Mss Eur F594/10/5

Content warning: The papers of Arthur Moore Bennett (1877-1950) contain his personal views and opinions, with explicit language and terminology which today are deemed unacceptable and offensive and may cause upset.

Typescript volume of memoirs, which was begun in 1922, and which covers the period 1866-1906. It comprises details on Moore Bennett's family, ancestry, his early life, upbringing and schooling. In 1897 he left England for Canada to work as a surveyor for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Includes description of life in rural Canada, particularly the daily routines of women, description of woodsman activities including collecting and processing maple sap. Refers to undertaking medical treatments including helping at births and treating venereal disease, and includes many comments relating to sexual activity within the families and communities he lives among. Includes details of surveying, as well as descriptions of the Canadian countryside and wildlife such as beavers and wolves, and includes details of a wolf attack. Describes in detail logging and work with timber, and animal trapping. Includes description of trips by canoe. Refers to transfer from rural Ontario to Toronto in 1901 and subsequent transfer to Port Arthur to repair the recently constructed railway line. Describes tracking and capturing a criminal as part of a marshal's posse. Describes railway accident and injuries. Move west to the Klondike and then to Vancouver. Appointment as engineer to the Pacific Division of the CPR and journey from Canada to Australia via Honolulu and Fiji. Description of Sydney. Appointment to Pacific Phosphate Company and voyage to Banaba or Ocean Island via Gilbert and Ellice islands and Solomon Islands. Includes details of island life and culture on Ocean Island. Includes details of survey work on the reef for moorings. Describes his work on Ocean Island until the end of his contract in May 1906.

The volume is divided into sections entitled 'Preface'; 'My Ancestors and Early days 1866-1884'; 'Schooldays & Companions 1884-1895'; Youth & First Experiences 1895-1897'; 'List of Movements 1897-1904' [includes Canada, United States of America, South Pacific, Australia, & Ocean Island]; 'Muskoka Ontario Life 1897-1898'; 'Start of my Medical Career 1898'; 'Customs and Survey Work 1898-1899'; 'Gravenhurst Survey on the Line 1899'; 'Rainy River Camp 1899-1900'; 'Burk's Falls 1900-1901'; 'Collingwood & Toronto 1901-1902'; 'Rainy Lake Construction 1902'; 'Rocky Mountains & Selkirks 1902-1903'; 'Vancouver 1902-1903'; 'Klondyke Trail Inside 1903'; 'Determination to Leave 1904'; 'Moralizings'; 'Australia & the South Seas: Voyage 1904'; 'Brisbane, Sydney & the Ports 1904'; Solomons, Pleasant, Ocean Islands 1904-1906'; 'Island Customs People etc. 1904-1906'.

Images include: postcards of Camber Castle and Ypres Castle, Rye; black & white photograph of Uncle William Coldery with cousins Victoria, Nancie, Jane and William; black and white photograph of grandmother Jane Lovelace Couldery, Aunt Harriett Pettit, cousin Clara Pettit, and cousin George's son Cecil Pettit; black & white portrait of Clara Pettit, 1916; coloured pen & ink sketch map of Ontario, showing Muskoka, Burks Falls, Gravenhurst etc.; coloured pen & ink drawing of birch canoes; coloured pen & ink drawing of a 'fall' or autumn camp beside a river; coloured pen & ink drawing of logging gear; black & white photograph of Burk's Falls; black & white photograph of Ethel Sharpe aged 17, taken in 1900; black & white photograph of the railway at Hosmer, site of a train crash; black & white photograph of men in camp at Hosmer; black & white postcard showing the ship Empress of China sailing on the narrows at Vancouver, 1903; black & white photograph of Moore Bennett with May and Florence Dowse in Stanley Park, Vancouver, May 1903; black & white photograph of the Dowse's framed timber house in Vancouver; black & white postcard of the Canadian Pacific Railway Imperial express train leaving Vancouver, 1903; black & white photograph of bathing at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Easter Monday 1904; black & white photograph of beach at Cougee with shark proof bathing pool, 1904; coloured pen & ink rough map of Moore Bennett's journeys in the pacific islands; black & white photograph of man and wife 'Tapewa. Ratonga [Raratonga] Islanders'; black & white photograph of fringing reef, with pier in distance [Ocean Island]; black & white photograph of a Banaba or Ocean Island girl on 'the day she officially attained womanhood'; black & white photograph of the Queen of Ocean Island with some of her children; coloured pen & ink drawing of the 'God the Opener of the Door' used in annual 'opening' or coming of age ceremony at Ooma; black & white photograph of Ocean Island man and wife in ceremonial attire; black & white photograph of main line railway junction at Ooma; coloured pen & ink drawing of Ocean Island fish; coloured pen & ink drawing of fishing implements including octopus catching poles, fishhooks, and outrigger boat; black & white photograph of Moore Bennett surveying at Tapewa, 1906; black & white photograph of group of railway workers including people from Raratonga, Gilbert & Ellice Islands and Solomon Islands; pen & ink drawing of a grass roofed kanaka hut, also section of the fringing reef showing phosphate of lime and pinnacles of coral.