A few loose ends relating to architect Francis Rattenbury to be tidied up before settling down for the 10 days of Christmas. Readers may recall a reference two weeks ago to a Boer War Memorial Arch Rattenbury was designing for construction on Belleville Street opposite the legislative buildings. I noted while “the Paardenburg Gate” to commemorate the victory of Canadian troops in the battle of Paardenburg Drift in 1900 is listed as a Rattenbury achievement, there were no physical signs of accomplishment, not even an artist’s impression.
I turned — as I always do when seeking long-forgotten paper trails — to Times Colonist readers and the legislative library staff for help. The response was fast. In minutes, librarians located Francis Rattenbury and British Columbia: Architecture and Challenge in the Imperial Age, a book authored by Anthony A. Barrett and Rhodri Windsor Liscomb. On page 114, they refer to a story published on Oct. 2, 1901, in the Colonist with photographs of a series of temporary floral arches crossing the James Bay Bridge (now the causeway) as a welcome to a visiting Duke of York, who later became King George V.
The authors describe as “fulsome” the Colonist’s description “of the vista that greeted the royal couple as they approached the bridge.” Fulsome indeed was the Colonist as it waxed: “Arch after arch rose above the carriages as they drove past the lines of spectators (estimated at 30,000) which cheered the son of Britain’s king.” The arches were described as “simple, built in skeleton form with bunting of various colours draped between the sides … and with festooned strings of evergreens drooping from pole to pole along railings which divided the roadway from the pedestrians’ domain.”
Authors Barrett and Liscombe suggest the royal-welcome arches “might have influenced Rattenbury’s own abortive scheme for the Paardeburg Gate Memorial announced in the Contract Record for Jan. 2, 1901. This was to have commemorated the B.C. contingents that fought in the Boer War and was estimated at the not-inconsiderable cost of $25,000.” Both Rattenbury and his uncle Richard Mawson are thought to have worked on the Paardeburg Gate project, but no design drawings have survived. Barrett and Liscombe suggest their proposals might have been rejected as too costly, although in a letter to his mother, they quote Rattenbury mentioning difficulties in finding local craftsmen.
The “Gate,” or arch, was to have one foot on the Inner Harbour near where the “Welcome to Victoria” flowerbed now sits, the other on the other side of Belleville Street in line with the main entrance to the legislative building. Barrett and Liscombe then, in Appendix A, page 298, resolve the mystery of the missing memorial: “Paardeburg Gate Memorial, Belleville Street, Victoria, The Contract Record for Jan. 2 (1901) announced that Rattenbury was preparing plans for this memorial, presumably to commemorate soldiers from Canadian regiments who had died in the Boer War; the Royal Canadian Regiment had performed particularly well in the battle. It was to have been erected opposite the main entrance to the legislative building at an estimated cost of $25,000. The project was abandoned.”
While we can be thankful no towering granite archway towers over Belleville, it is surprising the patriotic fervour of the age didn’t force a gate too many on us. There were fundraisers everywhere for soldiers heading overseas and soldiers coming home. In Victoria, one fund raised $316 for “Troopers of Strathcona’s Horse.” Reader Peter Scott pointed me to the Colonist of Feb. 20, 1900, where Joan Dunsmuir is listed as the highest donor with $100. Most were for $5 but others donated $1 or $2.50. The money went to “buy 15 Troopers pigskin purses” — their use was not defined.
In the Interior, in the same 1900-01 time frame, the Rossland Miner reported a series of organized “smokers” for returning soldiers who were presented with “watches, lockets and chains” as tokens of gratitude for helping keep the British Empire safe from a ragtag army of Dutch farmers who had been happily ranching and farming on the African veldt until diamonds and gold attracted covetous eyes in England.
Now to more important things, such as confessing that if the gods who have the final say on winter travel arrangements have been kind, I should be sitting in San Diego sunshine as you read this. Just an overnight stay while waiting to board the good ship Statendam tomorrow for a cruise around the Hawaiian and French Polynesian islands. With my days of riotous living far behind me, I hope to be somewhere between Kona, Hawaii, and Fanning Island, Kiribati, on Dec. 27, quietly celebrating the 90th anniversary of my arrival on planet Earth. My itinerary lists me “at sea” on that momentous day. And may readers who mutter “most appropriate” do so with the spirit of Christmas fluttering in their kindly hearts.