Jingo: The Buckskin Brigadier Who Opened Up the Canadian West

Sidney Allinson is the editor at the Royal Canadian Military Institute
and author of The Bantams: The Untold Story of World War I.

In reading Jingo, the thought soon arises that if this book’s subject
had been American, he would be a well-known heroic figure today.
However, with Canada’s reluctance to honor its brave, one has to first
learn about Brigadier Thomas Bland (Jingo) Strange in this enjoyable new
biography. Lamb, author of several previous historical studies, tells
the story well of this remarkable man.

Jingo Strange was larger than life, even in an age of notable achievers
and individualists. Although a career officer in the Royal Artillery and
a Victorian British army officer up to his boot-tops, Strange
demonstrated remarkable flexibility of character and general
unstuffiness. He adjusted well to frontier life in Canada and became
hugely popular with settlers and soldiers alike. After hair-raising
adventures during the Indian Mutiny, he arrived in Canada in 1871,
charged with the responsibility of building up the new nation’s
defences—a daunting task, by this account. He found an amateurish
military establishment, underfunded and plagued with bureaucratic
harassment, indifference, and even corruption. Within 10 short years,
Strange had organized a nation-wide defence system for Canada and
established strong professional standards for the regular army. One of
his achievements was to press for the establishment of a Royal Military
College in Kingston, modeled on RMC Sandhurst. Another was his
organizing of integrated units with French- and English-speaking
soldiers.

He spent some years as a rancher in Alberta, where he witnessed
first-hand the success of the North-West Mounted Police, whose training
he had initiated. When called out of retirement, Strange almost
single-handedly raised, equipped, and trained the force that defeated
Chief Big Bear’s warriors during the Northwest Rebellion. It is
gratifying to read how the old soldier’s last years were marked by a
wide recognition of his skills, which took him on extensive world
travels to advise military organizations all across the British Empire.