A daguerreotype of Captain James Fitzjames taken in 1845 and sold at Sotheby’s in September 2023. The remains of Fitzjames, who commanded HMS Erebus, have been identified by DNA and genealogical analyses. [Sotheby’s/Wikimedia]

Researchers identify remains of Franklin expedition skipper

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

They are the last known communications from the storied Arctic expedition led by John Franklin, found by a search party stashed in a stone cairn at Victory Point on the northwest coast of King William Island in May 1859, 11 years after it was written.

Scrawled in the margins of a preprinted Admiralty form, the so-called “Victory Point Note” bore two messages. The first, dated May 28, 1847, said the ships Erebus and Terror had wintered in ice, that Franklin was commanding, and all were “well.”

By April 25, 1848, however, the situation had deteriorated markedly.

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ATTENTION CANADIAN MILITARY FAMILIES : Did you or a family member receive VAC disability benefits between 2003 and 2023?

On 17 January 2024 the Federal Court approved a settlement in a class action involving alleged underpayment of certain disability pension benefits administered by Veterans Affairs Canada (“VAC”) payable to members or former members of the Canadian Armed Forces (“CAF”) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (“RCMP”) and their spouses, commonlaw partners, survivors, other related individuals, and estates (the “Settlement”).

If you received any of the disability-related benefits listed below at any time between 2003 and 2023, you may be entitled to compensation under the Settlement. As the executor, estate trustee, administrator, or family member of a deceased class member who collected VAC-administered disability benefits, you may also be able to claim on behalf of the estate.

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Bowmanville prisoners of war. [U-35.com]

The Battle of Bowmanville

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

“Wherever possible,” read a detailed Allied military plan for Operation Jubilee, “prisoners’ hands will be tied to prevent destruction of their documents.”

The order was a recipe for disaster on what would be a disastrous day in Dieppe, France, on Aug. 19, 1942. There, some 6,100 Allied troops—4,963 Canadians among them—endured nine hours of hell as the German defenders cut them to ribbons. The Dieppe Raid incurred about 3,000 casualties, amounting to almost half the original assault force; of those, more than 900 Canadian dead littered the bloodied shingles and wrecked commune, while 1,946 were taken prisoner.

Searching the washed-up bodies and burnt-out vehicles, the victorious Germans found the orders. Hitler was outraged—and it was destined to get far worse.

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