Monument commémoratif du lieutenant Harold Lothrop Borden

Ce mémorial est dédié au lieutenant Harold Lothrop Borden, mort au combat durant la guerre d’Afrique du Sud (guerre des Boers). D'un côté de la base on peut voir une fontaine en granit recueillant l'eau de la bouche d'un lion en bronze coulé, juste au-dessus. Sur l'autre côté, un abreuvoir pour chevaux est rempli de fleurs. La sculpture est une oeuvre de Hamilton MacCarthy. La Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company était une fonderie d’art new-yorkaise bien connue. Elle a porté le nom de E. Henry & Bonnard de 1872 à 1881 et celui de Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company de 1882 à 1926.

Hamilton P. MacCarthy est né le 28 juillet 1846 à Londres, en Angleterre. Il a étudié avec son père, le sculpteur Hamilton Wright McCarthy, et aux écoles de la Royal Academy. Hamilton s’est installé à Toronto, en Ontario, en 1885. Treize ans plus tard, il est déménagé à Ottawa et a étudié à l’Académie royale des arts du Canada. Il a eu 15 enfants et son fils Cœur de Lion MacCarthy était un sculpteur qui a produit de nombreuses œuvres commémoratives après la Première Guerre mondiale.

Parmi les autres monuments commémoratifs de Hamilton MacCarthy, on retrouve le Monument de la guerre d’Afrique du Sud en Nouvelle-Écosse ; le Monument aux soldats de l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard ; le Monument de la guerre d’Afrique du Sud et le Monument du général Isaac Brock en Ontario.

[west face/face ouest]
TO COMMEMORATE THE PATRIOTISM AND COURAGE OF
LIEUT. HAROLD LOTHROP BORDEN
WHO WAS KILLED AT WHITPOORT, SOUTH AFRICA, JULY 15, 1900, WHILE LEADING HIS MEN TO VICTORY.
(ERECTED BY FRIENDS IN KINGS COUNTY AND ELSEWHERE.)
THE ONLY SON OF THE HONOURABLE SIR FREDERIC W. BORDEN, K.C.M.C., MINISTER OF MILITIA AND DEFENCE, AND JULIA
M. HIS WIFE, DAUGHTER OF THE LATE JOHN H. CLARKE ESQ. HE WAS BORN AT CANNING, MAY 23, 1876. HE WAS A GRADUATE
IN ARTS OF MOUNT ALLISON UNIVERSITY ’97 AND HAD ENTERED HIS THIRD YEAR IN MEDICINE AT McGILL UNIVERSITY. BEGINNING
HIS MILITARY CAREER AS A TROOPER IN THE KING’S CANADIAN HUSSARS IN 1893 HE EARNED RAPID PROMOTION AND WAS APPOINTED
MAJOR IN COMMAND IN 1899. AS MEMBER OF THE QUEEN’S DIAMOND JUBILEE CONTINGENT IN 1897 HE RECEIVED THE JUBILEE MEDAL.
AT THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR HE VOLUNTEERED HIS SERVICES AND LATER HAVING SURRENDERED HIS RANK AS MAJOR, WAS APPOINTED
TO A LIEUTENANCY IN THE ROYAL CANADIAN DRAGOONS 2ND CONTINGENT. BEFORE LEAVING HOME HE SAID: “I WILL NOT SEND THOSE UNDER
ME ANYWHERE I WILL NOT GO MYSELF.” HOW FAITHFULLY HE KEPT HIS WORD!

LORD ROBERTS, COMMANDER IN CHIEF, REPORTED HIS DEATH SUBSTANTIALLY AS FOLLOWS: “LIEUT. BORDEN WAS
KILLED WHILE GALLANTLY LEADING HIS MEN IN A COUNTER ATTACK UPON THE ENEMY’S FLANK, AT THE CRITICAL JUNCTURE OF
AN ASSAULT UPON OUR POSITION. HE HAD TWICE BEFORE BEEN BROUGHT TO MY NOTICE IN DESPATCHES FOR GALLANT AND
INTREPID CONDUCT.” THE TWO OCCASIONS REFERRED TO WERE SPECIALLY REPORTED TO THE COMMANDER
IN CHIEF JULY 2ND 1900 IN A LIST OF NAMES NOW IN THE WAR OFFICE AS FOLLOWS:
”LIEUT. H.L. BORDEN… GALLANT CONDUCT IN SWIMMING THE VET RIVER UNDER FIRE
5TH MAY AND IN CAPTURING SOME OF THE ENEMY’S WEAPONS ON 30TH MAY.”

SEMPER HONOR NOMENQUE TUUM LAUDESQUE MANEBUNT

THE HENRY-BONNARD BRONZE CO.
FOUNDERS N.Y. - 1903

[east face/face est]
WHITPOORT

HAMILTON MacCARTHY, SCULPT

[north face/face nord]
VET RIVER