Most people wouldn't willingly charge headlong into enemy fire on a horse.
But most people aren't Strathconas.
St. Albert honours members of the Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) regiment this week by giving them freedom of the city. The award recognizes a tradition of courage under fire that dates back more than a century.
Some of the most thrilling moments of that history involve recipients of the Victoria Cross (VC) — one of Canada's most prestigious military honours, typically awarded for acts of nigh-on suicidal bravery.
Soldiers learn all about these people when they join the Strathconas, says Warrant Officer Ted MacLeod, curator of the regiment's museum in Calgary. "This is family history."
The men of Steele
The Strathconas were established in 1900 in response to the Boer War, MacLeod says — a fight between the South African Boers and the British Empire over gold and diamonds. The Brits were getting their butts kicked — their stand-and-fight infantry stood no chance against the run-and-gun cavalry of the Boers.
Seeing the problem, Donald Smith, also known as Lord Strathcona, offered to raise a mounted rifle unit to help counter the Boer's horses. The Canadians and the British agreed, and Strathcona asked an old friend to lead the squad: Sam Steele, the original badass Mountie.
An Ontarian, Steele had already won world renown through his efforts with the North-West Mounted Police. He had brought order to the lawless Dawson City during the gold rush, fought in the Riel Rebellion and hauled horses out of swamps with his bare hands. So great was his reputation that it took him just five days to find the 537 volunteers he needed for the unit, notes historian Robert Stewart.
Stewart describes Steele as a strict disciplinarian — he once sentenced a soldier to 14 days in handcuffs for stealing jam — and an outstanding leader and tactician, one that helped cement the unit's reputation for bravery and ferocity. The whole of the Edmonton Garrison is named the Steele Barracks in his honour.
The super sergeant
It was under Steele's leadership that the Strathconas received their first VC — and the first to be given to a Canadian in a Canadian unit.
Sgt. Arthur Richardson had moved to Canada in 1894 from England to be a rancher, notes historian Arthur Bishop, and was a member of the Mounties before he joined the Strathconas.
Richardson received the VC for his actions on July 5, 1900, near a place called Wolve Spruit. While on patrol, he and his 37 companions were ambushed by about 80 Boers. As the Strathconas retreated, soldier Alex McArthur was shot in the arm and the leg and went down with his horse upon him.
Richardson, who was weak with fever at the time, galloped back into the ambush as the Boers rained bullets and insults upon him. He pulled McArthur out from under the horse, slung him on his, and escaped uninjured.
Richardson took a huge risk, MacLeod says, but did what any good sergeant would do: he looked after his troops. "He's the epitome of a senior NCO [non-commissioned officer]."
Richardson would later return to England in 1907, Bishop notes, where he died 25 years later after a life of seclusion.
The big, angry guy
The Strathconas would witness two more VC-worthy acts of courage during the First World War.
Lt. Frederick Harvey was born in Ireland, 1888, Bishop writes, and later moved to Alberta. "He was a big man," MacLeod notes, more than six-feet tall, clean-shaven, boyish, and had big ears. He also tended to be in the thick of action, earning him an unusual number of mentions in the unit's war diary.
Harvey received the VC for his actions on March 27, 1917, Macleod says. Harvey was leading his men on a charge to the village of Guyencourt, France, when he ran into a barbed-wired trench containing eight Germans and a machine gun.
As the Germans fired on his comrades, Harvey swung from his saddle and sprinted straight at the gun, firing his revolver as he went. He hurdled the wire fence, shot the machine gunner and captured the other seven guys. "One would think he had a bit of a temper," MacLeod quips. Although Harvey's actions had little impact on the overall campaign (which dragged on for months), they did save many lives.
Harvey would go on to perform many other courageous deeds in the war, Bishop notes, receiving the Croix de Guerre and the Military Cross for his efforts. He would later become head of the Strathconas, serve in the Second World War and eventually die in Calgary at the ripe old age of 92. The Strathconas have since named their headquarters the Harvey Building in his memory.
The charger
Harvey was also involved in the Battle of Moreuil Wood where his associate, Lt. Gordon Flowerdew, led a charge that may have changed the course of the war, and certainly earned him the VC.
Born in England in 1885, Flowerdew moved to Canada in 1903, settling first in Saskatchewan, then British Columbia.
Flowerdew was with the Strathconas as they approached the settlement of Moreuil on March 30, 1918. German forces had smashed a huge hole in the British line, MacLeod notes, and were advancing on the key rail centre of Amiens. The Canadians had been sent in to stop their advance.
The Canadians were ordered to take a key wood near Moreuil despite being outnumbered two-to-one. As most of the force took on German troops in the woods hand-to-hand, Flowerdew took about 70 Strathconas around the north side of the wood to cut off any potential reinforcements. Harvey and a few others were ordered to clear that corner of the wood on foot.
When Flowerdew turned the corner, he was greeted by about 100 Germans armed with rifles and 20 machine guns. He immediately turned to his men, said, "It's a charge boys! It's a charge!" raised his sword and charged into certain death.
The unit's bugler, who was next to Flowerdew, was gunned down before he could get a note off. Sgt. Tom Mackay, who was behind Flowerdew, would survive with 59 bullet wounds in one leg and too-many-to-count in the other — the sacks full of tinned meat in his saddlebags saved his life.
After a storm of bullets, bombs and bayonets, and two charges through the German lines, all but about 12 of Flowerdew's men were dead or wounded. Flowerdew himself had taken two rounds in the chest, but continued to cheer his men on from the ground. By the time Harvey had fought his way out of the wood, Flowerdew's men had trounced the Germans, seized their machine guns and turned the guns against them, halting their advance.
The Canadians took the wood in what some historians consider a turning point in the war. Flowerdew died of his wounds three days later.
This isn't just Flowerdew's story, MacLeod argues, but the story of Flowerdew and the 70 guys crazy enough to follow him. "They followed him and they achieved the impossible." Soldiers today look back on this moment as an example of the regiment's motto, >Perseverance. "There's no such thing as too great an odds that you can't win if you stick to it."
These tales of bravery are always in the back of a soldier's mind, MacLeod says, and embody the values every soldier strives to live up to today. "The lesson is simple in all three cases: don't be afraid to step out and actually try it if it looks like the right thing to do."
