Diary of Francis Dickens

Thin card covers, 23 pages, 8.75x6in - 22x15 cm.

Spine lightly worn at head and heel. Staples rusting. Covers and pages mildly dog-eared at top corner; pages age-tanned (esp. near covers).

Bulletin of the Departments of History and Political and Economic Science in Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, No. 59. Francis Jeffrey Dickens (1844-1886, son of author Charles Dickens) joined the North-West Mounted Police in 1874, rising to Inspector rank in 1880. Dickens oversaw Fort Pitt’s defense during the 1885 North-West Resistance, when Métis and Indigenous groups clashed with Canadian militia and the NWMP in present-day Saskatchewan and Alberta. This volume reprints Dickens’ diary from Mar. 4 – Apr. 15, 1885 and contains an understated, precise account of life at Fort Pitt amidst growing confrontation and violence. He records news of the Frog Lake Massacre, notes the growing threat of Resistance forces in the region, and concludes with the events leading up to the Apr. 15 Battle at Fort Pitt and the NWMP's subsequent departure. Contextual remarks and commentary by Vernon LaChance begin and end the volume. Peel(3) 1431.