Bessie Rodger and the Munich Parade, July 1938

Bob Armstrong, Mrs (Albert, Abbie) Armstrong, Bessie Rodger, Vancouver, no date

"Aunt Alice [Gall] corresponded regularly with her brother Albert (Abbie) in Vancouver. Albert went to Vancouver and did well in building construction as a contractor (addition to Shaughnessy Hospital, etc)." - LC Gagnon caption. The photo is not dated and the given name of Abbie's first wife (he remarried after her death) is not recorded.

Bessie Rodger was a seasoned traveller. Above, she is shown on a teacher exchange to Vancouver. She also managed to include a trip to Hawaii (then a US territory) while she was there.

A few years later, in 1938, she participated in an Overseas Education League trip to Europe for Canadian teachers (and other teachers of 'The Empire') which was promoted, arranged and led by Major Frederick Ney. Like her older sister Mabel in 1922, Bessie's tour also took her to the 'Centre of the Empire' and Paris. However, she was taken much farther into Europe - just a few months after Hitler invaded Austria and as he was planning to invade Czechoslovakia.

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from: The New World Atlas and Gazetteer; 1923; PF Collier and Son, New York.

Above, this rough old map from 1923 shows the boundaries of Germany as they were established after the Great War 1914-1918. After they lost the war, both the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were broken up. You'll notice that the main part of Germany is separated from what had been part of Prussia (in the north-east) by the newly-reconstituted nation of Poland. 

Although Hitler had begun to redraw the map of Europe by the time Bessie toured through here in 1938, this was how things looked when he came to power in 1933. Notice the locations of  Munich and Vienna ... as they are important to the story which continues on the map below.

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from: The Citizen's Atlas of the World; 1924; John Bartholomew and Son; Edinburgh

In the previous posting about Bessie, her tour had visited Nuremberg - where the infamous Nazi rallies were held each year. Nazi annual general meetings (rallies) were held at Nuremberg ostensibly because of its traditional Medieval German buildings - but you can also see that Nuremberg was a central railway hub which facilitated the massing of the NSDAP's (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei - Nazi for short) members and the military. Virtually all the lines on this 1924 map represent railways. (The Nazis were never left wing socialists, nor was the party a workers' party - those words in the NSDAP name were for 'public relations'.)

For scale, Nuremberg (upper blue dot) and Munich (lower blue dot) are about 150 kilometres apart. My dots hi-lite the name but not the actual locations of the cities to avoid blocking out map details.

In Austria: Hitler was born an Austrian in Braunau (red dot on the border with Germany). Linz (red dot to the right) became his 'home town'. His most 'formative' years as a teenager and a young adult were spent in Vienna - the old, poly-cultural capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Vienna is about 150 kilometres to the east of Linz - it is off this map to the right. (He later received and gave himself a significant military education during his Great War service for Germany with a Bavarian regiment, but his cultural and racial theories were developed and 'refined' in Vienna.)

Back in Germany: After the Great War ended there were various small 'revolutions' which caused the old hereditary rulers, such as the German Kaiser and the King of Bavaria, to flee. Bavaria was the kingdom/republic containing Munich. Munich had its own ruling 'soviet' for a while, but right-wing paramilitaries (e.g. the Freikorps) from the former German Army overpowered communist and socialist forces during bitter street fighting and through thuggish murders. Street violence (between the left and right) continued in Munich for years. At Munich was the beginning, the birthplace, and the 'home' of the Nazi Party. 

Other locations:

Pink dot near Dachau: In March 1933, Munich police chief Heinrich Himmler established a concentration camp to hold up to 5000 political prisoners and 'undesirables' at Dachau - five years before Major Ney's Canadian schoolteachers' tour visited nearby Munich. In May 1945, after Liberation, an American Army report stated that it contained 65,000 prisoners of considerable diversity, including some captured Canadian Army paratroop officers.

Red dot south of Salzburg: Berchtesgaden. Hitler had vacationed in this area of the mountains since the 1920s. Beginning in 1928, and continuing through his rise to power in 1933, Hitler purchased and enlarged a property here. Eventually, it became a secondary Reich Chancellery with all the facilities and support services necessary to run the Third Reich.

