# British museum to honour war-era, cougar-fighting Canadian kids



## 57Chevy (8 Nov 2010)

It was the height of the First World World, and two young Canadians — unarmed and facing a ferocious enemy assault, beyond any hope of rescue — fought for their lives with such courage that they would soon gain international fame and give a significant boost to the morale of their warring nation.

Nearly a century after their epic struggle for survival, the young Canadians' deeds will be showcased in a major new exhibit on heroism at the Imperial War Museum in London, opening this week as part of a Remembrance Day tribute to Commonwealth recipients of the Victoria Cross and other bravery awards.

But the two Canadians — aged 11 and 8 at their moment of glory in September 1916, just days after hundreds of Canadian soldiers perished in the Battle of the Somme — never set foot on a European battlefield. Their foe was a ravenous, razor-toothed, 2.5-metre-long cougar; the scene of their life-and-death encounter a horse-riding trail on Vancouver Island near Cowichan Lake, B.C.

Remarkably, Doreen Ashburnham and her younger friend, Anthony Farrer, successfully fought off the 85-kilogram wildcat after a prolonged and terrifying struggle that left both children with serious injuries, but also — when word of their gallantry hit the news wires — the admiration of the world.

And their story will be told again in an exhibition called Extraordinary Heroes, to be unveiled Thursday by Princess Anne in the London museum's new Lord Ashcroft Gallery.

The gallery will spotlight more than 200 Victoria Crosses — given for life-risking valour in war — and George Crosses, the top civilian award for bravery in Britain, and formerly in Canada and other Commonwealth nations. The exhibition includes the vast private collection of Michael Ashcroft, the international businessman, British peer and Conservative party executive who donated some $8 million and loaned the 162 VCs he owns to create the history attraction.

The museum's own significant collection of Victoria and George Crosses puts the total number of awards on display at almost 250, each enhanced by pictures, stories and other artifacts recalling the heroic acts for which they were given.

Among the most gripping narratives is the story of the two children who saved each other from a Canadian cougar.

First, after Doreen was pinned face-down by the cat and severely bitten on the back and buttocks, Anthony beat the animal with his riding crop until it released the girl. There was a chase and the mountain lion pounced again. With Anthony seized in the cat's claws and his scalp nearly torn off, the injured Doreen pounded the cougar with her fists, gouged its eyes and thrust her arm into its mouth to halt the attack on her companion.

Finally, 20 minutes after it first appeared and unable to subdue either of its would-be victims, the beast gave up and ran off into the woods. It was later tracked, shot and stuffed for display at a local museum.

The dazed and bloodied youngsters limped home to be tended by family members and a local doctor. Anthony, according to some reports, required 175 stitches, and the British-born Doreen suffered deep wounds and blood poisoning.

The story of the children who survived a cougar attack in the B.C. wilderness rocketed around the world.

A letter from former U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt — an avid hunter and parkland conservation advocate — was among hundreds of congratulatory messages received by the children. The following year, it was announced that King George V had approved the awarding of the Albert Medal for bravery to the two Canadian children, the award's youngest-ever recipients.

"He chewed on my shoulder and bit chunks off my butt," Doreen, who later moved to the U.S. and died in California in 1996, recalled in an interview decades after the attack.

She also described how Anthony and the wildcat "fought for 200 yards down the trail. The cougar scratched the skin off Tony's back and ripped the flesh off his scalp."

When the Albert Medal was phased out of the British honours system, Doreen was permitted to exchange her award for the George Cross.

"During her eventful life, she competed in international horse shows, flew aircraft across the Atlantic during the Second World War and drove sports cars into her eighties," museum spokeswoman Ellie Farrell told Postmedia News on Monday.

In 2000, Ashburnham's George Cross was auctioned in Britain and acquired by the Imperial War Museum for about $20,000 Cdn.

About a decade after the cougar attack, Anthony Farrer enlisted with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. Though hoping, perhaps, to test his evident mettle as a soldier, Farrer was killed in a training accident in Manitoba in July 1930.

His Albert Medal is held by the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

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Albert Medal

George Cross

1:
A Christie's auction image (from 2000) of Ashburnham's medals and the stuffed cougar after it was shot by hunters following the attack. They will be showcased in a major new exhibit on heroism at the Imperial War Museum in London, to be unveiled this week as part of a Remembrance Day tribute to Commonwealth recipients of the Victoria Cross and other awards of bravery.
Photograph by: Christie's, Photo Handout

2:
Anthony Farrer, 8, and Doreen Ashburnham, 11, after their cougar encounter in September 1916 will be showcased in a major new exhibit on heroism at the Imperial War Museum in London, to be unveiled this week as part of a Remembrance Day tribute to Commonwealth recipients of the Victoria Cross and other awards of bravery.
Photograph by: Imperial War Museum, Photo Handout

3:
Vancouver Island resident Doreen Ashburnham, courtesy the Imperial War Museum, showing her sporting the Albert Medal for bravery, awarded to her by King George V and presented by then-Governor Geneneral the Duke of Devonshire. In September 1916, 11-year-old Doreen and her friend Anthony Farrer, 8, were attacked by a cougar and saved each other's life in the ensuing struggle. Both children were awarded the Albert Medal, then the Commonwealth's highest civilian award for bravery, becoming the youngest boy and girl to be so honoured.
Photograph by: Imperial War Museum, Photo Handout

                   (Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act)


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## jollyjacktar (9 Nov 2010)

Thanks for sharing that story.   Awe insipring to say the least.


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