Humour.
Heroes Remember
Humour.
Transcript
Picture of six soldiers standing or on a fence.
Interviewer: What's the most memorable thing, what the funniest thing that you've seen, in the, lets say in the Boer War, there must have been I know myself from being in the service, that there's always hilarious things that happen, sometimes. I could tell you a very funny thing that happened after the war. You know when I went back to Brisbane, we were all disbanded. No Captain Day, no surgeon there. We wanted to get out of the army, we wanted to get rid of the army altogether. We were, we were through with it. Interviewer: That's quite a change from the, the a Frank Weaver of, three or four years ago.Soldier holding his rifle on horseback.
Yeah well, we wanted to get out of it. Well Dr. Dave come around the boys and he'd say, "Alright, but next week." He kept us there for two months, and he says, "I want to see you in good shape before they let you go." So I let you go and somewhere or another old Mr. Beasly, he was superintendent of the immigration building there at Kangaroo Point. And the immigration building was taken over to make room for these troops who come back from Africa, to house them. Well, somewhere or other, I got mingled up with Esa Beasley, that's the daughter, the only daughter they had and round the camp there's a fence, a littleSoldier posing with rifle slung.
higher than that. But it had spikes all the way up, spikes all along it. Interviewer: I can see it all coming now, go on. So, so that was alright. So every once in awhile I'd meet Esa and we'd take a walk upside of the River, up to old Mr. Moore. He run the ferry across to Brisbane, at the time from Kangaroo Point to the foot of Queen Street in Brisman. There was a lot of steps to go up to Queen Street. And we used to walk up there and go up to Moore's and talk to him and once in awhile we'd go on the boat and row across some passengers, and bring some passengers back for old Mr. Moore. We'd spend perhaps a couple of hours in his boat and then we'd walk back to her homePicture of a man standing and a woman sitting, holding flowers.
which was only about as from here to the brewery, from Old Mr. Moores's place. And after she went into the house and, once in awhile I'd get up on the fence and look over into the lawn. They had a big lawn and a big, big banana tree there and another, another tree with these here big fruit on, like a, like a pomegranate. They're flat but they've got big stone in the them, what do you call them? (Apricots) Huh? (Apricots) No, no. Any, any, anyway, anyway it was a good tree. There was oldThree Veterans standing in front of war memorial.
Mr. Beasley with his hammock strung from one tree to another, lay there, snoozing away. Mrs. Beasley was sitting alongside him in a lounge chair there, and Esa was sat there and she seen me there on the fence. And her mother says come on over and have a cup of tea. Well by gosh, ya know, I thought, well, I don't know if I better go or not, I better try and get down here from this fence and or go around the front, and go in through the gate. So, I thought to meself, that's quite a little walk around there. And I put me foot between two spikes and ya know, on the top of the fence, not, it was down just a, no distance, it wasn'tBoer War Veteran talking with current service men.
it wasn't eight feet anyway. I thought I could jump down onto the lawn. Well sir, I made a jump and my pants were loose ya know, and they caught the ass of me pants. Ya know, and string me up there. I couldn't get down or I couldn't get back. And, so Esa Beasley seen the predicament I was in so she called her father. (Did she laugh?) They just roared. So the old fella come down and so Esa went in and got the stepladder and... Interviewer: Must have been embarrassing for you. Here's your girlfriend laughing at you. (What?) It must have been embarrassing for you, your girlfriend laughing at you.Boer War Veteran sitting on a chair, holding a document.
You have no idea, what I felt like. I felt like nine cents. So, the old fella, he come along, he was a great old fella. He's a big Mawrie. He was quite a Mawrie, he's a Mawrie. Belonged to the New Zealand's, that's where his home was. And ya know, he stood outside there and me hung on the fence. "Alright young fella", he says, "I got you just where I want ya". "Well", I says, "By gosh", I said, "I can't get out of this", I said. "What are you going to do?" So Esa come along with a stepladder and he took a hold of my two legs and put his hand on the back here and he lifted me up like a peanut. You'd thinkPicture of six soldiers standing or on a fence.
I was a peanut. Great big, he was a great big Mawrie. But look the timing I got from the boys when I got back. (I bet.) That never left me from the time we were disbanded. (Did Esa fix your trousers?) What? (Did Esa fix your trousers?) No, I, gosh, I had to fix them meself. I had to fix them meself. No, but when we went away, went away, we all disbanded and, we all said good-bye. That was the end of a perfect day.Description
Mr. Weaver recalls getting caught by his pants on a fence and having to be helped down by his girlfriend's father when he was back in Brisbane.
Frank Weaver
Frank Weaver was born in England, April 7th, 1881 and moved to Canada following his service in the South African War. At the time of this interview Mr. Weaver was 97-years-old. This interview was recorded in Saint John, New Brunswick on August 13, 1971 as part of the Living History Project completed by students and faculty of Military and Strategic Studies, Department of History, University of New Brunswick. This interview is used with permission of the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. Mr. Weaver's interview was taped outdoors. VAC apologizes for the sometimes poor audio quality of these clips.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 06:13
- Person Interviewed:
- Frank Weaver
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- South African War
- Branch:
- Army
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