Hitler's Small Neighbourhood

Hitler's various physical 'homes' and the birthplace of the Nazi movement were concentrated in a relatively small area in the southeast corner of Germany. Austria, his birthplace, had been invaded and made part of the Third Reich four months before Major Ney's tour visited Nuremberg and Munich. 

Here is Bessie's diary entry for her first full day in Munich.

from: YouTube, 1939 Mythical Nazi Sites The Ehrentempel in Munich, Keir Heath

Described in Bessie's diary, the Ehrentempel (honour temples) were two open-air structures designed to hold the sarcophagi (eight per temple) of the sixteen 'martyrs' of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. One temple is shown above. After taking power in 1933, the Nazis exhumed the bodies and united them here - characteristic of what some historians refer to as the 'Nazi Cult of the Dead'. 

Below right, circa 1939, the SS 'guards standing like statues' and a flaming brazier are visible as a couple enters the temple, giving the Nazi salute. Below left, circa 1945, American soldiers examine the sarcophagi displayed within the structure. After the war, the bodies were returned to the families or buried in unmarked graves, and the bomb-damaged structures were completely demolished.

from: YouTube, WW2: Munich / München, Germany (August 1945), The Digital Implosion, and, 1939 Mythical Nazi Sites The Ehrentempel in Munich, Keir Heath

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from: YouTube, Tag der deutschen Kunst München 1939, Blaukreuz100

Some of the decorations in place for the annual parade of the History of German Art in July 1939.


1939's Parade of the History of German Art

The images below are taken from 'home movies' made during the same event, the year after Bessie's visit. These views are of the reviewing stand on which Bessie would have seen Hitler.

from: YouTube: München 1939 (unkommentiert & in Farbe) Zeitgeschichte; Geschichtsstunde

Rudolf Hess (foreground, in Nazi party uniform) sits at a lower level than Goebbels (standing, in white jacket with armband) and 'Hitler's architect' Albert Speer (seated with woman, in party uniform) to review the Great German Art Exhibition parade at Munich in 1939.

from: YouTube: München 1939 (unkommentiert & in Farbe) Zeitgeschichte; Geschichtsstunde

 Hitler on the reviewing stand at the Great German Art Exhibition parade at Munich in 1939.

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Scenes from the 1939 Parade

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From Bessie's account and from viewing the YouTube images: The parade was lavish and the costumes, vehicles and floats were of high quality. It would have been an impressive spectacle.

Keep in mind that the centrepiece of this celebration was the 'German Art' presented in the building housing The Great German Art Exhibition. The building holding the exhibition was designed by Hitler's favourite architect (until his death in 1934) Paul Troost. As soon as Hitler rose to power in 1933, he immediately commissioned a number of projects like this  - some of which he had planned for many years. The building was complete and opened in the middle of July 1937. 

Bessie Rodger's tour, conducted by Major Ney, was attending the celebration on the first anniversary of the opening of the Great German Art Exhibition. 

Hitler had particular ideas about what constituted 'German Art' and a 'Degenerate Art Exhibition' had been set up in 1937, just a few blocks over, to help Germans understand that which did not constitute German Art. 

The annual celebrations included an address from the Fuhrer (about ... German Art ... and the German Volk) and these ideas will be discussed in the next post. Bessie did tour the Exhibition on July 11, 1938 - once all the Nazi officials had left town ... or at least after they had gone back to work in the Party's Munich offices.

A Metaphor

I wanted to show you the purpose-built art gallery and was lucky to find this 'parade float' (below) which is a large accurate model of the actual art gallery designed by Paul Troost and finished by Albert Speer and others. This building still exists. The building had a monumental full-width stairway on its street side, and here we are looking at the rear of the building with its less impressive stairway arrangement. 

The 1938 celebration Bessie watched was all about German Art and Culture. It was impressive. However, if you think about Hitler's tactics, invasions, concentration camps ... things aren't quite that nice below the surface ...

from: YouTube: Paul Troost, House of (German) Art, 1933-37; Smarthistory 

Now look at the nice art gallery model and its bearers, attired in period costume.

