Review: Mrs. Queen's Chump

by Jeremy Hespeler-Boultbee

Review by Elodie Adams
Victoria writer Jeremy Hespeler-Boultbee recently published his memoirs of the two years he spent fighting for the British Empire. In a "sometimes funny, sometimes frightening" compilation of stories - like a photo album of snapshots - "Mrs. Queen's Chump" paints a picture of Idi Amin, the Mau Mau, Communists, and "other silly follies of the British Empire."

The author was born in Vancouver to a mother who had a bit of a bug for travel, which is how he and his brother ended up being educated at an English boarding school. Following his graduation, and in spite of his Canadian origins, Hespeler-Boultbee enlisted in the British Army at the age of 18. From 1954-1956, he did his two-year military service, first as an infantry officer with a battalion of the King's African Rifles in Kenya, before heading to Malaya to lead a platoon in jungle warfare.

It is through his recollection of the events of these two years that readers will catch a glimpse of how the wars in the British colonies were fought. It is also a frank retelling of how the author came of age, both figuratively and literally, as he came to feel an intense dislike of the way the British Empire viewed and treated its subjugated peoples.

Although each chapter in the book can be read on its own, together they form the memories Hespeler-Boultbee has carried with him for nearly 60 years. His art of story-telling will keep the reader glued to the page, while adding historical embellishments that may surprise people. From the forests of Kenya fighting against the Mau Mau to the jungles of Malaya and communism, they are, as he says, all "incidents of another time, yet hauntingly contemporary."

In the chapter, "A very large corporal," he recalls his encounter with a young Idi Amin. It is an enlightening and insightful read into the personality of a man who went on to become one of the most hated and feared dictators of his time. Hespeler-Boultbee recalls how his own battalion of the King's African Rifles were teamed up with the Ugandan KAR battalion for a few weeks while the Ugandan's waited for their new camp to be ready. When the two men met and conversed, and Amin learned that Hespeler-Boultbee wasn't in fact English, but was a Canadian fighting for the English, his comment was, "You good man, sah! Very generous. Mrs. Queen get good mileage outta you..."

Throughout the book, the author reveals the moments he most hated and most loved during his time with the British Army, and of how he realized very early on that he really didn't belong in that world of colonial domination, as events later on in his life would testify.

Hespeler-Boultbee finished his two-year service, and returned to Canada to live. He became a journalist, working in newspapers in Nanaimo, Victoria, Vancouver, Regina, Toronto, before working as a foreign correspondent covering political events in the U.S., Portugal, and Angola, among others.
In 2011 he published a book, "A Story in Stones," based on his studies on Portugal's influence on culture and architecture in the highlands of Ethiopia (1493-1694).

Mrs. Queen's Chump is available from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Chapters.ca, and many other retailers, or go to .