While I was researching for the “Solving a Canadian Militia Mystery” blog post, I came across an image that made me pause. It was attached to an article entirely unrelated to the information I was looking for but the military uniforms present in the picture stuck out at me. Below is the image I saw.
In the image, the pallbearers are wearing a uniform that looked suspiciously like one that I had catalogued in the collection just a few weeks before. At the time, I had noticed that a previous cataloguer had indicated that it was a uniform from the 96th Battalion of Algoma Rifles. I knew this didn’t sit right with me and knowing it most likely wasn’t that but also unsure of what it might be I had added “might be a military band uniform” to the Past Perfect entry. Suddenly, I was very excited. The uniform we had in the collection was very old, it was well worn, it was obviously not contemporary like the ones in the image. But, the image was of neither a military band nor the 96th Battalion of Algoma Rifles – it was a clue and I was ready to follow it. The article accompanying the above image did not indicate which regiment was wearing the uniform but some quick research told me they were the 8th Canadian Hussars out of New Brunswick. Could it be that the uniform in our collection was an early 20th century example of a Canadian Hussars cavalry uniform? Let’s dive down this rabbit hole together and find out.
Hussars
First, I should establish what a Hussar regiment is. In the 15th century, two different styles of Hussars began operating in Eastern Europe. In Hungary, Hussars were primarily light cavalry recruited as irregular, mercenary style cavalry units from primarily Serbian warriors who were fleeing after the Ottoman conquest. The Hussar tradition further developed in Poland as heavily armoured cavalry, often with feathered wings attached to their backs. By the beginning of the 1600’s, Hungarian Hussars began to be formed into formal regiments due to their “cheapness and bravery”.[i] The light cavalry style of the Hungarian Hussars spread throughout Europe over the next few centuries as members of the Hungarian regiments were recruited by other countries. Eventually, countries were establishing their own Hussar regiments without Hungarians in them and by the late 18th century the fighting style and elaborate dress that identified Hussar units was widespread. In Britain, after King George III made his son the Prince of Wales the colonel of the 10th Royal Light Dragoons, the Prince re-styled and re-organized the regiment into the 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales Own) in 1806. Thus, this regiment became the first Hussar regiment in the British Empire .[ii] Today, this Hussar regiment is perpetuated by The Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales’s Own). From this first British Hussar regiment, the style and influence continued to spread across the British Empire and into Canada. Today, all Hussar regiments that have been perpetuated are reserve-force armoured reconnaissance units.
The Uniform
For your interest and your reference, here is the image of the uniform in our collection. I knew, based on the image I had found above, that the uniform was almost definitely from a Canadian Hussar regiment, the question now was which one?
To try and get a handle on this, I reached out to local military history experts, Dr. David Ratz (CD, PhD) and Capt. George Romick (OStJ, CD3) at the Thunder Bay Military Museum. Dr. Ratz was extremely gracious with his time and was able to inform me that the following Hussar regiments were active in Canada between 1900 – 1914 (date range based on date found in pants).
1st Hussars
4th Hussars
6th Duke of Connaught's Royal Canadian Hussars
7th Hussars
8th Princess Louise's New Brunswick Hussars
10th Queen's Own Canadian Hussars
11th Hussars
14th King's Canadian Hussars
17th Duke of York's Royal Canadian Hussars
21st Alberta Hussars
Some of these regiments continue on today but most of them, such as the 4th, 7th, 10th, 11th, 14th, and 21st, do not. Others, like the 6th Duke of Connaught’s Royal Canadian Hussars and the 17th Duke of York’s Royal Canadian Hussars amalgamated to create the today’s Royal Canadian Hussars.[iii]
Dr. Ratz also informed me that the “buff” collar and the yellow pant stripe would be imperative to find which regiment the uniform came from. Since it is very difficult to find images of extremely specific, early 20th century military uniforms just floating around on the internet, I decided to turn to the next clue we had to piece this mystery together, the name associated with it.
Sydney Smith
Now that I had an understanding of what this uniform was, it was time to figure out how it came to be in the Museum’s collection. In the Museum’s artifact database, Past Perfect, the entry, “Sydney Smith” was indicated by the donor as the original owner. Who this Mr. Smith was I had no idea, but it was time to find out.
I had already run the name through some military record searches a couple of times to no avail. Finding one person, even with a name, from 100 years ago on the internet is like finding a needle in a haystack, and sometimes the needle isn’t even in the haystack yet. It did not help that I did not even know when or if Mr. Smith had ever lived at the Lakehead. I did not know which regiment he had been a part of, nor did I know when or where his life began and ended.