If you look closely you will notice that not all of the 'bearers' are plainly visible.

Beneath the 'apron' it looks as if jack-booted feet and unseen men are providing most of the energy for this pleasant spectacle.

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Reporting on the event seen by Bessie Rodger on July 10, 1938, is this article published in the Palm Beach Post on the following day.

Article from The Palm Beach Post, July 11, 1938

We Sat Right across from Hitler

An Introduction

Like my grandmother Mabel Rodger, my great aunt Mary Elizabeth Rodger (Bessie) became a teacher and went on an Overseas Education League teachers' tour organized and conducted by Major Frederick Ney.

My grandmother went over in 1922, shortly after this movement's beginning. She was shown the 'Centre of the Empire', Paris, Rheims and the 'battlefields of France' from the Great War, 1914-1918.

Bessie went over in 1938. She travelled more into Europe itself, as the title hints.

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My knowledge of Major Frederick Ney has been enhanced by two papers:

1. Mapping the Serious and the Dangerous: Film and the National Council of Education 1920-1939; Charles R Acland; 1995; Erudit.org

"... The NCE was a significant force; it was a powerful lobby, initiator of cultural activities, and producer of cultural criticism. The NCE was imperialist in orientation, and took as one of its goals the improvement of popular taste. Its members encouraged the regulation of recreation and modes of popular pleasure so that leisure time served the nation. This educationalist agenda led them to promote documentary film and to write about the dangers of popular cinema ..."

"Major Fred J. Ney, executive secretary of the National Council of Education (NCE), prepared a film and lecture for the NCE fourth triennial conference on "Education and Leisure" (1929) portraying the '... manner in which the morals of young Canadians are being assailed by a flood of foreign magazines depicting immorality, violence, vice and crime.' "

2. "First Unto God and then to the Queen": Frederick Ney's Empire/Commonwealth Youth Movement from the Inter-war Period to the 1960s; Jialin Christina Wu; 2014; hal.archives-ouvertes.fr

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While in Europe, my 34 year old great aunt replied to her nephew's persistent letter-writing efforts with letters and postcards. My father was 11 years old at that point. In researching some Geneva PQ history in my father's files, I found one of her accounts to my father particularly surprising and interesting.

The 'security pattern' to hide the message carried within the hotel air-mail paper envelope was a photo of the hotel itself. It was intended to visually 'bleed' through the front of the envelope to promote the hotel, and so was printed in reverse on the envelope interior. In turn, I have reversed the image to show you the hotel and the historical era, above.

In my father's files are also preserved Bessie's trip account letters to her Aunt Alice Gall - her mother's sister. No mention of Hitler is made in this correspondence.

While researching this trip, I was particularly fortunate to have a chance contact with my cousin, Robertson Dow, who kindly provided me with our great aunt Bessie's diary of her experiences.

Bessie's letters to my father and Aunt Alice Gall provide interesting hi-lites of her experiences in continental Europe for those particular readers. In contrast, Bessie's diary (covering the period June 25 to July 26, 1938) is more methodical as it records the tour's itinerary and her observations of people, institutions, cities, cultures and countries. Some of these had already changed since Hitler's rise, some would be scarred forever, others would be destroyed. 

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Eight full months prior to Bessie's trip to Munich, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (formerly King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson) had visited Hitler at his Bavarian mountain retreat. This was done against the wishes and advice of the British government.

from: Hitler; Ian Kershaw; 1998; Penguin Books.

By the time of the Windsors' visit, Hitler had appointed himself head of state and supreme commander of the armed forces. He had told his military commanders to be ready for war as early as 1938. Those who had expressed concerns about the armed forces' readiness for this course of action at that early a date were replaced.

In July 1938, Major Ney took Canadian and other Empire school teachers, including Bessie, for a tour of that Europe and that Germany. Did Major Ney have a particular view about what was happening in Europe? One of the papers recounts the following developments with Major Ney's film education organization, which occurred midway through the Great Depression in Canada ...

from: Mapping the Serious and the Dangerous ... 

