One of the joys of being the Curator (or a volunteer) is “discovering” fascinating items in our collection – particularly those interesting items that for one reason or another, are not on exhibit. One facet of our the collection is the archival material – records, manuscripts and photos – many of which date back to the 19th century. Some are in great condition and others not so much.

One which is in reasonably good condition, is a photography album entitled “Officers – Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada – 1893”.  In contains 37 black and white portraits of the officers in the regiment in 1893 under the command of Lieutenant Colonel R. B. Hamilton. They include several names of those who later would command the regiment: Delamere, Pellatt, Mercer, Rennie and Royce. And as did Mercer and Rennie, others also held command roles during the First World War: Barker, Le Vesconte and Michell. Peuchen later commanded a QOR Battalion but was best known for surviving the RMS Titanic. Surgeon Lesslie and Assistant Surgeon Nattrass were long serving members of the Regiment.

Of interest to many will be the variety of regimental dress and headdress which appear in these photos which may not all have been taken in 1893 but certainly were of that period and shortly before.

As part of our ongoing cataloging project, Capt (Ret) Larry Hicks has been photographing many of our artifacts and archival materials and once again has done an excellent job of photographing these photographs so they can be added to our digital database and to our website.

I encourage you to take a moment to return to the 19th century and check out the contents of this amazing 1893 Officers’ Album on our Flickr site.