Canada
Meanwhile, Charles Dunbar was still corresponding with Canadians he had met and served with in South Africa, at their urging, he decided to leave the Army after 24 years of service and emigrate to Canada which had a reputation as a land of opportunity. In 1911, the family arrived in Hamilton, Ontario, where, shortly afterwards, their last child, a daughter they named Margaret (“Peggy”) was born.
Charles Dunbar joined a cartage business owned by one of Hamilton’s leading families, Hendrie and Company, as a clerk. The company was a pickup and delivery service using Clydesdale horses pulling flat, platform wagons that collected shipments at the railways and delivered supplies and freight to the surrounding communities. Charles Dunbar was regarded as a loyal and valued employee.
The Dunbars lived at 18 Hilton Street in Hamilton. Small by today’s standards for a family of seven, it was a home that remained in the family’s ownership until a few years before their daughter Margaret’s death in 2004.
A piper of Charles Dunbar’s renown could not help but come to the attention of the 91st (later the Argyll and Sutherland) Highlanders of Canada, Princess Louise’s. He was asked by senior officers of the regiment to join them and on 15 September 1913, he enlisted as pipe major. It is reported that he was also solicited by the 48th Highlanders of Toronto but Charles Dunbar was unwilling to supplant James Fraser who was the regiment’s serving pipe major.
Charles Dunbar taught his sons to play the pipes, though none attained his mastery of the instrument. They knew their father as a man of discipline. They were held to high standards of conduct and became known for their honesty, trustworthiness, respectfulness and hard work.
Maggie Dunbar was an excellent mother and household manager. She found time to become active in the Red Cross and church activities at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church. Charles Dunbar’s life revolved around his work, his family, the regiment and the pipe band. He had high standards and was an excellent teacher although it is reported that many of his piping students had a difficult time meeting his exacting standards. Sydney Featherstone and John Knox Cairns were two of his students who did excel, and they went on to succeed him.
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Famous quotes containing the word canada:
“I fear that I have not got much to say about Canada, not having seen much; what I got by going to Canada was a cold.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What makes the United States government, on the whole, more tolerable—I mean for us lucky white men—is the fact that there is so much less of government with us.... But in Canada you are reminded of the government every day. It parades itself before you. It is not content to be the servant, but will be the master; and every day it goes out to the Plains of Abraham or to the Champs de Mars and exhibits itself and toots.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I see Canada as a country torn between a very northern, rather extraordinary, mystical spirit which it fears and its desire to present itself to the world as a Scotch banker.”
—Robertson Davies (b. 1913)