"While 1934-35 saw the NCE's most extensive involvement in film, other activities were causing significant disruption. The council's increasingly public support for fascism, as seen in its invitations for Italy Week, was drawing criticism from many. Some prominent politicians felt they had to withdraw, among them Prime Minister RB Bennett, for fear of being tainted by scandal. Vincent Massey, a past president of the NCE, resigned, writing to Ney, 'I don't think I need tell you that I have always had a very sincere belief in the National Council and the work it set out to do; but of late, although the criticisms levelled against it are often unjust, sometimes I confess I cannot help sympathising with them.' "

If Great War veterans and witnesses such as Major Ney and the Duke of Windsor 'did not get it' .. could Mary Elizabeth Rodger from Geneva, Quebec foresee what was to going to happen to Europe?

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Bessie died when I was ten and I only have a couple of distinct memories of her. I remember her being quite a rational and direct person, but nice. For example, at one point she introduced me to the idea that even after school and sleep, I still had many hours available to me - we added them up together - we all have the same 24 hours in a day, but it depends how we choose to use them.

Except for his composition of her obituary, and following-up aspects of her estate with the school board - both at the request of her brother - my father's file about her is particularly thin.

The following photo of her professional colleagues was in the file, along with a few notes added by my father. She can be seen in the centre of the centre row - 'Miss Rodger'.

In our family albums is this photo of me with Bessie Rodger
at our Lachine apartment, twenty years after her travels in Europe.

In the following postings, I'll try to explain what was happening all around her as Bessie toured with her group. Again, this tour was arranged and often conducted personally by Major Ney.

*  *  *

As an example:

On the day before she saw Hitler, Bessie woke up in Nuremberg ...

from: Speer, The Final Verdict; Joachim Fest; 1999; Harcourt Books.

The Nazi facilities at Nuremberg seen by Bessie.

By 1927, Hitler had decreed that the annual general meeting of the Nazi party would be held at Nuremberg "forever" as the ancient city with its preserved buildings was a "symbol of the first Reich of the Germans". The annual general meeting was not a forum where party members passed resolutions about policy - rather, it was a quasi-religious experience during which the individual was subsumed into the German Reich which was personified by Hitler.

The purpose-built Nazi theme-park on six square miles of land (which had previously been known as Luitpoldhain and had served as a large Nuremberg park with a Great War memorial which was added later) was to be greatly expanded by a young architect, Albert Speer - he was about a year younger than Bessie. The entire complex was set for completion by the autumn of 1945. Major features were completed before then. Speer used up to 150 anti-aircraft searchlights to produce a 'dome of light' effect seen above. Much of the Nazis' grandiose, 'brutalist' architecture was also created under Speer's supervision.

Speer got his start producing rallies in April 1933 when he joked to a Party official that the plan for a Nazi May Day rally in Berlin reminded him of a 'village rifle club event'. The Party official told Speer to go ahead with the improvements he suggested. Hitler and Goebbels liked his work on that project.

Speer and Hitler eventually became each other's protégés. If he had not narrowly missed a career in the visual arts in Vienna ... and if he had not succeeded at being a European dictator ... Hitler discovered through his work with Speer that his true professional calling was to become an architect.

Two postcards from my collection, Nuremberg, circa 1900-1910.

The old town of Nuremberg seen by Bessie.

The green domes in the top postcard are those of the Great Synagogue of Nuremberg. It was expropriated at the behest of the Nazis and then demolished, beginning on August 10, 1938 - a month after Bessie's visit to the old city.

Because of its significance to the Nazis, RAF Bomber Command made many efforts to bomb Nuremberg with little success. In the process, it suffered great losses in the form of bomber aircraft and their crews - many of whom were Canadian. 

Finally, on the night of January 2-3 1945; 514 Lancaster and 7 Mosquito bombers hit the target. "The castle, the Rathaus [town hall], almost all the churches and about 2000 preserved medieval houses went up in flames." Almost 2000 people were killed. 

from: The Bomber Command War Diaries, 1939-1945; Martin Middlebrook; 1985, Viking.

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In a single daily diary entry, Bessie recorded seeing these large physical artifacts which would no longer exist after the passage of a few years. Not all of her entries precede such a clear and dramatic change, but many do.

