Edgar Christian

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 died of starvation near the Thelon River. He wrote a diary detailing this adventure which was published 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.

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.

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

References

• Dover College Register
• http://www.cowboysong.com/christian/dontblame.html