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Harold Borden

Killed on 16 July 1900
at Witpoort, South Africa

Photographs of
Monument

Canning
Kings County
Nova Scotia

This is believed to be the second oldest military monument in Nova Scotia.
Officially unveiled 23 September 1903.

Located in the intersection of Main Street (Highway 221) and North Avenue (Highway 358)

GPS location:   45°09'27"N   64°25'14"W
Google map

Planting flowers for the summer season

Photographed on 15 July 2005

Harold Lothrop Borden monument
Canning, Kings County, Nova Scotia

Photographed on 13 September 2002

West face

Photographed on 13 September 2002

West face

Photographed on 13 September 2002

West plaque detail, lower right corner

Photographed on 13 September 2002

The Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co.
Founders   N.Y. — 1903
The Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company was a prominent New York City art foundry.
It operated under the name E. Henry & Bonnard from 1872 to 1881,
and as The Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company from 1882 to 1926.

West face

Photographed on 25 April 2008

West plaque detail, lower left corner

Hamilton MacCarthy - Sculptor
Photographed on 26 April 2008

West plaque detail, upper left

Royal Canadian Dragoons
Diamond Hill
Johannesburg
Orange Free State
Cape Colony
Photographed on 26 April 2008

East face

Photographed on 9 October 2002

East plaque, Witpoort

Photographed on 19 May 2003

East plaque detail, upper left corner

The Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co.
Founders   N.Y.   1903
Photographed 19 May 2003

East plaque detail, upper right corner

Hamilton MacCarthy, Sculptor
Photographed 19 May 2003

North plaque, Vet River

Photographed on 19 May 2003

North plaque detail, upper left corner

The Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co.
Founders   N.Y.   1903
Photographed 19 May 2003

North plaque detail, upper right corner

Hamilton MacCarthy, Sculptor
Photographed 19 May 2003

Unveiling ceremony, 23 September 1903: close view (above), wide view (below)

For this rare photograph, thanks to Mr. Ian T. Curry of Granville Beach,
Annapolis County, whose grandfather, Archabald William Gillis, attended this
unveiling ceremony as a Captain with the 69th Annapolis Regiment, Infantry.

Mr. Gillis lived in Paradise, Annapolis County.  Mr. Curry found this photograph
in his mother's house, after she died in December 2004 at age 91.

Photographed on 13 June 2008, 8:11pm (best light)

Winter

Photographed on 20 February 2004

Winter

Photographed on 25 January 2005

Busy location – installing new concrete curb along Main Street

Photographed on 27 June 2003

Map showing the location of the Harold Borden monument
Canning, Kings County, Nova Scotia
Roads are shown as they were in 1956.
Except for the Greenwich Connector to Highway 101,
the layout of the roads in 2009 has not changed
much from that shown here.

How Did Canada Get Into the Boer War?

...For decades before 1899, the Dutch settlers of South Africa (known as Boers or Afrikaners) had fought for an independent homeland. The British colonial officials in the Cape Colony and the Natal struggled mightily to subdue the Boers, but had to settle for a policy of mutual forbearance.

All this changed when gold (the oil of the 19th century) was discovered in South Africa in 1886 ... The British put increasing pressure on the Afrikaners until war broke out in October 1899.

As fighting started in South Africa, the British turned to their colonies for aid ... Sir Wilfred Laurier, the popular Liberal prime minister of Canada, faced a dilemma ... His anti-war sentiments echoed those of his French Canadian compatriots, many of whom regarded the war as an unnecessary imperialist adventure and sympathized with the nationalist aspirations of the Afrikaners. In 1900, students in Montreal clashed with police in a violent anti-British riot.

In English Canada, sympathies ran strongly the other way. Such Canadian militarists as Montreal Star publisher Hugh Graham argued that Britain was our largest trading partner and closest ally, therefore deserving of our support. Abandoning Britain in its moment of need would be an act of gross disloyalty, according to the pro-Empire press.