Regarding her late-day arrival in Munich, she wrote:

"Went for a walk, but too much traffic. There was a celebration of some kind in the city."

It was a celebration of "German Art". Munich had been the location of Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 and the 'martyrs' of that era were venerated by the Nazis. Munich was the site of the Great German Art Exhibition and also the Degenerate Art Exhibition. In the end, the latter was better attended by German visitors: 400,000 versus three million. 

The next post will look at Bessie's record of her experiences in Munich. You would be correct in concluding that Major Ney's group was not shown the Degenerate Art Exhibition.

Tilling Geneva's Spring Soil

Because of my father's interest in Geneva and its farming, he saved a few old farm equipment publications for about 70 years. They somehow survived seven or eight changes of domicile over the decades and this seems like a good time to share them with you.

Back in the 1930s, farming was an industry with lower 'barriers to entry' and so was the manufacture of farm equipment. With supportive tariffs, Canada had a significant farm equipment manufacturing sector, and a domestic steel industry to provide its chief raw material.

Below are a few representative images of implements used in Argenteuil in the springtime of the 1930s and 1940s. Given their simple robust design, they might last decades after their original purchase. The images are arranged roughly in order of increasing technological complexity - not necessarily in the order in which the implements would be used during the season .. 

Most heavy plowing would usually occur in the fall. In the spring, farmers waited until fields were dry enough to support machinery. They would start preparing a seedbed, often including some fertilizing. When the time was right, seeding would take place. If necessary, mechanical cultivating might be done with some crops to eliminate weed competition for the natural resources needed by the crop.

Naturally, the process was more complex with more variables - but that's the general idea.

*  *  *

from booklet: McCormick-Deering Plows Drills and Tillage Implements c1937 - collection of LC Gagnon.

from booklet: McCormick-Deering Plows Drills and Tillage Implements c1937 - collection of LC Gagnon.

from booklet: McCormick-Deering Plows Drills and Tillage Implements c1937 - collection of LC Gagnon.

from booklet: McCormick-Deering Plows Drills and Tillage Implements c1937 - collection of LC Gagnon.

from folder: Massey-Harris Field Cultivators, 1941, collection of LC Gagnon

An Implement for Planting Seeds

(next two images)

from booklet: McCormick-Deering Plows Drills and Tillage Implements c1937 - collection of LC Gagnon.

from booklet: McCormick-Deering Plows Drills and Tillage Implements c1937 - collection of LC Gagnon.

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A Corn Planter
(next 3 images)

from booklet: McCormick-Deering Plows Drills and Tillage Implements c1937 - collection of LC Gagnon.

from booklet: McCormick-Deering Plows Drills and Tillage Implements c1937 - collection of LC Gagnon.

.. as peas and beans are legumes (which fix atmospheric nitrogen in their roots), planting them with corn would probably provide both ground cover against weeds for this year's crop, and soil nitrogen for next year's crop. Corn needs plenty of nitrogen.

from booklet: McCormick-Deering Plows Drills and Tillage Implements c1937 - collection of LC Gagnon.

from booklet: McCormick-Deering Plows Drills and Tillage Implements c1937 - collection of LC Gagnon.

from folder: The Key to Greater Farm Profits, McCormick-Deering, c1937, collection of LC Gagnon

Geneva's Railway

The Railway from Lachute to St. Andrew's: The Ottawa Valley Railway Company

"Information contained in BRANCHLINE may be copied or used for other publications on the understanding that the author and BRANCHLINE are credited. BRANCHLINE is published by the Bytown Railway Society, a non-profit organization incorporated under Federal Government statute to promote an interest in railways and railway history, with particular emphasis upon the National Capital Region."  

Transcribed by David Gagnon, for Geneva PQ The following article appeared in the October 1987 edition of the periodical.

The late Omer Lavallee was corporate archivist for Canadian Pacific Limited, and an advisor for the CBC/NFB joint production of The National Dream. He was one of the founders of book publisher Railfare Enterprises Limited and was the author of several books about Canadian railroading. A street was named after him near the intersection of Rachel and Saint-Michel in Montreal - the former area of CPR Angus Shops.

