1 souvenir copy of "The Emigrant Soldiers' Gazette and Cape Horn Chronicle" printed by the Kings Printer and ex Royal Engineer, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Wolfenden in 1907. The gazette is bound in a burgundy leather with marbled endpapers. The front cover has the Royal Engineers crest in embossed gold at the top centre. There is gold embossed text below it that reads, "The Emigrant Soldiers' Gazette / and / Cape Horn Chronicle" with a gold embossed depiction of the Thames City ship. The bottom of the front cover reads, "T. Argyle" and to its right it reads, "Souvenir."
The content consisted of updates, anecdotes, and observations from the voyage. It includes sections on correspondence with other vessels, rationed foods and beverages, advertisements for the ‘Theatre Royal’, birth and death notices, natural observations, riddles, jokes, songs, and poetry.
This edition was created for and read from during a meeting of the Veterans' Association of Vancouver Island on November 23, 1907. The presentation was titled, "The Royal Engineers and Their Work in British Columbia." The gazette was originally written during the voyage of Columbia Detachment Royal Engineers on their voyage on the Thames City from Chatham, England to Esquimalt. They departed in October 1858 and arrived in Esquimalt on April 12, 1859. It was written and edited by Second-Corporal Charles Sinnett with the help of Lieutenant Henry Spencer Palmer. The gazette was read aloud to the other passengers every Saturday night by Captain Charles Luard. Aldergrove pioneer, Philip Jackman, was on this ship as he was a Sawyer with the detachment.
Thomas Argyle was born in Birmingham, England. It is believed that he spent most of his time as a Royal Engineer in B.C. at the main camp in New Westminster in the position of Detachment Armourer. Argyle settled on Vancouver Island as Keeper of the Race Rocks Lighthouse from 1867 to 1888.