Wilfred
Campbell was unable to establish himself in England
as he had hoped to do, and was forced to come
back to Canada as his leave had expired. It was
difficult to get a passage as there were so many
people returning from the Coronation and the Colonial
Conference. He managed to get one passage for
himself, but Margery, our cousin Katharine Bruce,
and I had to wait for a time before we could return
to Canada. Katharine and I stayed in London, and
Margery stayed with Miss Grey at Moreton Pinkney
Manor. During the summer of 1911 there was a political
crisis in England and the Poet who was a conservative,
and was living in an ultra conservative atmosphere
among his friends there, imagined that England
was in danger in the hands of the Liberal Government.
He had hoped that he might be a source of warning
and help to the people by imbuing them with Conservative
ideas, and his love for the British Empire. If
he had concentrated all his energy on one definite
idea, he might have succeeded, but he was full
of dreams of going back to church and preaching,
or running for Parliament, or any means by which
he could get the ear of the people. If he had
been able to be transferred to London to the High
Commissioners Office by the Canadian Government,
he might have given lectures, but it was not to
be.
During
the next two or three years Wilfred Campbell kept
up a lively correspondence with his friends in
England, but gradually realized he must live in
Canada, and as he now had four grandchildren living
with him he decided to but a place in the country
and settle there. His dreams of Empire building
were not dropped but were being nursed for a more
favourable opportunity. There had been, and there
were rumours and prophecies of war by the old
soldiers and statesman. Roberts was to be proved
a true prophet for the great war was then looming
over the horizon. The old Conservative party had
felt it coming, bur there were those who laughed
at them, and this was the haunting strain that
permeated my father’s love of Britain. He with
his quick sensitive perception had foreseen it
all. This is expressed in "Peace Chorus"
written some time before war was declared and
in "Roberts." |