The Ottawa Valley Railway Company by Omer Lavallee

One of the forgotten short lines in the Ottawa valley was the appropriately-named Ottawa Valley Railway Company, which was chartered in 1892 under Dominion Act 55-56 Victoria, chapter 54, to build a railway from St. Andrews to Carillon, Quebec, and from Grenville to Calumet, Quebec, connecting at the latter place with the Canadian Pacific Railway. The object of this exercise seems to have been to accommodate the aspirations of St. Andrews East, Quebec, (now St-Andre-d'Argenteuil) to be situated on a railway. Under this plan, the existing Carillon & Grenville (broad-gauge, opened in 1854) would be standard-gauged to form part of the line.

In the event, the desired rail connection for St. Andrews was constructed to the nearest point on the CPR, Lachute, a distance of 10.7 km (6.7 miles). Charles Newhouse Armstrong, a colourful railway promoter with "fingers in many pies", was given the construction contract. It was completed and the line was opened for service on 1 November 1892. Including sidings, the OVR had a total length of 11.2 km (7.2 miles).

The railway's directors and officers were as follows between 1893 and 1895:

• J.R. Thibaudeau, director and president;
• Archibald Campbell, director and vice-president;
• C.N. Armstrong, director and managing director;
• A.C. Wurtele, director;
• Robert Watson, director; and
• M.C.E. Phillips, director, all of Montreal.

A. Dewar of St. Andrews East was the superintendent.

The general office was situated at 17 St. James Street, Montreal.

The route is depicted on the adjacent sketch map, traced from Department of National Defence one-inch scale (1:63,360) topographical map sheet 31 G9, "Lachute", published in 1943 and showing the area as resurveyed in 1942, the OVR's abandoned roadbed is shown in its entirety on that map. The profile of the line was generally level, descending gently from an altitude of 70 m (229 feet) at Lachute to 31 m (103 feet) at St. Andrews East, with no noteworthy engineering nor geographical features.

Early in the 1890s, Thibaudeau, Armstrong and others were involved also in an ambitious scheme, known as the Atlantic & Lake Superior Railway Company, to build a railway from an ocean port in the Gaspe peninsula of Quebec to a point on Lake Superior, to compete with existing lines. It included a provision to bridge the St. Lawrence River at Montreal, proceeding thence through Deux-Montagnes and Argenteuil Counties of Quebec to a crossing of the Ottawa River at Hawkesbury. To implement its strategy, the A&StL began by buying up small existing lines, whose charters could play a role in its plans; among the latter was the Ottawa Valley Railway. This sale was authorized by Dominion Act 57-58, chapter 63, passed in 1894. However, the OVR company retained its separate identity until 1895 or 1896 at which time it was absorbed corporately into the A&StL company, whose other lines were located in the Gaspe peninsula area.

According to the information contained in Railway Statistics of the Dominion of Canada, the OVR was in operation from the date of opening (1 November 1892) until some time in the spring of 1893. It was then closed down, reopening on 9 April 1894. The resumed operations were continued until approximately the end of March 1895. The line does not seem to have been operated after 1895, by which time the A&StL was on the verge of insolvency. The track was lifted in or after 1900, when the Great Northern Railway of Canada (later Canadian Northern, then Canadian National Railways) opened its line between St-Jerome and Hawkesbury via Lachute and Cushing Junction.

The author knows of only one photograph showing an Ottawa Valley Ry. train. This reveals a 4-4-0 type steam locomotive and a passenger car surrounded by a group of people. Reportedly, this was taken in 1892 when the line was opened. The locomotive has not been identified thus far.

The venerable Carillon & Grenville was abandoned at the end of 1910. Part of its roadbed was taken over by the Canadian Northern Railway which opened its line in 1916 between Lazard (Val Royal) and Cushing Junctions via St-Eustache (Deux-Montagnes) and St. Andrews East. At this time, the latter community was at last given its place on Canada's railway network. Two years later, the opening of the Mount Royal Tunnel brought the line into the heart of Montreal at Tunnel Terminal, now Central Station.

