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Edgar Christian

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Edgar Christian was born on 6 June 1908, the son of Lt Col Frank Christian RA.

He attended prep school at the Grange School, Shorncliffe Road, Folkestone and hoped to follow his brother Charles to Marlborough College; in the end he went on to Dover College which was more local, despite the fact the family moved in 1919 to Bron Dirion in North Wales.

After Dover College, Edgar went to Canada with his second cousin John Hornby ("Hornby of the North") and with him and a companion, Harold Adlard, died of starvation near the Thelon River barren lands. He was the last of the party to die, sometime after the first of June 1927. A diary kept by him detailing this misadventure, which was found placed in the stove of the cabin, was published with portions omitted in the 1930s under the title "Unflinching". The diary is kept at his old school, Dover College, but the story has been told several other times in books and plays. A fuller edition of the diary including letters to his father and mother was published as Death in the Barren Ground.

Books and plays about Edgar and his fatal adventure include:

  • Edgar Christian. Death in the Barren Ground. Edited by George Whalley. Ottawa: Oberon Press, 1980.
  • Edgar Christian. Unflinching: A Diary of Tragic Adventure. With an introduction and conclusion by B. Dew Roberts and a preface by Major Hon. J.J. Astor, MP. London: John Murray, 1937.
  • Jeffery, Lawrence. Who Look in Stove [and] The Edgar Christian Diary. (play) Toronto: Exile Editions, 1993.
  • Powell-Williams, Clive. Cold Burial: A Journey into the Wilderness. London: Viking, 2001.
  • Valpy, Bruce. Hornby. (play) Canadian Theatre Review, 73 (Winter 1992), 60-76.
  • George Whalley. "Death in the Barren Ground: The Story of John Hornby's Last Journey". CBC Trans Canada Wednesday Night. 3 March 1954. Radio.

The Bruce Valpy play Hornby was performed in the 2007 Canterbury Festival by pupils from Dover College.

References

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