Torn between English and French Canada, surrounded by the din of loud voices for and against the war, Laurier hit upon a master stroke. On October 18, 1899, Laurier announced that "in view of the well-known desire of a great many Canadians who are ready to take service" on behalf of the Empire, he would support the creation of a volunteer force. The Canadian government would equip and transport any volunteers eager to fight the Boers, but once in South Africa, they would be the responsibility of the British government.

Laurier also encouraged private individuals to help defer the costs of the Canadian unit. This request was taken up by Lord Strathcona, the High Commissioner in London, who paid out of his own pocket for a unit of mounted rifles.

In all, more than 7,000 Canadians signed up as volunteers to fight in the Boer War. Fighting under British commanders, they served with great distinction and won praise from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes and a chronicler of the war. "Smith-Dorrien's Nineteenth Brigade, comprising the Shropshires, the Cornwalls, the Gordons and the Canadians, [was] probably the very finest brigade in the whole army," Doyle wrote...

— Jeet Heer in the National Post, 5 April 2003, page A17

---

Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company New York So well can Senator W.A. Clark of Montana keep a secret that it was not until yesterday that the news got out that for nearly four years he has been the principal stockholder and practical owner of the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company of this city, which is the foremost concern of its kind in this country and one of the foremost in the world... The foundry has become one of his pet hobbies, and at present his ambition is to make the undertaking the finest and biggest in the world. The Henry-Bonnard Company is the only concern anywhere capable of molding a life-size statue in a single piece, and, within a very short time, another step will be taken that will place the company still further ahead of its European rivals.  Preparations are now going on in the foundry for the molding of a equestrian statue in a single piece – the first venture of its kind ever attempted... The Henry-Bonnard Company was formed in 1872 by two Frenchmen, P.A. Bonnard and E. Henry, who began very modestly in a small house in Wooster Street.  Its first chance came when William H. Vanderbilt planned his Fifth Avenue residence with a view to making it the finest in the country at that time.  Christian Herter of Herter Brothers started Henry and Bonnard in a new place in Mercer Street, and furnished capital, which enabled them not only to do the work for the Vanderbilt mansion, but also to undertake the molding of the first statues ever made in this country.  Until then the sculptors had to send their models to Europe to have them molded.  The first American-made statue was that of Gen. Bolivar, raised by the Venezuelan Government at Caracas.  It was finished in 1881. A couple of years later the company undertook to mold the statue of George Washington now standing in front of the Sub-Treasury in this city, and to do it in three pieces, an undertaking which at the time was regarded as revolutionary in its kind. Success followed the experiment, and when the doors for the Trinity Church were to be cast in bronze the foundry was able to turn out each door whole. Then came the final achievement when, in the middle nineties, the statue of Henry Ward Beecher, now facing the Brooklyn Court House, was cast in a single mold. The first attempt was a failure, but when tried again the venture proved successful. Up to this time no European foundry has been able to follow the example set by the American foundry. In 1881 the company was reorganized, among the principal stockholders being such men as ex-Gov. R.C. McCormick of Arizona, the late Secretary of the Treasury William Windom of Minnesota, ex-Treasurer of the United States James Gilfillan, and Henry Newton of this city... The history of the company since that time is remarkable.  In this city alone are to be found statues by the score that have come out of its foundry.  Others, by the hundreds, have been spread all over the country, while a not insignificant number have passed over to Europe... The company has long had a widespread reputation on account of the excellency of the patina or finish which it is able to give to its work... Plans for a new, modern foundry are now about to be materialized, and will involve a removal of the company to Mount Vernon. The work on the new building will be under way inside of a month, and will be ready before the end of the year... — The New York Times, 14 May 1905 "the excellent patina or finish" (after a hundred years outdoors) East plaque detail, upper left corner The Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co. Founders   N.Y. — 1903 Photographed 19 May 2003 ...Many celebrated pieces of bronze have been turned out by the Bonnard Company, which was the first to undertake the casting of statuary.  