Damned Adventure

The Failure of the “Colonials’” Invasion of the Province of Canada 1775-1776 - A Novel

An almost forgotten piece of North American history is the first major military campaign that started the American Revolution. Over thirteen thousand troops were committed to capture the Province of Canada. Only one thousand British regulars were stationed to defend what was the largest of any of the territories in British North America. More than fifty percent of these were lost with the capitulation of Fort St. Jean. The “habitant” population was very receptive and supportive of the invaders. The only reasonable fortification was the walled Fort of Quebec. If the campaign had been successful, Canada would never have survived as a nation. Yet, it failed. This book tries to explain why.   

Dr. William F. Shaw was born, raised and educated in Montreal, including McGill University from 1949 to 1958, graduating with a DDS. He then served five years in the Royal Canadian Dental Corps in Canada and Europe. He entered private practice in Hudson, Quebec in 1963 where he became active in golf, sailing and coaching football at College Bourget in Rigaud.  

He became active in politics and in 1976 was elected to the Quebec National Assembly as the member for Pointe Claire. He was an active advocate for English language rights and with Lionel Albert wrote the book Partition: the Price of Quebec’s Independence, published by Thornhill Publishing in 1980. Since then five other authors have written on the same subject with essentially the same thesis. This thesis is now confirmed in the Clarity Act.
Dr. Shaw is now retired and living in Port Perry, Ontario, Canada.