Hamburgers and History

Maria’s away in Kingston visiting her mother, so I went out for lunch today in Carleton Place. Dropped in for a burger and root beer.

On the way back I took my favorite country road and decided to stop at the historic St James Anglican Cemetery just north of town. It’s a historic place – British to the core.

Didn’t spend a lot of time there though – it is cold, wet and sleety outside and the cemetery will look and feel a lot better in a couple of months.

 

Here is a good example of that early 20th-century British pride. This is not a normal grave marker. It’s more of a cenotaph to honor probably the only guy in Carleton Place who fought in the Crimean War.

Thomas Dunn was born in Ireland in 1834. He joined the British Army at age 18 – just in time to go to the Crimea. Mr. Dunn spent three years there and saw a lot of action – but survived. He came to Canada in 1856 and joined the Royal Canadian Rifles. He was still in the British Army (Canada was a colony and the R.C.R. would only accept 15-year British veterans into the ranks. He probably participated in defending against the Fenian raids after the Civil War.

When the Rifles disbanded in 1870, Mr. Dunn moved to Carleton Place where he and his wife Bridget raised their family. By the time he died in 1908, he was so well respected that the citizens of Carleton place raised the money for this memorial.

This is Mr. Dunn’s actual gravestone with his wife’s inscription on the other side. A little bit of local history to go with my burger today.

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