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Boer War Local Heroes 14
More important Canadian antique memorabilia the Museum has recently preserved.
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Canadian Mystery Trooper - 1898

Great Canadian Heritage Treasure
Canadian Trooper (Lt. John McCrae) 1898
Orig. charcoal sketch - Size - 16" x 20"
Found - Rochester, NY
Original frame & glass, backed with cedar shakes, contained newspaper dated May 14 (1900). Sketch possibly signed "John McCrae 98."
Great Canadian Heritage Treasure
Welcome Home Ribbon 1901
Orig. silk ribbon - Size - 2" x 7.5"
Found - Port Perry, ON
This ultra rare ribbon lists the boys from Guelph who went off under Lt. John McCrae as artillerymen to fight in Africa. Their picture is bottom left.

In spite of its battered condition - think how you'd look after 105 years - this is a rare treasure, and probably the only one still surviving, with the name of Canada's most famous poet.
A Mystery Trooper: At an auction in Rochester, New York, we were lucky to discover this original charcoal sketch, a full 16 x 20" in size. We could tell this was probably a Victorian Canadian trooper, that it had not been apart in 100 years, and that someone had lovingly kept frame, glass, and picture, in marvellous condition.

The back of the picture was covered in rotting old paper that just fell apart when we tried to remove it. It was ancient! How could we ever figure out who it was or when and by whom it had been drawn?

When we removed the cedar shake backing, a rotting newspaper appeared which featured mostly sports stories datelined May 14 - no year anywhere.

From short clips we found out that people were planning budgets for 1901, so it had to be before that. The Queen was alive, so it had to be 1900 at the latest. A Canadian company had won a contract to make 30,000 uniforms for South Africa, so it had to be after October 1899, when the war started. There was talk of the war soon being over, and that Charles Tupper might win the next Canadian federal election. We knew one was slated for 1900. Conclusively it was May 1900.

A Canadian Officer: What regiment is he? Does his uniform or saddle gear identify him? He has one shoulder pip so he is either a lieutenant or a major. Is he too young to be a major? Is that a Canadian artillery uniform of the period?

John McCrae: At the bottom right, very faintly is a name and date that might read "John McCrae - 98."

How likely is that? Does the trooper look like Canada's famed poet of World War I? Does he resemble McCrae as he looked in 1900 when he was in South Africa as an artillery lieutenant - below, front right aboard ship on the way to South Africa; left below in South Africa.

A Lock of Hair: Is that a distinctive forelock of hair that McCrae has, left, in a poor photo, but which is clearly there, and which is so distinctly captured in the sketch (right)?

McCrae, left below, in Guelph, before the war, with some of the men named on the ribbon above, and below, in 1918 - compare the ears. He died later that year but lives on forever as the poet who wrote "In Flanders Fields."

Great Canadian Mystery!

Could this be a charcoal sketch of McCrae, or by him? We know that McCrae was a skilled artist, as well as a poet.

Or could it be both, a self portrait he executed for someone special, who kept it in loving memory, long after he had passed on?

A Secret Admirer: Does this explain why frame, glass, and sketch are in mint condition after more than 106 years?

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