One Of The Old Eighteen

 Usually known as Frank, Francis Joseph Dixon had the distinction of being in the first graduating class of Canada’s historic Royal Military College in Kingston.  Born in Cobourg on February 9, 1857, the son of previously documented Anthony Dixon, there was great hope for his future.  As is so often the case, the reality was something else. 

Frank was one of eighteen cadets who had been accepted for military training when the College first opened in 1876.  In his book on the history of the College, author Richard Preston writes: 

“The cadets quickly became a living legend and its members were, quite naturally, regarded as the heroic founders of a great tradition.” 

In College history they have forever been referred to as the “Old Eighteen”. 

Until the founding of the Royal Military College, the British had provided military instruction in Canada at various regimental sites.  The establishment of the College, according to author Preston, stemmed from the feeling that self-governing colonies ought to be able to provide for their own defence and do so in a way that would produce officers possessed of an excellence at that time missing in most.  The founding of the College, a significant step forward for a young nation, at the time generated a great deal of public interest and enthusiasm.  Within a few weeks of its opening, Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie is known to have visited the College and met with its cadets. 

Because Archives Canada maintains many records associated with the College, information about Frank’s historic connection and particulars of his training and career have been preserved.  Frank, we learn, had applied for a position in the first class in 1876 while still living with his family in Belleville.  In light of his previous association with Belleville’s Ontario College and the successful completion of entrance examinations, he was accepted at the age of seventeen to join seventeen other classmates. 

First year fees at the College were the then rather handsome sum of two hundred dollars to be followed with fees of one hundred and fifty dollars for each of the three remaining years.  The first day of College life on June 1, 1876 is described in Preston’s book as follows: 

“The recruit was then shown to his room on the second or third floor of the Stone Frigate.  Each cadet in this first year had a room to himself.  He found it plainly furnished with an iron military cot, a writing table, two chairs, a chest of drawers, and bookshelf. … There may also have been an arms-stand for his Sniderfield rifle.” 

On arrival each cadet was assigned a number based on the standing achieved in the obligatory subjects in the entrance examinations.  Although Frank would eventually graduate from the College (four of the eighteen did not), his assigned regimental number of fifteen would not indicate great academic strength.  In Fact, records of the College Registrar indicate that, despite his assigned number, he may have scored as low as seventeen. 

Frank’s hometown Belleville press was proud of him and carried various articles dealing with his initial acceptance and later undergraduate activities.  One article wrote that Frank was: 

“A very worthy young man and is only past his eighteenth birthday [it was in fact his nineteenth] though he stands six feet two inches in his stockings.” 

The article went on, wrongly as it turned out, to predict a successful career “to his own infinite credit and the advantage of the Dominion”.  Another article from a British military journal, after some paragraphs about the College described Frank as follows: 

“ … a fine specimen of a Canadian gentleman, six feet one inch in his stockings, who without hurrying himself, did the distance [the distance involved is unknown] in four minutes, fifteen seconds.” 

It would have been a proud day for Anthony, had he lived, to be present for his son’s graduation on July 2, 1880.  Gala closing ceremonies gave the public an opportunity to see cadets engage in a myriad of activities.  These displays included sword and bayonet fighting, boxing, horse vaulting, rapid charging and firing exercises as well as dismounting, dismembering and reassembly of carriages, and mine explosions.  

Archives Canada records indicate Frank graduated that day with a standing of thirteen in a class of now fourteen, again not distinguishing himself academically.  A copy of his graduation certificate lists both his physical characteristics and subjects studied. Physically he is described as six feet one and one-half inches with grey eyes and brown hair.  Subjects studied included fortification and military engineering, theory and construction of artillery, strategy tactics and military law, surveying and reconnaissance, drawing and painting, and civil engineering.  Although not academically strong, Frank, the Belleville press proudly reported, had stood first in strategy tactics and military law. 

Despite the heady success of graduation, the sad reality was that there were few positions available in Canada at that time for the graduates.  Canada had no standing army at the time and there was no ready market to absorb the class.  

For five years, the only related employment Frank would be able to find was as a Lieutenant in the Militia.  Preston writes that some of the class in fact ended up accepting positions in the British Army while others found related civilian employment using engineering skills they had acquired.  Still others such as Frank spent years of letter writing in pursuit of positions.

Archival records are again useful in tracking Frank’s quest for employment.  Prior to graduation he had first unsuccessfully in 1879 attempted to secure a commission with the North West Mounted Police, the predecessor in name to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  In 1880, when living in Montreal, Frank was informed there were no vacancies.  Back in Belleville in 1883 he applied for a commission in one of the additional military schools about to be established.  The harsh reply of the commandant of the Royal Military College, to whom Frank’s request had been sent by his prospective employer for comment, was: 

“As a graduate of RMC, this applicant is entitled to some consideration but I consider him the least likely of all who have graduated, or who will graduate in June next, to prove a desirable or efficient officer.” 

As matters turned out years later the commandant’s words would be prescient.  In the meantime, undeterred, Frank persisted.  In 1884 he unsuccessfully applied for a commission with the contingent of “voyageurs and militia officers” about to be sent to Sudan to assist the British Army in the relief of Khartoum. 

It was the North West Rebellion of 1885 led by Louis Riel in Saskatchewan that finally provided Frank with the opportunity for service he had been seeking.  He started out as a Staff Lieutenant in of a convalescent depot in Moose Jaw.  While there, applying for a commission in what was known as the Provisional Corps, he was strongly supported by his superior who cited “his willingness and zeal at work”.  

