Researched by E3161 Victoria Edwards (RMC 2003)
Who is he?
* He was born Feb 1877 in Toronto, the son of Sarah Caroline (nee Benson) and Col. Daniel Robert ____ (1850-1914). A town in Saskatchewan was named after his father, the president of the Imperial Bank of Canada (1906-1914), now CIBC. His father was a backer of the Canadian Pacific Railway and a member of the Canadian Art Club.
* His schooling prior to RMC was at Trinity College School.
* He was photographed in 1890 at the family home on 432 Sherbourne Street, York, now Toronto known as “Seven Oaks” (built 1875)
* He joined the College on 3 Sept 1895. He attained the Cadet rank of Corporal on Sept 1897. He was promoted to the Cadet rank of Sergeant in April 1898.
* He is identified in the background of an interior gelatin-silver print of cadets engaging in gymnastics in the original College gymnasium in 1898. The building stood in front of the Stone Frigate and was originally a Blacksmith Shop from the later dockyard days. When the [Old] Gym was built in 1903 this building was converted into a Gun Shed and when a new Gun Shed [now the Supply Building] was built in 1914, this building was torn down.
* He left College on 19 June 1899 and was awarded a Diploma.
* He was commissioned into the British army and was gazetted into the Royal Sussex Regiment, 2 Aug 1899.
* He was promoted Lieutenant -1 June 1901; to Captain- 10 March 1909; and to Major- 1 September 1915.
* He served in Lucknow, India (1902); Thorncliffe, British Isles (1903-4); Malta (1904-5); Candia, Crete (1906) and North China British Legation, Peking (1908).
* He married Beatrice Louise Spragge on 27 Jan 1912 in York.
* During the First World War he served in France. He proceeded to France with his Regiment, the 2nd R. Sussex on 12 Aug 1914 and served with his Battalion throughout the retreat from Mons. He was Mentioned-in-Dispatches (MID) on 13 March 1918. He was awarded the 1914 Star; British War Medal and the Victory Medal. Later he was a Brigade Major [i.e. a Staff Officer] on Special appointment, 1 Oct 1916 to January 1919.
* He retired on pension 8 July 1919 (20 years of service)
* He contributed to the Art Gallery of Toronto for a loan exhibition at the U of Toronto in 1920: `Landscape in the Province of Quebec` (Clarence Gagnon); `Quebec` (Edmund Montague Morris); and `On Coast of Tangiers` (Sir John Lavery).
* He died in 1960 at 83 years of age. His wife Beatrice had died in 1955 at 72 years of age.
a) 403 Arthur Benson Wilke
b) 427 Edward C Baker
c) 461 James Wells Ross
d) 490 FH Maynard
e) 499 E de B Panet
Answer:
a) 403 Major Arthur Benson Wilke (RMC 1895-1899)
Sources: The photos were reproduced from the Toronto Public Library website *http://www.tpl.toronto.on.ca