The Father of British Canada: a Chronicle of CarletonWood, William
History
The Father of British Canada: a Chronicle of Carleton
Wood, William
Canada -- History -- 1763-1867; Canada -- History -- 1775-1783; Dorchester, Guy Carleton, Baron, 1724-1808
He lived to become a wonderful link with the past. When
he died at home in England he was in the sixty-seventh
year of his connection with the Army and in the eighty-fifth
of his age. More than any other man of note he brought
the days of Marlborough into touch with those of Wellington,
though a century lay between. At the time he received
his first commission most of the senior officers were
old Marlburians. At the time of his death Nelson had
already won Trafalgar, Napoleon had already been emperor
of the French for nearly three years, and Wellington had
already begun the great Peninsular campaigns. Carleton's
own life thus constitutes a most remarkable link between
two very different eras of Imperial history. But he and
his wife together constitute a still more remarkable link
between two eras of Canadian history which are still
farther apart. At first sight it seems almost impossible
that he, who was the trusted friend o Wolfe, and she,
who learned deportment at Versailles in the reign of
Louis Quinze, should together make up a living link
between 1690, when Frontenac saved Quebec from the American
Colonials under Phips, and 1867, when the new Dominion
was proclaimed there. But it is true. Carleton, born in
the first quarter of the eighteenth century, knew several
old men who had served at the Battle of the Boyne, which
was fought three months before Frontenac sent his defiance
to Phips 'from the mouth of my cannon.' Carleton's wife,
living far on into the second quarter of the nineteenth
century, knew several rising young men who saw the Dominion
of Canada well started on its great career.
All Carleton's sons went into the Army and all died on
active service. The fourth was killed in 1814 at
Bergen-op-Zoom carrying the same sword that Carleton
himself had used there sixty-seven years before. A picture
of the first siege of Bergen-op-Zoom hangs in the
dining-room of the family seat at Greywell Hill to remind
successive generations of their martial ancestors. But
no Carleton needs to be reminded of a man's first duty
at the call to arms. The present holder of the Dorchester
estates and title is a woman. But her son and heir went
straight to the front with the cavalry of the first
British army corps to take the field in Belgium during
the Great World War of 1914.
Carleton spent most of his last twelve years at Kempshot
near Basingstoke because he kept his stud there and horses
were his chief delight. But he died at Stubbings, his
place near Maidenhead beside the silver Thames, on the
10th of November 1808.
Thus, after an unadventurous youth and early manhood, he
spent his long maturity steering the ship of state through
troublous seas abroad; then passed life's evening in the
quiet haven of his home.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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