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Military Military Brock, Sir Isaac

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Brock, Sir Isaac

Also known as Major-General Sir Isaac Brock
Date of Birth: October 6, 1769 Place of birth: St Peter Port on the Channel Island of Guernsey, England
Date of Death: October 13, 1812 Place of death: Queenston Heights, Niagara, Ontario Cause of death: Fatally injured on the battle field

Sir Isaac Brock His military actions in the War of 1812, particularly his success at Detroit, earned him a knighthood, membership in the Order of Bath, accolades and the sobriquet “Hero of Upper Canada.”

  • Interment Info

    From Wikipedia: After the battle, Sheaffe and his staff decided to entrust the funeral arrangements to Captain John Glegg, who had served with Brock for many years. On 16 October, a funeral procession for Brock and Colonel Macdonell went from Government House to Fort George, with soldiers from the British Army, the colonial militia, and the American Indian tribes on either side of the route. The caskets were then lowered into a freshly dug grave at the northeast corner of Fort George. The British then fired a twenty-one gun salute in three salvos, in a gesture of respect. Later that day, the American garrison at Fort Niagara respectfully fired a similar salute. Over five thousand people attended the funeral, a remarkable number given the population of Upper Canada at that time. A small cairn at the foot of the Niagara Escarpment marks the spot where Brock fell. In 1824, Brock and Macdonell's remains were moved into Brock's Monument, which overlooked the Queenston Heights. That original monument was bombed and heavily damaged in 1840 (reputedly by Irish-Canadian terrorist Benjamin Lett although a subsequent Assize failed to confirm this). It was replaced by a larger structure 56 m high, built at public expense that still stands. Brock was finally buried inside the new Monument on 13 October 1853. An inscription reads: "Upper Canada has dedicated this monument to the memory of the late Major-General Isaac Brock, K.B. provisional lieutenant-governor and commander of the forces in the province whose remains are deposited in the vault beneath. Opposing the invading enemy he fell in action near these heights on 13 October 1812, in the forty-third year of his age. Revered and lamented by the people whom he governed and deplored by the sovereign to whose services his life had been devoted." http://barbaramartin.blogspot.com/2008/08/major-general-isaac-brock-war-of-1812.html Three times were Sir Isaac Brock's funeral rites observed. First, on that sad October day when a pause came in the conflict, and minute guns from each side of the river bore their token of respect from friend and foe for the general who had fallen in the midst of the battle. He was laid to rest first in the cavalier bastion of Fort George which he himself had built. Dark days were yet to fall on Canada, when shot and shell poured over that grave in the bastion, and fire and sword laid the land desolate; but the spirit kindled by Brock in the country never failed, and though his voice was stilled, the echo of his words remained and the force of his example. When peace came again, a grateful country resolved to raise to his memory a monument on the field where he fell, and twelve years afterwards a solemn procession passed again over that road by the river, and from far and near those who had served under him gathered to do him honour. A miscreant from the United States shattered this monument on April 13th, 1840, a crime that was execrated in that country as well as in Canada. A resolution was unanimously passed, that another monument, higher and nobler still, should be built in place of the one destroyed. No public money was asked, but the regular troops, officers and men, and the militia gave a freewill offering. In due time the sum of $50,000 was raised. While the monument was building. General Brock's body was placed in a private burying-ground in Mr. Hamilton's garden at the foot of the hill. In 1854, more than forty years after the battle, the column was finished, and once again a long procession followed the hero's bier. Nor was this all. In 1860 there was a notable gathering on that historic hill, when King Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, came to do honour to the dead hero, and laid the topmost stone on the cairn that marks the spot where he fell. One hundred and sixty survivors of the volunteers of 1812 were present.