This fonds consists of an album of 132 folio pages containing 1135 individual items pertaining to the life and career of John A. V. Kirkland, British military officer and colonial official in Britain, Canada, India, Mauritius, South Africa, and St. Helena.. Included are military and personal photographs; watercolours, drawings, and prints of various postings in Mauritius, the Crimea, St. Helena, England, Scotland, India, Cape of Good Hope, Kaffraria, Canada; miscellaneous heraldic devices, stamps, letterheads, maps, and newspaper clippings.
The Canadian material includes six prints of "The Wreck of the Premier", 1843; nine prints from "The Quebec Volunteers", 1839; twelve prints from "Nelson's Canadian Views", ca. 1865; and two rare prints, "The Obelisk in memory of Sir Benjamin D'Urban", and "The Grave of Sir Mackenzie Fraser", both 1849; sixteen albumen photographs by J. B. Livernois of Quebec city villas, 1865; and sixteen watercolours of Quebec city and vicinity executed by various artists ca. 1838-1839, including three by Kirkland himself. The bulk of the photographs in the album may have been done by Kirkland himself, although there is no proof that he was an amateur photographer.
Kirkland entered the British Army in 1838, served in canada until 1854, then served in the Crimea where he was wounded, returned to Great Britain, and then raised a battalion of troops to assist in the suppression of the Indian Mutiny. He subsequently served in Mauritius, Sout Africa, and elsewhere, before going on half-pay and retiring to Scotland. Kirkland married twice, first to a Canadian woman, Susan Paterson, the daughter of a prominent Quebec lumber merchant, in 1840; and second to Isabella Hay-Mackenzie, in Scotland, in 1873, following the death of his first wife.
