Last of the Clippers
The Thermopylae’s Canadian Odyssey
- Speaker: Alexandre Reford, historien
- When: Thursday, April 15, 2021, 19:30 to 21:00
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Where: In virtual mode
Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.
Scouring for a ship that could get a ready supply of rice to their recently opened mills in Victoria, British Columbia, Robert Reford tasked his partner John Dillon to find the right vessel. Dillon was told about the Thermopylae. “Dillon is having much trouble to get tonnage for Victoria,” Reford wrote his son, “and has as a dernier resort about made up his mind to purchase a sailing ship. He cabled me the names of several he was offered and we finally decided to bid on one called the Thermopylae…she is in fact one of the famous Aberdeen clipper tea ships…”
So began Robert Reford’s odyssey as the owner of the one of the fastest and most famous sailing ships ever built – the Thermopylae. Rival of the Cutty Sark, she was beautiful, sleek and fast, built to get the finest teas from China to the teacups of Britain’s aristocracy. Decades after her launch, Robert Reford bought her to transport rice to his new rice mill in Victoria. It was a short-lived and most disastrous investment. It brought Reford and his Montreal shipping agency and rice milling firm fame if not fortune. Historian Alexander Reford will tell the story of this fascinating episode in maritime history of the last of the clipper ships.
Alexander Reford is the 
director of Les Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens. Educated at the University of Toronto and Oxford University he is the author of several books on Quebec history and gardens. He is a frequent contributor to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography and is the author of the biographies of Lord Mount Stephen and Lord Strathcona and his great great grandfathers, Robert Meighen and Robert Reford. Some of his publications:
Des jardins oubliés 1860-1960
Guidebook to the Reford Gardens
Au rythme du train 1859-1970
Elsie’s Paradise – Reford Gardens
Treasures of Reford Gardens - Elsie Reford’s Floral Legacy
The Metis Lighthouse
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Pauline Faguy-Girard will present an overview of the different modes of transportation in Beaconsfield over the years. From canoeing on Lake St. Louis to the different modes of transportation used on our territory and by the citizens of Beaconsfield, of all ages.
David Shuman is Director of Research & Development and Board member of the Montreal Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC). Long time space enthusiast, amateur astronomer, David Shuman has a passion for past present and future exploration missions to the red planet Mars. He co-created a full scale model for the CSA of the Phoenix Lander, attended numerous Shuttle and rocket launches as well as numerous public talks on the subject of Mars in Canada and the US.
Alexandre Vattemare was born and died in Paris (1796-1864). He was a protean character. His exceptional talents of mime and ventriloquism earned him fame in post-Napoleonic Europe. If this man, esteemed by the rulers and the intellectual elite of his time, has gone down in history, it is because he has created an international system for the exchange of double specimens in the fields of arts, natural sciences , scientific and literary works, and advocated the construction of institutes bringing together many public services. He wanted to strengthen the bonds of friendship between groups of the human family and allow workers and poor people to learn easily. The purpose of this lecture is to identify the Vattemare project to build in Montreal and Quebec City, in 1840 and 1841, two institutes with multiple functions – real urban utopias – in order to break down national, linguistic, and cultural barriers through education, and in particular, free education of the workers and the poor.
Jacques G. Ruelland, Ph.D., retired professor, Department of Philosophy, Collège Édouard-Montpetit; Department of History, Université de Montréal; authored 48 books.
Robert Unwin Harwood was the spouse of Louise-Josephte de Lotbinière heiress of the Seigneurie of Vaudreuil. Robert Unwin is a rather fascinating character, a romantic Englishman who developed the Seigneurie of Vaudreuil during the troubled period of the Rebellion of 1837. Robert Unwin was quite a character, much loved by his French-speaking tenants or censitaires. He was able to attract the attention and sympathy of both his French Canadian and his English tenants, a rare case. I knew him through his grandson Henry de Lotbinière Harwood who introduced me to the English-speaking community of Hudson and helped me a lot in my career with his archives and his advice. For me, to speak of his great-grandfather is to pay tribute to one of the members of Quebec's English-speaking community who was committed to the flourishing of the French community in the region.
At the turn of the 20th century, more and more young women from the middle and upper classes were introduced to a variety of physical and sporting activities. In Montreal, many women practice activities such as tennis, golf, snowshoeing or skating, in a recreational setting. Some rare pioneers exploit instead their athletic abilities in private schools and universities or begin a competitive career. Yet, this enthusiasm of women for sports, a space dedicated for the building of male identity, is controversial. At a time when more and more young women are starting to claim their rights to vote and access male spaces, the emergence of the “New Woman” figure, this young sporty woman wearing lighter and masculine costumes (puffy panties/bloomers), tends to accentuate the anxiety around the disappearance of the “real woman”. 
Still, in the 1920’s, women’s sports leagues are organized, and more and more women choose the competitive path. These inspiring and courageous athletes thus opened the door to the next generations. 
Valérie St-Georges 
February is Black History Month. Abraham Hanibal (Ganibal in Russian), born on the shore of Lake Chad in what is today Cameroon, was among the unlucky black to be made slave. But he got the unbelievable good fortune to become the adoptive son of the Tsar of Russia, Peter the Great, and will receive an engineer training in France.
The lecture will present some members of the Taché family over several generations. In the transition when Canada passed from the French to the English regime, Jean-Pascal Taché was involved. His grandson was Prime Minister and Father of Confederation Sir Étienne Paschal Taché. The son of the latter, Eugène-Étienne Taché designed the Québec City heritage icons and gifted us with the Québec motto "Je me souviens". This is the history of a principle driven family that designed, through their descendants, a part of Canada's history.
Michel Fragasso is history buff, genealogist and speaker on different subjects related to history and genealogy. Michel Fragasso is himself a descendant of the Taché family. His experience as a lecturer at Université Laval and various CEGEPs has enabled him to give lectures on heritage subjects and various other topics in Quebec and abroad.