Simcoe Day Holiday, What is That?

Its a holiday for us Ontarians today, and my show and tell is both about American history and Canadian history.

We celebrate one of our first British governors in Ontario, which was Upper Canada, and under British rule since 1760. The first Monday in August, also called the Civic Holiday in other provinces.

"In honour of John Graves Simcoe, Upper Canada's first lieutenant governor and the man who initiated the abolishment of slavery in Canada."

What does this have to do with America? We have to go back to the long War of Independence in 1776, Washington's efforts and organisation against the British troops, and the New York City area, including Long Island, and the focus to attain army movement information for Washington's strategies, and the network of Colonial spies that provided this at the cost of their lives.

After the siege of Boston, in July 1776, Simcoe was promoted captain in the 40th Regiment of Foot.(Formed in British Nova Scotia). He saw action with the grenadier company of the 40th Foot in the New of York and New Jersey campaign and the Philadelphia campaign. Simcoe commanded the 40th at the Battle of Brandywine on 11 September 1777, where he was wounded. He was offered the command of the Queen's Rangers formed on Staten Island on 15 October 1777.

The Queen's Rangers, also known as the Queen's American Rangers, and later Simcoe's Rangers, were a Loyalist military unit of the American Revolutionary War. They were named for Queen Charlotte, consort of George III. Formed as a light corps in the tradition of the ranging companies in British service during the Seven Years' War (French and Indian War), the Queen's Rangers operated on the flanks and in advance of Crown forces, manning outposts and patrolling, as well as carrying out reconnaissance and raiding operations.

On 31 August 1778, Lieut. Col. Simcoe led a massacre of forty Native Americans, allied with the Continental Army, in what is today the Bronx, NY. This place is known as Indian Field in Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx. NY.

As a British Army general in 1791, he was the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada until 1796 in southern Ontario and the watersheds of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior. He founded York (now Toronto) and was instrumental in introducing institutions such as courts of law, trial by jury, English common law, and freehold land tenure, and also in the abolition of slavery in Canada.

He is seen by many Canadians as a founding figure in Canadian history, especially by those in Southern Ontario. He is commemorated in Toronto with Simcoe Day.

There is much more to this man's life and circumstances, mostly military, but I feel this post gives you an idea, how the British used their regional military resources.

Images are representations of the 1776-1778 period, of Simcoe, the Queen's Rangers and Washington. Last image is a memorial stone for John Graves Simcoe in England, after 1806, in Exeter Cathedral.

A fictionalised version of John Graves Simcoe is a primary antagonist in the 2014–2017 AMC drama Turn: Washington's Spies, portrayed by Samuel Roukin. A series I watched, and the reason I discovered Simcoe's previous history and involvement in the War of Independence. His role was not a flattering one, he was portrayed as a sadistic and cruel brute, but a good leader, and a lucky one to survive his many captures as a prisoner.