In 1864 he was gazetted full Colonel: at the time he had barely completed his twenty-seventh year. Impatient of inactivity, he caused himself to be transferred to a command in India, where he speedily attracted the notice of General Napier, afterwards Lord Napier of Magdala; and he accompanied that officer in the expedition against King Theodore of Abyssinia. While halting at Senafé in that country, he was accidently killed by the sudden explosion of his rifle while out shooting deer. The sequel can best be given, as well as an impression of the feelings of his immediate associates on the deplorable occasion, by quoting the touching words of a letter addressed at the time to a near relative of Colonel Dunn, by a brother officer:
"In no regiment," says this friend, "was ever a commanding officer so missed as the one we have just so unhappily lost: such a courteous, thorough gentleman in word and deed, so thoughtful for others, so perfect a soldier, so confidence-inspiring a leader. Every soldier in the regiment misses Colonel Dunn; he was a friend, and felt to be such, to every one of them. The regiment will never have so universally esteemed a commander again. We all feel that. For myself I feel that I have lost a brother who can never be replaced. I can scarcely yet realize that the dear fellow is really dead, and as I pass his tent every morning I involuntarily turn my head, expecting to hear his usual kind salutation, and to see the dear, handsome face that has never looked at me but with kindness. I breakfasted with him on the morning of the 25th, and he looked so well as he started off with our surgeon for a day's shooting. Little did I think that I had looked on his dear old face for the last time in life. . . . I cannot describe to you what a shock the sad news was to every one, both in my regiment and indeed in every one in the camp. Our dear Colonel was so well known, and so universally liked and respected.
"Next day, Sunday, the 26th of January, he was buried about 4 o'clock p.m.. I went to look at the dear old fellow, before his coffin was closed, and his poor face, though looking so cold, was yet so handsome, and the expression of it, so peaceful and happy. I cut off some of his hair, which lately he wore very short, a lock of which I now send you, keeping one for myself, as the most valuable souvenir I could have of one I loved very dearly. And I knelt down to give his cold forehead a long farewell kiss. He was buried in uniform, as he had often expressed a wish to me to that effect. Every officer in the camp attended his funeral, and, of course, the whole of his own regiment, in which there was not a single dry eye, as all stood round the grave of their lost commander. He has been buried in a piece of ground near where our camp now stands, at the foot of a small hill covered with shrubbery and many wild flowers. We have had railings put round the grave, and a stone is to be placed there with the inscription: In memory of A. R. Dunn, V.C., Col. 33rd Regiment, who died at Senafé on 25th January, 1868, aged 34 years and 7 months."
Thus in remote Abyssinia rest the mortal remains of one who in the happy unconsciousness of childhood, sported here in grounds and groves which we are now passing on Queen Street. In numerous other regions of the earth, once seemingly as unlikely to be their respective final resting-places, repose the remains of Canadian youth, who have died in the public service of England. We are sharing in the fortune and history of the mother country, and like her, or rather like the ubiquitous Roman citizen of old, we may even already ask "Quæ caret ora cruore nostro?"—sadly as individuals, perhaps, but proudly as a people.
The occupant of Mr. Dunn's house at a later period was Chief Justice McLean, who died here in 1865. He was born at St. Andrews, near Cornwall, in 1791. At the battle of Queenston, he served as Lieutenant in Capt. Cameron's No. 1 Flank Company of York Militia, and received a severe wound in the early part of the engagement. He was afterwards for some time Speaker of the House. An admirable full-length painting of Chief Justice McLean exists at Osgoode Hall.
