Craigdarroch Castle : Object : trophy [998.034.003]

Object

Accession Number

998.034.003

Description

A silver-plated sporting trophy, the bowl-shaped cup with gilt interior soldered to a looped acanthus vine, the outside top edge of cup banded with cast alternating leaf and oval decoration, the slightly raised circular base round with a knobbed centre from which the vine emanates, the inscription engraved on cup's side, the bottom stamped: "MADE AND GUARANTEED BY MERIDEN B COMPANY", their mark and design registration number.

Narrative

According to the archivist at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, Robert Dunsmuir Harvey "excelled in athletics" while attending school there as a boy. In August, 1896 he enrolled in the Royal Military College (RMC) in Kingston, Ontario as a "gentleman cadet". His sporting exploits flourished there, and this is just one of many trophies that he won during his military college years.

The trophy was awarded to Harvey for winning a high-jump competition with a height of 5' 4".

History of Use

This trophy was used by Lt. Robert Dunsmmuir Harvey (1878-1901) while he attended military college, and later while he served in the 4th (Queen’s Own) Hussars regiment in India. Following his death in 1901, his regiment sent the trophy and other personal effects to his sister Elizabeth Georgina Harvey and his grandmother Joan Olive Dunsmuir at Craigdarroch. Sometime later, the trophy and other effects came into possession of R.D. Harvey's brother, Col. James Swan Harvey, who kept them at his residence on Knapp Island, B.C. The trophy and other items were next inherited by J.S. Harvey's son, Robert Oliver Dunsmuir Harvey of Victoria, B.C., and then by his son, the late Robert James Harvey who lived in Victoria, Nanaimo, and before his death in 2013, on Denman Island, B.C.