The following year saw Frank holding several different positions, which included Staff Officer and Aide-de-camp, Supply and Transport Officer, Chief Commissariat Officer, Orderly Officer, Pay Officer, and Secretary of the War Claims Commission.  One has to wonder if these were promotions or if Frank kept getting shuffled from position to position due to incompetence.  Whatever the reason, Frank received the North West Medal for his brief service. 

Frank Dixon When RMC Club President

Frank’s whereabouts and livelihood for the next several years are unknown.  He is listed as the president of the Royal Military College Club in 1895 and 1897 and again in 1897 as the editor of the Canadian Military Gazette.  It is additionally known that he was present in Ottawa in 1898 for the founding meeting of the Montreal Military Institute of which he was elected an officer.  All these activities were pursued without any significant military experience to go with them.     

The South African Boer War at last provided with the opportunity for some more experience after a hiatus of almost fourteen years following his North West Rebellion service.  Formation of a battalion for service to South Africa was approved in 1899 and Militia Order 221 noted that Captain F.J. Dixon [now 42] would accompany troops as Historical Recorder.  Frank’s role may have included a bit more since, once there, he was two years later promoted to Major “in view of his services in the field in South Africa and his military technical qualifications”. 

Archival records further disclose that Frank was involved in operations in the Orange Free State, the Transvaal, and the Cape Colony.  Most of his activities seem to have involved military administrative duties with the railways.  

At the conclusion of the war Frank elected to remain in South Africa without having completed the history he had been assigned to write as Historical Recorder.  This failure became a matter of concern and the issue was raised in the House of Commons in 1903.  Frank thus became the only known relative to have had his name raised in Parliament and officially recorded in Hansard. 

The fact of the matter is that government officials had lost track of Frank.  The official response was that Frank had not been in the pay of the Dominion Government during his time in South Africa and that the government was not aware of his whereabouts.  A military newspaper of the day raised the issue under the heading of “Where is Major Dixon” as follows: 

“Militia orders ask for the whereabouts of Major F.J. Dixon, formerly of Toronto, who went to Africa with the first contingent as Historical Officer.  The notice set out that he is still believed to be in South Africa.  Mr. Dixon is understood to have engaged in railway work near Pietermaritsburg when he last communicated with Ottawa.” 

Shortly after this article appeared, a correspondent with knowledge of Frank’s whereabouts replied that he was living in the Transvaal on the Natal in a town called Wakkerstroom.  He was employed there as a Resident Magistrate, a desirable position said to involve duties similar to a County Court Judge, Police Magistrate, Marriage Officer, and Revenue Collection.  His appointment to this position apparently had followed abolition of the Military Railway Staff in South Africa.  Frank had accepted the position without bothering with the niceties of advising Canadian military officials. 

Now that he had been at last tracked down, officials wrote to Frank regarding the progress of his war history.  Frank’s 1904 reply on the letterhead of the “Office of the Resident Magistrate, Volkrust, The Transvaal” was unapologetic and terse to the point of being rude: 

“I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter 54-2-3 of December 10 last inquiring whether I intended writing an official history of the S.A. campaign.  In reply I report that my absence from Canada in South Africa will prevent me from doing so.” 

Frank died in a Pretoria hospital on May 22, 1916.  His death notice gives his occupation as Assistant Resident Magistrate in Pretoria, he apparently having transferred from his previous position in the Transvaal.  His total estate was estimated at three hundred pounds.  He died unmarried, apparently alone, and far from the many siblings he had left behind.  It was left to the matron in charge of the hospital to fill out the death notice to the best of her ability.  All she could manage regarding his place of birth was to write, “I understand near Quebec”.  

Archival records in Pretoria show that Frank made his will in 1910 appointing a South African trust company as executor and providing for three beneficiaries.  These were his unmarried sister Josie, married sister Clara, and brother Charles said to be living in Omaha, Nebraska.  One assumes that all other siblings may have been dead when Frank made his will.  No other files dealing with the administration of Frank’s estate have not been found. 

In looking at Frank’s life, his military career seems clearly to have been a mediocre one more in keeping with his limited academic achievements than the high military expectations others had for him at the time of his graduation from the Royal Military College.  The comment of the College commandant that he was “the least likely of all who have graduated … to prove a desirable or efficient officer” appears to have not been far off the mark despite the unrelated judicial position he eventually attained.  His failure to complete the history of Canadian participation in the Boer War seems inexcusable. 

Frank’s most important historical contribution seems to be limited to his membership in the Royal Military College’s first class.  Richard Preston’s book perhaps sums it up best: 

“The Old Eighteen had made a contribution greater than they can possibly have realized. … Under the tactful and skilful direction of Colonel Hewett and his staff the Old Eighteen created a college with a professional military tradition … As a result of the excellence of their training and education, the Old Eighteen, although only average young men who were not all gifted by nature with noted qualities of leadership became the model of that valuable tradition.” 

Although Frank died alone in relative obscurity in a distant land after failing to distinguish himself militarily, his legacy may be that he still lives on at the Royal Military College.  A tradition exists there that requires every new cadet to memorize the names of the Old Eighteen, one of whom for better or worse, is of course Francis Joseph Dixon.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               David Arntfield