* end of Branchline article *

The Lachute and St Andrew Railway is mentioned below:

from: Canadian Pacific Railway annotated time table; July 19 1892; reprint by Railfare Enterprises Ltd

This timetable shows the westbound journey on the CPR transcontinental route as it then existed. Mileages (left column) are calculated from the Montreal departure point: the Dalhousie Square Station of the CPR - at the intersection of Notre-Dame and Berri. (Note that the Grenville mileage is transposed and should read '57').

The main line route continues west through Lachute, Hull, Ottawa, Pembroke, North Bay and Sudbury. The two columns at the right show the mileage from Vancouver and any associated schedule times (reading 'up').

"The Lachute and St. Andrew Railway" reference refers to the "Ottawa Valley Railway".

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The Exact Location of the Ottawa Valley Railway

from: Lachute, sheet 31 G/9 west half; 1907-1942; aerial photography by RCAF 1940. Contour interval 25 feet (my collection)

The abandoned roadbed of the Ottawa Valley Railway comes south though the words "Lachute Mills" to the "R" in Argenteuil. The line connected through a track switch with the CPR railway yard at Lachute.

from: Lachute, sheet 31 G/9 west half; 1907-1942; aerial photography by RCAF 1940. Contour interval 25 feet (my collection)

The abandoned Ottawa Valley Railway roadbed passes the "a" in Geneva as it crosses Beech Ridge Road.

from: Lachute, sheet 31 G/9 west half; 1907-1942; aerial photography by RCAF 1940. Contour interval 25 feet (my collection)

The abandoned Ottawa Valley Railway roadbed ends at St. Andrews East - but does not connect with the line of the Canadian Northern Railway/Canadian National Railways line shown on the map.

from: Fire insurance plan dated "Nov 1897" St. Andrew's Quebec; Charles E Goad, civil engineer; (screen capture) Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.

Location of southern terminal of the Ottawa Valley Railway at St. Andrews - this is the best possible resolution. From top: "Station" - yellow; "engine hse" - grey. ("Model School" - pink)

from: Fire insurance plan dated "Nov 1897" St. Andrew's Quebec; Charles E Goad, civil engineer; (screen capture) Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.

Location of southern terminal of the Ottawa Valley Railway at St. Andrews - best possible resolution. From top: "Station" - yellow; "engine hse" - grey. ("Model School" - pink) Shown within larger view of St. Andrews - but details are not legible.

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The Ottawa Valley Railway in North America

First year: 1893. Second year: 1894. Last mention: 1895. The Ottawa Valley Railway between Lachute and St. Andrew's as it appeared in a standard American financial reference.

Henry V Poor (1812-1905) was a railroad financial analyst. Eventually his original firm developed into Standard and Poor's. During the late 1800s, this railroad industry reference manual was about 2000 pages thick. 

from: Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United States; 1893 1894 1895; Henry V Poor; American Banknote Company, New York (pdf copy from archive.org)

from: Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United States; 1893 1894 1895; Henry V Poor; American Banknote Company, New York (pdf copy from archive.org)

from: Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United States; 1893 1894 1895; Henry V Poor; American Banknote Company, New York (pdf copy from archive.org)

Gone, but not forgotten. The Ottawa Valley Railway right of way was preserved as a Bell Canada right of way and during winter as a snowmobile route. This is how the line appeared in the spring of 1994. Heading north from St Andrew's it has crossed a stream and is climbing over the 150 foot map contour line on its ascent to Beech Ridge Road and Geneva. photo:DJGagnon

At Oxford and Stratford

Continuing with my 22-year-old grandmother's 1922 summer tour for teachers from Canada (and other British Dominions and Colonies) to Britain and the battlefields of France with the Overseas Education League .. 

In the previous post, she had crossed the North Atlantic on the Canadian Pacific steamship Scotian. On docking at Southampton, the group was taken to London to where they would finally meet Major Frederick Ney - who was making the final arrangements for the group's tour. Contrary to the original printed itinerary, I believe they must have first rallied at the Pembridge Gardens Hotel in London, rather than travelling direct to Oxford by special train from the Southampton docks.

