I believe war is inherent to human nature, as is the desire for victory.
Canadians met the call to war because of their love of King and country. Percival Molson was an all-round athlete with a profound resolve to win. He had skated to the Stanley Cup and sprinted for Canada at the 1904 Olympics. He took his desire for victory to the field of battle. Horribly disfigured by a bullet through his cheek, he nonetheless returned to the front after facial surgery, only to be killed by a mortar in 1917.
Even in victory, the losses were overwhelming. Every battle required vast quantities of munitions and cost many lives.
– Viveka Melki
Percival Molson (1880-1917)
Memorials are inextricably linked to the First World War. In churches, town squares, school chapels and university quadrangles can be found cenotaphs, plaques and parchments, each one speaking to the extraordinary number of Canadians who died because of the war. More than 66,000 Canadians lost their lives on the battlefield or succumbed to wounds endured in battle.
Percival Molson was the golden boy of a family already famous for its achievements in brewing, banking and sport. Percival Molson was best known for his prowess as an athlete – excelling at hockey, football, rugby, racket sports, sprinting and track and field. Voted McGill’s best all round athlete for three consecutive years, he had won the Stanley Cup on the ice rink and represented Canada as a sprinter at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis.
He was one of more than thirty members of the Molson family who served in the military during World War 1. Enlisting with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry in April, 1915, he was 34 years old. Molson saw action in France from January, 1916. He was severely wounded during the Battle of Mount Sorrel in June, 1916 when a rifle bullet hit him the face. Molson wrote his mother describing the wound: “I was very, very fortunate in my wound. A rifle bullet passing in about the middle of one cheek and out the middle of the other, fracturing the lower jaw on both sides, and splintering the bone a bit on the exit side, cutting my tongue somewhat, but not touching my teeth at all”. Molson was placed in a special jaw ward at the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital for Officers in London. He returned to Canada on medical leave to convalesce, spending several weeks at the family’s summer cottage in Metis with his brother Herbert, who also returned home to recover from surgery after shrapnel was removed from his head.
Like many soldiers, Percival Molson refused to sit idly while his regiment was in battle. He convinced the Medical Board to declare him “Fit for General Service” in April, 1917. He returned to action in June. Within a month, he was dead, killed by a mortar on July 5, 1917 while inspecting a platoon. “Killed in Action” is the succinct mention in the Canadian military’s Casualty Form. Writing from the front to his grieving mother at home, Herbert Molson tried to console her, “nothing could have prevented Percy returning when he felt that he was strong enough and it is ever thus that the best are taken.”
Learn More about Percival Molson:
Percival Molson features in Karen Molson’s The Molsons: Their Lives and Times 1780-2000 (2001).
Press on the pictures below to show content:
Optical Crystal
“The silhouetted soldier stands as a symbol of resolve, courage and honour, in the tug of war of battle.”
– Mark Raynes Roberts
Olfactory memory
“At dawn, a scattering of the male odour of tobacco and alcohol and galvanizes the determined troops.”
– Alexandra Bachand
Percival Molson (1880-1917)
“Molson wrote his mother describing the wound:“I was very, very fortunate in my wound. A rifle bullet passing in about the middle of one cheek and out the middle of the other, fracturing the lower jaw on both sides, and splintering the bone a bit on the exit side, cutting my tongue somewhat, but not touching my teeth at all.”
– Alexander Reford
Cantlie’s Letter
Cantlie's letter
Botanical approach
Conservation issues for George Stephen Cantlie’s botanical specimens to be displayed in the WAR Flowers exhibit
Contractual expertise by Céline Arseneault, botanist and archivist (retired botanist and librarian at the Montréal Botanical Garden) May 2016
Conservation assessment
- The dried flowers specimens had been conserved pressed in the original letters/papers/envelopes for nearly 100 years, with one exception where a later envelope included a flower.
- Some flowers had pieces of fabrics or textiles attached to them.
- Some flowers had rubbed off or left their print on the papers.
