Here's a very important figure in the mounted police who regularly kept a diary. The letters to his wife (Marie) are extraordinary. There are hundreds if not thousands of them. Presumably they document not only their relationship and their family, but I suspect he also talks about his day-to-day work, which he took a great interest in," said Wright.
Samuel Benfield Steele was born in southern Ontario in 1849, although there is no firm record of his birthday. He joined the militia in the 1860s and ventured west when he volunteered for the Red River Expedition of 1870.
After furthering his military career in Kingston and Toronto, Steele joined the North West Mounted Police ? the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ? when the force was created in 1873.
Sent west the following year, Steele was a member of a team that negotiated between the U.S. Army and Sitting Bull, the famous aboriginal leader who sought exile in Canada after he defeated George Custer at the battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.
By the early 1880s, Steele was helping to dispense justice to gamblers and bootleggers as the fledgling Canadian Pacific Railway worked its way west. He later commanded troops during the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 and by early 1898, Steele was keeping the peace among a flood of fortune hunters in the Klondike gold fields.
Steele also commanded a cavalry unit during the Boer War in South Africa. Because of his age, he was deemed too old for an active combat command during the First World War, but he was appointed overall commander of a Canadian military training base in England.
Steele retired from the military in 1918 and died the following year in England from influenza. He was buried in Winnipeg.
"I think mounted police history will have to be looked at again. He did write an autobiography and so his perspective is there of the historical record," said Wright.
"These documents that have recently come back to Canada have never been looked at by any kind of historian before. So I think it's going to be time to rewrite a few chapters of western Canadian history especially," he said.
-
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/521623
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