Frustrated by what seemed like a million dead ends I asked our Curator, Michael deJong to look through our digitized newspapers for me to see if Sydney Smith popped up anywhere in the 1900-1915 time frame. He did me one better by looking in Brent Scollie’s new book, “Biographical Dictionary and History of Victorian Thunder Bay (1850 – 1901)” and lo and behold, there was our mystery man, Mr. James Sidney Smith! Scollie’s book is still new (released only just this year) and it still isn’t quite my first instinct to check it but boy and I ever glad that Michael did. If you like, you can pick up a copy of Scollie’s book from our bookstore!
The book gave me a lot of information about Mr. Smith and offered me a starting point for further research. James Sidney Smith was born in Coburg, Canada West (Ontario) in 1853. James Sidney later moved to the Lakehead and began work on the construction of the CPR in 1877. By a year later, he had established himself in the Town Plot (Westfort) and had opened a foundry and machine shop called “Pioneer Machine Works”[iv] – he owned and operated it for 8 years. From the evidence I have gathered, Sidney seemed to be one of those people who did a little of everything. He was, at different times, all of a boat builder, a mining supplies and employee transporter for Lac des Mille Lacs, a contractor for the Pie Island lighthouse (1895), running a fishing and tug charter business, and a founding partner of the Fort William Echo Newspaper[v].
He was also the first Captain of the Fort William company 96th Battalion Algoma Rifles (the beginnings of the Lake Superior Regiment! See our online exhibit here). The Rifles were formally organized in 1886 out of the Port Arthur Independent Rifle Company which dates back to the North West Rebellion (See Solving a Canadian Militia Mystery for more about that conflict). In this staged photo of the officers of the 96th, Sidney Smith is the man seated on the left. He is joined by (standing left to right) Lieutenant W.C. Woodside (owner of Woodside Foundry), Lieutenant J. McLennan, Captain Dr. G.S. Beck, Captain M.N. Garland, and Lieutenant J. McLaren. Seated around him is Colonel S.W. Ray and Captain A.L. Russell (far right). Many of these men can also be found in Scollie’s book.
Smith also served as Shuniah councillor in 1880-81, Neebing councillor in 1884-85, and as the Reeve of Neebing from 1885 – 1887. He was a “controversial litigant against the Fort William Board of Education” over the building of the new Central School in 1894 and had a hand in the creation of Mountainview Cemetery in 1884 when he acted as the Secretary-Treasurer for the Fort William Cemetery Company.[vi] On a side note on the topic of the cemetery, its origin story is very interesting and includes the hurried and haphazard exhumation of all the graves at the Fort William Burying Ground (where the Kam River Park is now) to make way for the CPR. This array of human remains were then reinterred at the new Mountainview Cemetery. The full story features in our Fort William Walking Tour.
It seems then, that Smith had a very full experience of life at the Lakehead. Into the 1900’s he continued his transportation business with the use of his tugs and boats and by March 1906 was the superintendent of the New Ontario Transportation Company.[vii] Later on, during the First World War, he was elected alderman of Port Arthur and suggested a series of public works to help with the unemployment crisis caused by the recession during the first half of the war.[viii]
In 1927, at the age of 74, Smith left the Lakehead to live with his ailing brother, Snelgrove Parker Smith in their hometown of Cobourg, Ontario. As far as I can tell, he never returned to the head of the lakes. Where then, did the uniform come from? Curious if it could have been associated with the 96th somehow, I again reached out to Dr. David Ratz who once again lent his wealth of knowledge to the question. He said that it was highly unlikely that this uniform would have been worn by a member of the 96th and it is more plausible that Smith picked it up when he returned to Cobourg. My first instinct was that he had reenlisted with the 4th Hussars which were active in Kingston (not far from Cobourg) between 1892 and 1936. However, seeing as he would have been quite old upon his return and Scollie has suggested evidence that he was also quite blind, I have now ruled that possibility out. In fact, I no longer believe that the uniform was ever actually worn by Sidney Smith. Instead, I believe that a member of his family who stayed in the Cobourg area served with the 4th Hussars instead and Sidney kept their uniform as a family memento. He did have four brothers after all and he outlived all of them. While I cannot substantiate this idea unless I can get my hands on the muster rolls of the 4th Canadian Hussars from the Archives of Canada, this is the best explanation we have.