- The flowers were dry, brittle and in some cases very fragile and broken in pieces (included in the paper/envelopes).
- Some envelopes included more than one specimen and more than one plant species.
- The flowers hold historical value but no biodiversity value like scientific herbarium pieces because they were not documented as such.
- Botanical identification has been made in accordance with the letters’ indications (dates, locations) and material available (mostly flowers only, visual colours, few leaves) for tentative scientific genus identification.
- The flowers have historical significance in the context of Cantlie’s archives, as a part of the correspondence addressed mainly to his daughter Celia (or exceptionally wife/other daughters). They are seen as item “objects” in the scope of the Rules for Archival Description by the Canadian Council of Archives:
http://www.cdncouncilarchives.ca /RAD/RAD_Chapter11_Dec2002.pdf - The primary purpose of the present assessment was to avoid altering the integrity of these objects.
- The accompanying papers, letters and envelopes bring major significant value (dates, paper headings, postal stamps, annotations, writings, etc.) to the objects. See link above.
Original plan for the exhibit: Inclusion of flowers into resin pastilles
The original exhibit proposal included stand‐alone encasing flowers into transparent polymer‐type resin (“pastilles”), each one to be temporarily encased in a crystal sculpture for display purposes.
Conservation issues regarding acrylic resin encasing
Transparent acrylic‐type or polymer‐type resin can be used successfully for fresh botanical specimens, however:
- Dried botanical specimens are organic and brittle.The brittleness accentuates with dryness, age and manipulation. Humidity and change of environment can cause rapid deterioration by moulds, dust mites or otherwise. Older pigments and botanical specimens themselves are also more fragile to heat and light. https://www.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveogram/01‐03.pdf — http://conservation.myspecies.info/node/35
- Encasing in acrylic‐type resin implies a heating process which creates static energy as well as thermal energy. Statics augments brittleness and specimens risk “exploding” into the resin.
- Because of their historical value, there were no available sample specimens that could be used as an experiment to validate the previous statement.
- At this point, where flowers have already been subjected to change of colours due to time, we can assume that polymer encasing would accelerate the discolouration.
- No studies are available regarding the long‐term conservation (discolouration, deterioration) of the acrylic resin itself.
- This type of encasing is not generally recommended for archival or historical conservation as it alters the specimens.
- This type of encasing is NOT recommended in the conservation literature for older, organic material, such as botanical specimens and papyrus (references available on request).
For these reasons and in regard to further deterioration of the specimens, encasing in acrylic resin was not recommended for the Cantlie’s flowers.
Conservation issues regarding stand‐alone two‐glass panes encasing
Even pressed, the dried flowers have thickness, some more than others, and may not be encased easily in two panes of glass (or acrylic) with a frame moulding, particularly because of their brittleness and for practical and esthetic concerns (e.g type of transparent glue applied on the glass, type of moulding, etc.).
Mounting
- As stated above, the dried flowers seen as objects have no significant historical value when separated from the archival fonds and their accompanying pieces.
- Archival conversation aims to preserve all parts of an item (or a historical record) together.
- Producing a series of botanical specimens in stand-alone frames would contradict archival conversation.
- Float mounting thus included a non-acid paper in an off-white texture and colour.
- Stable polymer archival glue was recommended by the Marie Victorin Herbarium of Université de Montréal to be used both on flowers, which we use also for the papers records.
- High-standard museum-recommended frame acrylic, in a non glare acrylic glazing matte finish, was used instaid of glass after studying the travel requirements of the exhibit and to minimize reflection for glare-free viewing.
- The pre-layouts were realized by Céline Arseneault and Viveka Melki in the Spring of 2016 and each layout was documented: botanical identification, measurements and text transcription of each record in a preliminary archival description of the Cantlie Fonds.
- 17 final layouts (including 19 pieces) werw then frames by the experienced framer at « Au Coin des Artistes » in Montreal under the supervision of Céline Arseneault for the purpose of conservation and to be included as the main raison d’être of the War Flowers exhibit.