Henry Milnes British

Captain Henry Milnes came to Canada on December 6, 1812, to serve as aide-de-camp to Sir George Prevost, the Governor General of Canada, who was his distant relative. Sir George's eighteen year old daughter Anne wrote: "Poor Captain Milnes was very prepossessing. He was unbecomingly tall and had an awkward stoop, but his countenance was very intelligent and pleasing...when Captain M. was in good humour, he was the most agreeable person I ever met with. He was fond of his mother and spoke of her with such affection...I could not see so much of his character and receive so much pleasing attention from him, without feeling my heart in some danger. Had he tried to gain my affection he probably would have succeeded: and what a bitter pang his death would have occasioned. Thank God! at least I escaped that sorrow." But all was not rosy in Anne and Henry's life. Anne Prevost wrote; "Such was Captain Milnes before he was bewitched by Mrs. Cockburn: she was at least 10 years his senior, for he was not one-and-twenty, though he looked a few years older. The power she so evidently acquired over him, completely put an end to any fancy that might have been growing in my heart." Tongues, naturally enough, began to wag, and so an older relative of the Captain's came out to try and avert scandal. It was decided that Captain Milnes would be posted in the field. Whether he and Anne Prevost would have eventually married is a moot point; he was killed in a skirmish a few days after leaving for his new posting. Anne Prevost's July 26, 1813, diary reads: "It seems that on the 19th, one Gun Boat and 16 Bateaux laden with provisions, were captured 30 miles this side of Kingston by two of the Enemy's Gun Boats, owing to the negligence of our men. In consequence of this disaster 6 of our Gun Boats were sent the next day to intercept them - but we failed in the attempt and poor Captain Milnes fell, shot through the head." A month later: "Captain Milnes died on the 25th August, 1813. For two days before he expired he appeared to recognize every one around him. He asked for lemonade, but the only sentences he spoke were parts of the Lord's Prayer - 'Thy will be done - Thy will be done - on earth as it is in Heaven!'"