From the previous article in the British Colonist, and
in conversations with Mr. Phil Herring -- the grand son of Arthur
Herring -- we have deduced that (Thank you, T. Watkins and C. Barrett):
| • |
The
madwoman was in fact Elizabeth Crart. Her first husband,
Sapper George Herring, died while stationed on Corfu, leaving
Elizabeth with at least one son, Arthur. Elizabeth remarried
Sapper Philip Crart and came to BC with him, having two more
children after Arthur. |
| • |
The little
boy who survived the attack was Arthur Herring. |
| • |
Arthur
disliked his stepfather Crart, and was taken in by another RE
family. He eventually went to school in San Francisco and
became a druggist in New Westminster. |
| • |
Arthur
married Frances Herring. Arthur was a great story-teller, and his
wife turned his stories into two books. The first is chockful of
Royal Engineers gossip which we can now attribute to a definite
source. |
| • |
Arthur took
pains to conceal this story about the murder his past, never
mentioning his parents by name and omitting any reference to his
parents or the Royal Engineers in his biographical sketch. |
Mr.
Phil Herring speculates that the attack was caused by post-partum
depression, as Elizabeth had a very young infant. He also
remembers that his grandfather Arthur had a vivid scar across the back
of his neck, about which he never spoke. Arthur would have been
11, not 8, in November 1859.
The fate of the baby remains unknown. There is also
reference to an older sister, Emily Herring, said to be teaching school
in the RE Camp in 1860. We cannot yet account for her presence at
all except by speculating Arthur had an older sister not mentioned in
the newpaper article.
And the plot thickens . . .
|
