The Korean conflict in the 1950s is often hailed as Canada’s forgotten war. The same can be said of the South African (Boer) War (1899-1902) for which over a thousand Canadians initially volunteered. Except for memorials in Halifax and Canning and the odd record of Boer War veterans on Legion cenotaphs, this truly is a forgotten conflict.

However, the stories of Boer War veterans, some of the young men who attended university in Wolfville, are being told. Acadia University archivist Wendy Robicheau is on a mission to collect the stories of those Acadia students, and to use a cliché, save them for posterity. “I want to know their stories,” Robicheau said. “Who are they? What happened to them?”

To find their stories, Robicheau began by searching war records, which she found to be sketchy at best. “It is mostly by chance that I’ve been able to find these men, although sometimes they find me,” Robicheau said, giving as an example a visit to the war memorial in Port Williams where she found Private Congdon and Private Lockwood (of which more below).