Craigdarroch Castle : Object : trophy [998.034.004]

Object

Accession Number

998.034.004

Description

A silver-plated sporting trophy, the vase shaped cup with a wide mouth, small base and two curving handles on each side, the body's outside top edge with a wide band of repouseed acanthus vines with repeating circular cartouches, the body engraved with "MiLiTARY TOURNAMENT TORONTO (FOIL VS FOIL) OFFiSERS WON BY R.D. HARVY", around it stamped and embossed floral and foliage decoration,the slightly flared cup soldered to a pedestal-like shaft decorated with a spiral of vertical elongated leaves, the shaft attached to a flat, round base, its bottom bearing the manufacturer's name and maker's mark

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.

An odd characteristic of this trophy is its inscription which has two glaring errors in spelling Harvey's name and the rank status of the competitors. Also, words have a curious mix of upper and lower-case letters.

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.