While he appears in OEL literature as the 'Honorary Organizer' Major Ney was actually the originator, promoter, main organizer and key person raising funds and 'services in kind' to transport, shelter, receive, educate and entertain the groups. His devotion to his mission spanned a period of decades from the time before the Great War 1914-1918 until after the Second World War and into the 1950s.

In writing these posts, I am using the terms Colony, Dominion and Empire as Major Ney employed them - for historical reasons. Many Canadians were thoroughly finished with the concept of 'Empire' after the Great War.  

Further, on terminology: Recently-written scholarly papers on Ney state that he continued to promote the 'Empire Youth Movement' as the name for his student tours even into the 1950s rather than using the term 'Commonwealth'. There was debate about this as .. 'some officials felt strongly that "the word Empire stirs up so many noxious feelings" in the colonies'.

The map below shows the British railway system circa 1900. Southampton appears at the south-west corner of the map. From London, the group would have travelled roughly west to Oxford and later to the north-west corner of the map to visit Stratford-on-Avon, before returning to Oxford.

from: Handy Reference Atlas of the World; J G Bartholomew; 1904; London.

from: The Railways of Britain, Past and Present; OS Nock; 1947; BT Batsford, London.

The Southampton docks after World War 2. The ship-to-passenger-train connections may have been made at the far side of the docks. In the centre is a large ship in a floating drydock.

from: Alden's Oxford Guide 1903; Alden and Co Ltd, Oxford.

[note: it is actually a 'Norman crypt' or Romanesque.
The Victoria League program - see July 16 - below is incorrect.]

from: Alden's Oxford Guide 1903; Alden and Co Ltd, Oxford.

from: Google Earth, 2015

I believe this was the house to which Mabel and three others were invited for tea after church.

The Victoria League was a voluntary charitable organization which still exists. Back in this era it functioned as a type of Imperial glue to foster better relations with the far-flung parts of the Empire. A similar organization existed in Canada - the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire - "One Flag, One Throne, One Empire". As the IODE was not at the 'centre of the Empire', it generally felt it was getting short shrift from the VL and the relationship always suffered accordingly.

from: Alden's Oxford Guide 1903; Alden and Co Ltd, Oxford.

The martyrs were: Thomas Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley, Hugh Latimer.

from: Alden's Oxford Guide 1903; Alden and Co Ltd, Oxford.

Letter continued from above:

'We spent Friday at Stratford ..'

from: Stratford on Avon; HW Tompkins; 1904; JM Dent, London.

from: Stratford on Avon; HW Tompkins; 1904; JM Dent, London.

In a small, separate album, I have found a handful of tiny, uncaptioned prints of Mabel's tour with the OEL.

Mabel Rodger (right) and fellow OEL tour participants in Britain

Beginning the tour at Oxford and Stratford immediately presented several concepts about 'the centre of the Empire' to the teachers just arriving from the Dominions and Colonies. Here are a few passages from the letter above:

• We have been through all the Oxford Colleges and all they contain and show would take a month for me to relate. 

• .. the English well-to-do people are so nice. 

• .. the afternoon teas we are invited to are unexplainable. 

• .. we have scenery at home it is Nature's; here, everything is so well preserved.

The women teachers stayed at an ancient centre of knowledge which had existed for 800 years and which had eventually been 'encouraged' to provide undergraduate examinations to women for almost 50 of those years.

Reference was made to the monarch-centred mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Local church officials had been martyred for their beliefs by a church based in Rome.

The teachers were warmly received into a sophisticated foreign social sphere with its own complex traditions and customs.

They were taken to the home town of an astute observer of the human condition - whose observations were still apt 400 years after his death. His works were widely known and studied in their home Dominions and Colonies.


In terms of understanding The Empire .. the teachers had seen little of what made it a successfully functioning 'empire' up to this point in the tour. The things they saw were worthy of continued preservation because human knowledge and genius, and ancient objects of aesthetic beauty, are worthy of careful preservation.

*  *  *

There are more letters and artifacts to follow. I have only skimmed the letters to ensure they are in chronological order before I assemble the components for each post.

There is also the 15-page manuscript my grandmother prepared about her tour. This was presented, by invitation, as a speech to a meeting sponsored by the Women's Institute after her return to Canada.