Who am I?
Researched by E3161 Victoria Edwards (RMC 2003)
- I was one of the Old 18, the first class of cadets who entered the College in Kingston on 1 June 1876. I had been educated in Germany. My nickname was ‘shy’.
- As a recruit I was older in appearance and experience than most.
- I was the oldest recruit since I was one month past my 20th birthday. I had been made lance-corporal on the first day of the term.
- As cadets, we made our own surveys of the college grounds. My chain sketch drawn in 1877 provides information about the layount of buildings in the early days.
- As I senior, I wore mutton-chop whiskers and an eye glass and had an appearance of solemnity and sedateness.
- I served as the first Battalion Sergeant-Major (BSM) from 1878-80. I had the power to award two days confinement to barracks.
- After I failed out of the College in February 1880, a successor eventually succeeded me as BSM.
- I chaired the the first RMC Club organizational meeting, which was held on 7 February 1884 in Toronto. From the beginning, the RMC Club was not restricted to graduates.
- I was elected the first president of RMC on 14 March 1885. The club’s purpose was the promotion of the college’s interests, rather than merely the interests of club members.
- The Club was incorporated under the Statutes of Ontario in 1898.
- The secretary of the Royal Military College Club and I made valuable donations to the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, for the Year 1892.
- I edited “Officers of the British forces in Canada during the war of 1812-I5” (Welland, Tribune Print, 1908), which lists 11,000 participants in the war – most of the officers and divisions, and the various chiefs who sided with the British. The book was republished by the Canadian Military Institute in 2008.
- My son, Captain Jacob Aemilius, served in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force with the 13th York Rangers during World War I.
a) 4 William Davies
b) 6 Septimus Julius Augustus Denison
c) 7 Lukin Homfray Irving
d) 10 Victor Brereton Rivers
e) 17. Harold Waldruf Keefer
f) 18 Duncan MacPherson
– 7 Lukin Homfray Irving
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