W.E. Sanford
There is however, one more aspect of this uniform to assess. The pants, as you can see, were made by W.E. Sanford Manufacturing Company Limited from Hamilton, Ontario. The owner of this company was William Eli Sanford (1838 – 1899). Orphaned at 6, Sanford was sent to Hamilton to live with his Aunt Lydia. After finishing school and spending some time in New York City clerking for a bookseller, Sanford returned to Hamilton where he married his Aunt Lydia’s daughter, his cousin. 18 months later, during the birth of their first child who also would not survive, Sanford’s wife passed away. Having been living in London and working with his uncle, Edward Jackson, on an iron foundry partnership, Sanford, crushed, returned to Hamilton. Shortly after returning Sanford entered into the wool clip trade and eventually got into the manufacturing of ready-made clothes. At a time when most clothing was still made either in the home or by tailors, the option of pre-made clothes, which we now take for granted, was revolutionary. Made possible by the new Singer Treadle Sewing machine and the band knife, Sanford seized upon the opportunity and opened his first men’s clothing manufacturing company in partnership with Alexander McInnes in 1861. By 1871, Sanford and McInnes Co. was the largest clothing manufacturer in Hamilton. By 1881 much had occurred that shaped Sanford’s future. First, the partnership between McInnes and Sanford has dissolved and had been replaced by a new one. Second, the Conservatives, under John A. Macdonald (whom Sanford supported) had come to power for the second time. And third, Sanford had opened the first of his chain clothing stores, Oak Hall. As well, as a ferocious businessman, Sanford put profit over everything and repeatedly cut the wages of his garment makers to decrease his bottom line and increase his profits – his financial future was looking bright.
The reason the pants in this uniform are from Sanford’s company began in 1883 when the Department of Militia and Defence ordered that all military clothing contracts must be fulfilled by Canadian manufacturers. At first, contracts were offered widely, but by 1886 contracts were only being offered to a small pool of manufacturers, Sanford being one of them. After being appointed to the Senate, Sanford continued to be offered military contracts for decades despite numerous suggestions of corruption or Conservative pandering. During the 1880’s Sanford became invested in settling the Northwest and established new enterprises in Winnipeg to that end. These businesses included primarily cattle rearing and wheat farming enterprises. It stands to reason that, with a vested interest in the Northwest, that Port Arthur and Fort William were on Sanford’s map. However, establishing that he had business dealings in the community may take some significant additional research.
In 1899, while out fishing Sanford was seized by an attack of rheumatism and his boat capsized, leaving him without a life preserver and unable to swim resulting in his drowning. During his life Sanford both donated generously to charity and enjoyed the trappings of his immense wealth as the largest clothing manufacturer in Canada. He renovated the home he inherited from his aunt until it was one of the finest homes in Hamilton.[ix] It is unclear how long his clothing manufacturing company continued to operate after his death but, seeing as the pants we have here are stamped as 1906-7 it is clear that not only was the company still running, but it was still acquiring military contracts. His immense home, named Wesanford (after himself), was demolished in 1939 and the location in downtown Hamilton is now home to a city block’s worth of medium price range houses, an interesting miniature suburb in the middle of the city.[x]
Conclusion
This has been somewhat of a whirlwind of a post. We have learnt about a historic cavalry style, an early Westfort settler and community founder, a Hamilton clothing baron, and we still haven’t figured out exactly where this uniform came from. But alas, sometimes that is just how things go. Think about the items you have collected over the years, if someone were trying to investigate them, how difficult do you think it might be? I know I have a pair of long-johns that my Great Aunt Lu gave me when I was 10 in Laird, Ontario. If I were to disappear right now and those long-johns were the only thing left I seriously doubt anyone would be able to pin down their origin story. But, that does not mean they are any less significant or any less a part of my story. As sentimental beings we collect things along our journey and when we pass them down we don’t always explain how we acquired them in the first place. Sidney Smith’s son, Erle Smith, donated this uniform to the Museum in 1973 with the knowledge that it belonged to his father whom he had not spoken to since at least 1934 when he died. It is no wonder that the story is a little tough to pin down. Even so, I would say we have discovered some pretty interesting things through the investigation of it and, if I ever get my hands on the muster rolls of the 4th Canadian Hussars from 1900 – 1914 maybe I’ll be able to make that final connection. Thanks for coming along for the ride.
[i] https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmili0000unse/page/366/mode/2up [ii] https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/10th-royal-hussars-prince-wales-own [iii] https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/military-history/history-heritage/official-military-history-lineages/lineages/armour-regiments/royal-canadian-hussars.html [iv] Scollie, Brent, Thunder Bay Mayors and Councillors, 1873 - 1945 [v] Scollie, Brent, Biographical History and Dictionary of Victorian Thunder Bay, 1850 - 1901 [vi] Scollie, Victorians [vii]Scollie, Mayors [viii] Scollie, Mayors [ix] http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/sanford_william_eli_12E.html [x] https://www.thespec.com/opinion/columnists/2018/01/09/tiny-hamilton-neighbourhood-in-the-shadow-of-television-city.html Pallbearer image: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2009/11/16/gladys_home_to_rest_92_years_after_death.html All newspaper clippings pulled from the same issue of The Fort William Echo, May 21, 1886
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