It turned out the Farragut Statue, which stands in Madison Square; the statue of Gen. Sherman, in Central Park; the Nathan Hale Statue, and many others equally important. — The New York Times, 18 March 1906 ...The Henry & Bonnard Bronze Manufacturing Company, which has just completed the Washington statue for Wall Street, was established in New York City in February last, with a capital of $200,000 divided into 100,000 shares. — The New York Times, 25 November 1883 Casting the Lee Statue Knots of workmen in checked jean blouses, who talked in French, hovered around a roaring furnace in which a mass of metal seethed, in the works of the Henry & Bonnard Bronze Manufacturing Comapny, at Nos. 237 and 239 Mercer Street, yesterday.  In the middle of the hot and smoky room was a huge flask containing a mold of the chest of the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee.  It was one of the seven main parts of the statue that was to be cast.  There were other molds for other sections of the statue in different parts of the room, but they were not ready for the bronze to be poured into them... A charcoal fire was built in an iron box on the top of the mold of sand, and a stout Frenchman, with an odd cap on his head, the foreman of the shop, urged the flames with a bellows in order to heat the passages which the metal was to follow.  He looked into the dazzling mass in the furnace once in a while to see how near ready it was to be run into the mold.  The other workmen wound clothes about their hands and arms to keep the burning bronze from coming in contact with the flesh. At last the plate was taken off the furnace, and at the word of the stout Frenchman an iron chain, to which a pair of tongs was attached, was lowered into the roaring flames.  They gripped a crucible and drew it up with its load of bubbling bronze, which threw off heat, smoke, and sparks.  The metal had reached a temperature of 1,800°, and was almost white.  The accumulation on the top was blown off and the metal poured into a huge iron pot, heated almost red hot, which hung on a heavy chain at the end of a ponderous derrick.  Four other crucibles were drawn out in the same way and their contents poured into the pot.  The derrick creaked and groaned as the metal, weighing over a ton, was hauled up to the top of the flask, about eight feet from the ground.  The stalwart Frenchman gave the signal and the pot was tipped up.  A stream of dazzling metal ran out into a wide orifice in the mold and went hissing and crackling through the interstices. Smoke and bright sheets of flame shot out through the vent holes. There was a sharp report and some of the metal spurted out through a hole in the bottom and squirmed, sputtering like a golden serpent through the sand on the floor.  Mr. E. Henry, the manager, said the casting was uninjured and would come out all right... The monument will be paid for by the Lee Monument Association of New Orleans, and is to be given to the city... — The New York Times, 20 September 1883

Memorial Plaque in Montreal

Memorial plaque
Srathcona Anatomy and Dentistry Building
McGill University, Montreal

Photographed on 29 May 2008

Memorial plaque
Srathcona Anatomy and Dentistry Building
McGill University, Montreal

Photographed on 29 May 2008

Memorial plaque
Srathcona Anatomy and Dentistry Building
McGill University, Montreal

Photographed on 29 May 2008

Srathcona Anatomy and Dentistry Building, McGill University, Montreal

Photographed on 29 May 2008

Srathcona Anatomy and Dentistry Building, 3640 University Street, Montreal

Photographed on 29 May 2008

Thanks to Prof. Jon G. Bradley.

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Home   Contents   Site map   Kings County
Military Memorials   Cannons   Chronology

First uploaded to the WWW:   2002 October 22
New photograph installed:   2003 January 20
Heer text and Doyle links added:   2003 April 06
New photographs installed:   2003 July 31
New photograph installed:   2005 January 30
Unveiling photograph added:   2005 June 07
New photograph installed:   2005 July 15
New map:   2006 June 21
Added Google Map link:   2008 January 20
New photograph installed:   2008 April 26
Montreal photographs added:   2008 June 18
Latest update:   2014 June 01