The Monarchist 1.0
Defending the British Crown Commonwealth and the English-Speaking Peoples
[+] HONOURING OUR PATRON, SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL, VICTOR OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES
[+] HONOURING OUR QUEEN, ELIZABETH THE SECOND, ON THE 80TH YEAR OF HER BIRTH (1926 - 2006)
[+] HONOURING OUR KING, SAINT EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, ON THE 1000TH YEAR OF HIS BIRTH (1005 - 2005)
[+] HONOURING OUR HERO, LORD NELSON, ON THE BICENTENNIAL OF THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR (1805 - 2005)
[+] HONOURING OUR SONS, THE QUEEN'S COMMONWEALTH SOLDIERS KILLED IN THE 'WAR ON TERROR'
Chief Warrant Officer Robert Girouard, 46, Royal Canadian Regiment, Nov 27, 2006 (Afstan)
Staff Sergeant Sharron Elliott, 34, Intelligence Corps, Nov 12, 2006 (Iraq)
Private Jacob B. Kovco, 25, Royal Australian Regiment, April 21, 2006
[+] HONOURING OUR VETS ON THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE VICTORIA CROSS (1856 - 2006)
Monday, August 01, 2005
Happy Simcoe Day
Today is Simcoe Day in the Province of Ontario, most acutely felt here in Toronto, where Major-General John Graves Simcoe of the loyalist Queen's Rangers founded the place as York (central Toronto where I currently call home) and established a military fort (Fort York) following the American War of Independence. It was a war in which Simcoe distinguished himself greatly, even though during the battle of Brandywine, he gave an order that set the course of history, when he told his soldiers not to shoot three fleeing Americans in the back. One of those Americans was George Washington, first President of the United States.
"The regiment suffered serious losses at Mamaroneck, Brandywine and Germantown until, on October 15, 1777 Simcoe was given command. Simcoe turned the badly mauled Queen's Rangers into one of the most successful British regiments in the war. Fighting as reconnaisance and outpost troops, they were never defeated in battle. One advantage they had was the fact that they were the first British regiment to wear green uniforms, as more suitable for purposes of camouflage than red. They did escort and patrol duty around Philadelphia (1777-8), fought in the Pennsylvania campaign, served as rearguard during the British retreat to New York (1778), fought at Perth Amboy, New Jersey--where Simcoe was captured but freed in a prisoner exchange 3 months later(1779-80)--, at Charlestown, South Carolina (1780), in the raid on Richmond, Virginia with Benedict Arnold and in other raids in Virginia(1780-1), and in the Yorktown campaign (1781). A point of pride for the regiment is that when the British finally surrendered at Yorktown in 1781, the "colours" (banner) of the Queen's Rangers were smuggled away, never to fall into enemy hands. Today those same colours are on display in Toronto in the officers' mess of the Queen's Rangers. As the finest Loyalist unit, they were awarded the title 1st American Regiment and enrolled in the British Army in 1782."
Simcoe was also the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, after it was newly established in 1791. He is most proudly recognized as the first Britisher to abolish slavery, some 25 years before the British Empire as a whole did so, and more than 50 years before the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States.
So how was Simcoe as a person? Apparently, he was a fathead, "not at all admired by the people who knew him; indeed, he was actively disliked by many for his imperious ways. He was a flighty, impractical dreamer ("He would become entranced with one glittering idea, carry it about for a while and drop it to go on with something else" . . . "a man whose energy overmatched his judgment") and a pompous, anti-democratic "snob of snobs" bent on installing an oppressive mini-aristocracy in Upper Canada with himself at the top."
POSTED BY: The Monarchist AT 12:58 a.m. | LINKS |
Today is Simcoe Day in the Province of Ontario, most acutely felt here in Toronto, where Major-General John Graves Simcoe of the loyalist Queen's Rangers founded the place as York (central Toronto where I currently call home) and established a military fort (Fort York) following the American War of Independence. It was a war in which Simcoe distinguished himself greatly, even though during the battle of Brandywine, he gave an order that set the course of history, when he told his soldiers not to shoot three fleeing Americans in the back. One of those Americans was George Washington, first President of the United States."The regiment suffered serious losses at Mamaroneck, Brandywine and Germantown until, on October 15, 1777 Simcoe was given command. Simcoe turned the badly mauled Queen's Rangers into one of the most successful British regiments in the war. Fighting as reconnaisance and outpost troops, they were never defeated in battle. One advantage they had was the fact that they were the first British regiment to wear green uniforms, as more suitable for purposes of camouflage than red. They did escort and patrol duty around Philadelphia (1777-8), fought in the Pennsylvania campaign, served as rearguard during the British retreat to New York (1778), fought at Perth Amboy, New Jersey--where Simcoe was captured but freed in a prisoner exchange 3 months later(1779-80)--, at Charlestown, South Carolina (1780), in the raid on Richmond, Virginia with Benedict Arnold and in other raids in Virginia(1780-1), and in the Yorktown campaign (1781). A point of pride for the regiment is that when the British finally surrendered at Yorktown in 1781, the "colours" (banner) of the Queen's Rangers were smuggled away, never to fall into enemy hands. Today those same colours are on display in Toronto in the officers' mess of the Queen's Rangers. As the finest Loyalist unit, they were awarded the title 1st American Regiment and enrolled in the British Army in 1782."
Simcoe was also the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, after it was newly established in 1791. He is most proudly recognized as the first Britisher to abolish slavery, some 25 years before the British Empire as a whole did so, and more than 50 years before the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States.
So how was Simcoe as a person? Apparently, he was a fathead, "not at all admired by the people who knew him; indeed, he was actively disliked by many for his imperious ways. He was a flighty, impractical dreamer ("He would become entranced with one glittering idea, carry it about for a while and drop it to go on with something else" . . . "a man whose energy overmatched his judgment") and a pompous, anti-democratic "snob of snobs" bent on installing an oppressive mini-aristocracy in Upper Canada with himself at the top."
POSTED BY: The Monarchist AT 12:58 a.m. | LINKS |
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