PART 4 (Part 3 continued)
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I get by with a Little Help from my Kings
‘Any Historical Cake is always better with lots of Icing
Anonymous
Years later, as a king he still donned a white hat with a board coloured ribbon
Laura Secord was not born a Canadian. So how did she become one of our great Canadian heroes? She was born in the States to a family who supported the American rebels not the British. She was moved with her family, not as Loyalists fleeing America, but, like so many others to get free or cheap land. They were established in the place now called Ingersoll which was her family name.
It was not the facts of her great hike of 1813 to warn the British troops of a coming American assault that made her famous. It was the icing slavered on those facts. After the war she repeatedly sought a pension for her services. After investigations, she was repeatedly turned down.
Only decades later would Laura get any meaningful recognition. Once she received royal attention, accommodating historians set about graduating her from simple patriot to grand hero. Not everyone would agree. Pierre Burton wrote volumes on the war but could only bring himself to mention in passing that the Battle of the Beaver Dams was the event that ‘made Laura Secord famous’. He was too much of a gentleman to complain of her fame and too much of a historian to jump onto the bandwagon. He left it all alone.
While the eighteen-year-old Prince of Wales, Albert Edward, toured Canada, in 1860, one of his duties was to set the cornerstone for a Monument honouring Sir Isaac Brock at Queenstown. It was at the spot where Brock had fallen in battle and Laura Secord was, remarkably, still living nearby.
The Prince was our first royal visitor and he attracted no end of attention, largely from our younger set. Often, he was seen wearing a white hat with a broad coloured band. It drew much admiration from the young ladies in the crowds that surrounded him. After he deposited it in a cloakroom, one or more of them decided to sneak in and take at least the band as a treasured memento. Even the men, it seems were copying the stylish royal. Unfortunately, there were four similar white hats. Confused as to which was his, the culprits took all four.
The Prince was later presented to veterans. At Queenstown one hundred and thirty veterans of the war of 1812 were gathered, among them one lady now of eighty-five years, Laura Secord. The Prince was interested and heard her story. Which version he heard is unclear. After his return to England, he remembered her, and granted her a one-time gift of one-hundred-pounds. News of that recognition was widely reported and it cemented her public celebrity. One hundred years later an enterprising entrepreneur decided to name his chocolates after her. They became a best seller; so historically speaking, did she.
Laura Secord’s picture hangs now in the Legislature as a royally recognized Canadian hero. Schools are named after her. All deserved perhaps. So far at least we haven’t heard anything negative about her. For this she will likely remain a heroine fit at least to grace chocolate boxes. In comparison one might note that schools named after our first Prime Minister are now regularly renamed something else. So are pubs. And Highways. If it is royal approval you want, Laura Secord got it. Not only did she get praise from the then future Edward the 7th, she got it in spades from his great, great, Grandson, now Charles the Third. In what can only be described as a real stretch, Charles has declared that without her Canada may not have survived.
Weems and Coffin knew that “History is what you make it.”
But doesn’t this mean that “Even Historians can’t predict the past.” It just keeps changing, just ask Sir John A. Heroes seem to need constant polishing. They are hard to keep shiny. Maybe Prince Harry can help.
OVER 200 YEARS LATER, LAURA SECORD STILL HSARES BILLING WITH ROYALTY
