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The Last of the Beothuks : Shawnadithit or Santu?"
Guest speaker: Roy Wright
When: Thursday, February 18, 2016, from 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall
288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.
While most Canadians with historical curiosity or feeling will have heard of Shawnadithit and her poignant fate, very few will know the name of Santu, whose story was published in 1922 by University of Pennsylvania Prof. Frank G. Speck. He wrote the short monograph BEOTHUK AND MICMAC after meeting Santu, the last Beothuk still living a century ago among the Micmac of Conn River, Newfoundland.
This remarkable encounter was the result of Speck's perseverance and the mutual trust developed between this maverick ethnologist and the indigenous people, mostly Algonquian, that he worked with in eastern North America, from the Catawba of South Carolina to the Lenni-Lenape, Abenaki-Penobscot, Passamaquoddy-Maliseet, Micmac, and Naskapi-Cree of the Northeast as far as Labrador.
We will focus on this little-known part of the history of Newfoundland, tracing the earliest origins of these "Red (-Paint) Indians" to the earliest human hunters south of the last glaciation on the Canadian Shield.
Santu Toney. Shanawdithit The son of Santu Toney and his family.
Photo Frank Speck 1910. Photo Frank Speck.
Courtesy of American Philosophical Society (4595a) Courtesy of American Philosophical Society (4595a)
A request has been made for anyone with musical talent to record an MP3 version of Santu's Song!
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The Long Sault on the Ottawa River: From Prehistory to Dollard des Ormeaux
Guest speaker: Robert Simard, Historian and Storyteller
When: Thursday, January 21, 2016, from 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall
288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.
Historian at the Musée régional d’Argenteuil in Carillon, Robert Simard is a great storyteller. His presentation balances delicately between history and fantasy. There is a point for Mr. Simard when history develops into a full-fledged pageant, thereby transporting us to the frontier where dreams and memory meet and marry.
The lecture will focus on the prehistory of the Ottawa River, the movements of First Nations people around the Long Sault and the famous battle of 1660.
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Starting in 2016 and throughout the year 2016, the Beaurepaire-Beaconsfield Historical Society invites you to discover different aspects of Early Canadian History before European immigration
Everyone welcome.
Free for members; $2 for non-members
Become a member for $5 per year
Information: Contact us
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Afghanistan, beyond the news headline, as seen by a witness
Guest speaker: Major Richard Gratton
When: Thursday, November 19, 2015, from 19:00 to 20:45
Where: Beaconsfield Library
303 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A7
Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.
From December 2010 to July 2011, Major Richard Gratton, a citizen of Beaconsfield, was deployed to Afghanistan with the 1st Battalion Royal 22e Régiment.
Major Gratton proposes to take you beyond the news headline with his presentation, videos and pictures. A conflict, still in the headlines in this month of November, remembrance month.
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Walter Percy Adams - Veteran of WWI and WWII
Guest speaker: David Pelletier
When: Thursday, October 15, 2015, from 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period
Walter Percy Adams, maternal grandfather of our speaker, was in both WWI and WWII, however he saw the most action in WWI and was awarded both the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) and Military Medal (MM) amongst other medals. David will show all his medals from both World Wars as well as some souvenirs brought home by Walter Percy Adams.
Walter Percy is mentioned prominently on the website memorializing the soldiers of the 117th Eastern Townships Battalion where he was amongst the first to volunteer. He was part of the 14th RMR (Royal Montreal Regiment) for most of his action overseas.
While both sets of David’s grandparents lived in Beaconsfield, Walter Percy spent almost all his time in the Veterans Hospital as in his later years he suffered from the effects of mustard gas from a battle in WWI at Hill 70. He was also at Vimy Ridge and The Canal du Nord in 1918.
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Guest speaker: Derek Grout
When: Thursday, September 17, 2015, from 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period
On November 11, 1918 the guns fell silent over the Western Front, and the Great War passed into history and legend. Author Derek Grout will explore the many ways we remember, almost a hundred years later, the most destructive war in history up to that time, and some of the effects of the war that defined the turbulent twentieth century.
He will also discuss his new book on the Great War, entitled Thunder in the Skies, published in 2015.
Copies of the book will be for sale at this event.
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Guest speaker: Robert L. Baird
When: Thursday, May 21, 2015, from 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.
Carrying on the current theme of military history, Robert Baird’s talk will be on military history during the summer of 1945 and t
he Canadian support in the preparation of the American invasion of Japan: “Operation Downfall”.
The American military were actively involved in elaborate preparations for the invasion of Japan and scheduled it in two phases, one starting on November 1st 1945, “Operation Olympic” and the second on March 1st 1946, “Operation Coronet”. The summer of 1945 was a fascinating period of military history, in which Robert Baird took part.
A resident of Beaconsfield since 1962, Robert was an active member of the Beaconsfield Planning Committee for over 14 years. He wrote and published the book “Beaconsfield and Beaurepaire” in conjunction with Gisèle Hall who did most of the research. He has a degree in Civil Engineering from McGill and a Master degree in history from Concordia University. Bob was a volunteer member of the Sixth Canadian Infantry Division in 1945.
They Were So Young. Montrealers Remember World War II
Guest Speaker: Patricia Burns
When: Thursday, April 16, 2015, from 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Beaconsfield Library
303 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A7
Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.
Patricia Burns, author of this book published in 2002, will elaborate on
1. The reason for writing an oral history of WWII
2. Finding people to interview
3. The technique and process of oral history
4. A few stories.
How in 1914
Guest speaker: Jean-Pierre Raymond
When: Thursday, March 19, 2015, from 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
At the beginning of this event, the Société historique Beaurepaire-Beaconsfield will show a 7-minute video taken at the Heroes Park launching ceremony and at the Heroes Park inauguration ceremony, in recognition of the implication, in this project, of the Beaconsfield High School and especially of the students Cheyenne Skurczak and Devyn Sherry, BHS spokespersons. Certificates of recognition, accompanied by the Roberta-Angell 2015 Prize, will be presented to the school as well as to these two students.
Lecture in English, with French visuals, followed by a bilingual question period
Jean-Pierre Raymond, retired engineer, talks about many little known facts that explain how a series of human misjudgements occurred resulting in WWI. He explains the legal process which brought the
Rise and Fall in the RCAF – The World War II Experiences of Robert McBride
Guest speaker: Peter McBride
When: Thursday, February 19, 2015, from 19:30 to 21:00
Where: Centennial Hall,
288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period
Life-long resident of Baie d’Urfé and Beaconsfield, Bob McBride enlisted in the RCAF in September 1940. Following completion of flight training in Canada, Bob went overseas in September 1941, winning promotion to Pilot Officer and Flying Officer in 1942, and to Flight Lieutenant in June 1944. He was shot down in a torpedo bombing mission over the Bay of Biscay on November 7, 1942, wounded and taken prisoner. As a POW, Bob resided in the Stalag Luft III and took part in what became known as “The Great Escape” on March 24, 1944. Recaptured at the tunnel’s mouth, Bob remained a prisoner until his release at the war’s end in 1945.
Peter McBride, one of Bob’s four children, has pieced his story together from various sources and will share it with us at our February meeting.
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