Henry Albert Harper Memorial - Ottawa, ON - Citizen Memorials on Waymarking.com

Henry Albert Harper was attending a skating party held on the frozen Ottawa River by the Governor General. Andrew George Blair's daughter Bessie, and Alex Creelman, fell through a patch of weak ice - though Creelman pulled himself to safety, Harper dove into the river to save Blair, and both ultimately drowned. His last words were reportedly "What else can I do?" when his companions tried to dissuade his rescue attempt. Another telling says that he quoted Galahad's famous "If I lose myself, I save myself" before jumping into the water. The bodies were recovered the following day and Harper was buried on December 9 1901.

Henry Albert Harper was a friend of future Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. He attended the University of Toronto where he befriended Mackenzie King, who was a fellow student. After completing his Honours degree in Political Science in 1895, Harper became a journalist in London and Toronto, before eventually becoming the Ottawa correspondent for the Montreal Daily Herald.

The plaque on Sir GALAHAD (not H.A. Harper) statue reads:"Erected by the public to commemorate the heroism of Henry Albert Harper MA who in an effort to save the life of Miss Bessie Blair was drowned with her in the Ottawa River on the sixth of December, 1901 in his twenty-eighth year".

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Website with more information on either the memorial or the person(s) it is dedicated to: [Web Link] Location: In front of the Parliament Hill in Ottawa

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