A Gentleman Adventurer: The Arctic Diaries of R.H.G. Bonnycastle

Richard Nahabedian was Manager, Personell Services, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ontario.

Up to the time that radio and airmail changed the fur trade in the late 1920s, all employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company were obliged to maintain a daily journal of their activities, called a “Journal of Events.” From Hudson’s Bay headquarters in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to its furthest trading posts in the Arctic, clerks, managers, and Company inspectors recorded their daily business in these small pocket diaries.

In 1925, a young lawyer named Richard Bonnycastle, unhappy with practising law, became aware of the opportunities with the Hudson’s Bay Company. He joined the firm as an accountant in 1925 and eventually rose to the position of district manager. As with all employees, his Journal of Events recorded his experiences, whether travelling down the Mackenzie River or pushing into the deepest regions of the Western Arctic.

Gentleman Adventurer is a selection of extracts from Bonnycastle’s diaries which cover four journeys he made between 1928 and 1931. These diaries were the basis for composing the reports he submitted to head office and contain his personal observations and feelings. They were never intended for either public or Company scrutiny, and this is the key to their endless fascination for us more than half a century later.

The north at this time was undergoing unprecedented cultural and economic changes. Refugees, missionaries, mounted policemen, miners, government inspectors, painters, etc., flocked to the last frontier on this planet for their respective gain and Bonnycastle shrewdly observed and recorded the impact of this invasion upon the lives of the Eskimos and Indians.

Written under physical hardship by the light of a campfire, these diaries are an intimate look backwards to a vanished world and a unique contribution to the social history of Canada. Gentleman Adventurer is a rewarding experience on many levels and, supplemented by a selection of Bonnycastle’s personal photographs, can only be described as fascinating.

Heather Robertson has produced a superb work of authentic Canadiana, a vivid reminder of the excitement and richness of our historical past. Her work deserves the widest possible audience among the general public and, in this reviewer’s opinion, should be required reading across the country in our secondary schools.