The 2nd Battalion, Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment

(Royal Canadians)

Malta& Gozo

Malta 1894 - 1895

The stay in Aldershot eventually came to an end and on the 9th of November 1894, and the Battalion embarked for Southampton, en-route for Malta. The strength of the Battalion on proceeding overseas was;

• 20 officers,
• 541 non-commissioned officers and men,
• 34 women and 59 children.

Amongst the 34 women were John's wife Mary and among 59 children was John's son John junior, who was born in the on the 21st October 1893.

The vessel chartered to convey the 2nd Battalion was the P&O liner the "Victoria", and the voyage commenced in a day of bright sunshine and a smooth sea. However by the morning of the 12 November matters had changed and the ship was steaming head on into a viscous storm. In the middle of this huge storm the steering gear was carried away and the ship went out of control and began rolling amongst the waves, sometimes as much as 45 degrees. Many of the people on board felt that the time of the 2nd Leinster Regiment had come to an end for it seemed impossible that any vessel could survive such above thing for so long.

A witness report from a soldier on board recalls that " ... the Victoria had just risen wearily from her beam ends, when right ahead was seen a mountain of water, a Very Everest of waves, which flung itself upon the ship and one-third of the Victoria simply disappeared; what happened precisely no one could tell, but gradually, like a submarine breaking surface, the bows reappeared and we knew that this time we had escaped". (I can but wonder how fortunate my grandparents were at this point ... it being some years before my own father was born!).

Every effort was made to repair the steering year and together the ship's crew and members of the Regiment brought the vessel once more under control. When the steam steering gear had parted, the emergency hand gear had been immediately put in place, but this too was carried away almost at once. The great quadrant of steel at the rudder head was banging backwards and forwards in a way that threatened to tear out the stern of the ship. A fatigue party of 100 men working under the ship's officers set out to secure the quadrant with stout ropes. The work was extremely difficult and hazardous but at length the quadrant was secured; however only for a moment, because the hemp cable snapped like a thread and task had to be tackled once more. Finally a wire cable, "a veritable king amongst ropes", was brought to the fray and at long last the rudder was secured. By this time the gale was showing signs of subsiding so with the improvement in the weather and the securing of the rudder, the worst for the ship was now over. Of the four horses on board, three were killed by the violence of the gale.

Gibraltar was passed during the night and four days later right ahead were the battlements of Valetta, and later in the day the Battalion was conveyed in local steamers to Gozo.

Gozo is a small island off Malta and was usually used as a station for a detachment or company. Unfortunately for the Leinsters, the whole Battalion was stationed there. The official reason given was that the new barracks in the centre of Malta were not completed, and that it was necessary, as a temporary measure, to station the whole Battalion of the 2nd Leinster Regiment in Gozo. (What is believed to have occurred is that the staff in Malta were frightened with the prospect of "wild Irish" in Valetta and decided to send the Battalion to Gozo).

At the time of the arrival of the 2nd Battalion Leinster Regiment Gozo, (an island nine miles long and four and a half wide), had terraced cultivation, without a single tree and with only minimal grass. All the inhabitants eked out an existence that kept them very much labeled as "peasants", and the only inhabitant that understood English was the priest, Father Magri. To reach Valetta, on Malta, involved a voyage of some 20 miles by boat across difficult waters. Twice a day two steamboats sailed each way, the smaller being merely a large launch and the larger a kind of coal steam yacht. Often the journey was rough and only the most hardy and sailors would contemplate the journey in unsettled weather. (During a trip that the webmaster made in the mid 1980s to Malta, it was possible to travel to Gozo from Malta across the small channel that separated the two islands.)

There appears to be little to discover about the stay of the Battalion on Gozo, except that Mary Dickson, wife of John, gave birth to Mary Elizabeth a daughter on the 16th July 1895. Then in early 1895 information began to "trickle in", that during the winter season the Battalion would proceed to Bermuda. So it was that on the 15th of November 1895 the Battalion embarked for Valetta. Once there they immediately boarded the Cunard ship Pavonia, finding a new commanding officer awaiting them, Lieutenant-Colonel Glancy, who had arrived from the 1st Battalion.

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Mary Elizabeth Dickson

Mary Dickson

John Dickson

Lt. Col. Glancy

Father Margi