The English Trip of 1910
Toronto, Sir Henry Pellatt, the Queen's Own Rifles and the Press Gang
by Mima Brown Kapches

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The year 1910 saw the 50th anniversary of the Queen’s Own Rifles, Canada’s longest-serving reserve regiment. To celebrate this landmark, a series of events, military parades, and spectacular historical pageants featuring hundreds of participants were held in Toronto, all of which were bankrolled by financier and Commanding Officer of the QOR, Sir Henry Pellatt—better known to Canadians as the man who built Toronto’s Casa Loma as a private residence for his family. The highlight of the jubilee celebrations was Pellatt’s sponsorship of a trip to the UK for more than 600 young reservists to train in military manoeuvers with the British Army for four weeks, including a week’s vacation. The group was accompanied by reporters—known as the “Press Gang”— from six Toronto newspapers. Author Mima Brown Kapches’ father, J.N.M. (Jim) Brown, was one such reporter. When researching her father’s journalism career, Brown Kapches came across an article filed by her father in Toronto World about the trip. Surprised to discover that there was little comprehensive documentation of this fascinating bit of Canadian history, she set about painstakingly reconstructing the trip, primarily through newspaper accounts written by her father and his fellow journalists. The English Trip of 1910: Toronto, Sir Henry Pellatt, the Queen’s Own Rifles and the Press Gang is a meticulously researched and eloquently written account of the English excursion.

www.mimabrownkapches.com

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"In 'The English Trip of 1910: Toronto, Sir Henry Pellatt, The Queen’s Own Rifles and the Press Gang', Dr. Mima Brown Kapches lovingly traces every stage of this celebratory 50th anniversary trip. On one level the work is a personal endeavour to better understand her father’s life experiences, but on another, it conscientiously documents activities indicative of the imperialist atmosphere in Europe which would soon erupt in war. Owen Sound’s Jaffray Eaton, who, at age 30, would later be killed in action at Passchendaele, is given a more human dimension as a dedicated journalist, in the prime of life, and well-regarded by other press members on the trip; Eaton describes everything from iceberg and whale sightings on the Atlantic crossing, to what the boys ate on the train travelling from Liverpool to Aldershot, to the tents, the barracks, the tiring marches, manoeuvres, pomp and parades." —Karin Noble, Archivist at Grey Roots Museum and Archives "As a retired Regimental Sergeant Major of the Queen's Own and the current Curator of the Regiment's museum at Casa Loma Toronto, I'm very happy to see that this story is finally being told. Most books and articles about the Queen's Own rightly focus on the battles and wars its soldiers have fought in. However, this is a story about the soldiers of the Regiment training for war on the other side of the Atlantic and how one of its most famous Commanding Officers, Major General Sir Henry Pellatt, was instrumental in achieving that aim." —CWO Shaun Kelly, CD (Ret'd), Curator at The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada Museum and Archive at Casa Loma "'The English Trip of 1910' traces the threads of personal account, photographs, travel logs, newspaper reports, and letters to weave the story of the Queen’s Own Rifles endeavour to England prowess under the command and at the expense of Sir Henry Pellatt. With thorough consideration and research, Kapches brings to the fore the lived realities and physical demands of the 1910 trip, in the context of Toronto and global history. The author splendidly captures the voices, perspectives, and humor of the men who accompanied Sir Henry on the trip. In the carefully compiled recounts of all the grandiose, somber, and mundane moments for the men on the 1910 trip, the personable and human-centred telling of this story makes for an exquisite read. The book builds a thorough context before and after the trip, bridging the gap of literature on such a momentous year for the city. The balanced telling of the trip’s ostentation, sobering moments, and lived realities, communicates the complexities of the Edwardian era and the limited perspectives on progression of social and political change." —Alyssia Maiorano, M.A. Curator at Casa Loma

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Mima Brown Kapches is an archaeologist with a particular interest in Toronto and Ontario history. She has published numerous articles in peer reviewed journals about Ontario archaeology and Ontario and Canadian archaeologists as well as articles for the general public. The English Trip of 1910 is her first book.

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Mima Brown Kapches

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