Following the Trail of a Knight by Ronan Beckman
Today on Writing with Labradors I’m delighted to host author Ronan Beckman who is here to talk about his short story, recently published in the latest Historical Writers Forum anthology. To Wear a Heart So White features seven stories about Crime and Punishment. Ronan’s contribution is called Carte de Viste and he is about to tell you the story behind it.
“I’m sure you didn’t know we had a knight in our family!”
That was absolutely true. But another fact was that this family was all new to me. I was adopted as a child, so everything about my past was new to me. Only through a lot of challenging detective work was I able to become reconnected to my birth family at the age of 36. And having tracked down a 2nd Cousin through a genealogy website, I now had this fascinating piece of history to explore. Out of all the newfound ancestors I had, this one intrigued me the most.
My 3x Great Grandfather, Sven Stenander, was the knight in question. My cousin sent me a poem in Swedish, along with a translation in English, which outlined his life. She assured me that there were newspaper articles about his life (which my later research confirmed to be the case), so there was a very nice stack of material for me to follow up on. Most intriguing for me was a copy of an actual photograph of this man in his late eighties. Staring at it, I saw the reflection of a man born in the 18th Century. A warrior who participated in battles of the Napoleonic War and fighting the Norwegians in their unsuccessful quest for independence. And on his chest, I could see a distinctive medal, the St. George’s Cross. This was the source of his knighthood. But I wanted to know more.
The poem was relatively vague in details. A stanza roughly translated to this: In the war, he served with distinction in many ways and was awarded medals for valour. The recognition was great, but not anything like the St. George Cross he received from the Emperor that made him a Knight of the St. George’s Order. Who was the emperor? After some time, I was able to find news articles that provided a little more information. They reported that he was awarded the St. George’s Order, 5th Class, from Tsar Alexander of Russia (an ally of Sweden at the time). This raised a few more questions than it answered. Why was a Russian Tsar bestowing a medal on a Swedish soldier? And researching the Russian Order of St. George was a bit challenging for me, as I am very much not a military history expert. I seemed to be able to only find references to the 1st class through to the 4th, no mention of a 5th class.
After 20 years, I have finally been able to solve the mystery (only just today!). I discovered through an American forum on military medals that Tsar Alexander had bestowed numerous St George’s Cross medals to British troops in gratitude for their participation in the Battle of Waterloo. These included 5th Class medals for subalterns (those ranked below a Captain) and soldiers. The higher-class medals tended to be reserved for those with an officer ranking.
Further digging into medal collector forums resulted in the discovery of a similar scenario where the Russian Tsar demonstrated his appreciation for Swedish soldiers battling Napoleon. Apparently, Sweden and Russia did a trade of medals to be awarded to their soldiers. 200 Swedish bravery medals were exchanged for 200 Russian St George’s Cross medals, which were for soldiers and non-commissioned officers (thereby making them 5th Class). Once exchanged, each nation awarded these medals to their soldiers as they saw fit. So, Sven did not receive his by direct command of the Tsar (that mystery solved!). But another revelation was brought to my attention. These medals were not actually what was often assumed. Many soldiers went back home, stating that they were now a knight of the Russian Order of St George. But these medals were actually considered a lower class of St George medal, one which did not confer a title of knighthood. So, a family legend (and one that was repeated in the press over the years) has been quashed. It is often said that family lore doesn’t always hold up to scrutiny. Nevertheless, being the recipient of one of only 200 medals is still quite an honour.
I have long wanted to write about my most interesting ancestor, but didn’t feel that I had enough information to sustain a whole novel or a non-fiction biography. But another interesting occurrence did help me with this quandary. A Facebook writing group I belong to, Historical Writers Forum, were creating a collection of short stories around the theme of ‘Crime and Punishment’. Remember that copy of the photograph of Sven I had? Well, I discovered a newspaper article about my ancestor being sent to prison over this photo. He had accused a neighbour of stealing this photo from his home. The court stated that there was no evidence for this and imprisoned Sven for the false accusation. The press, however, were treating the 78-year-old war veteran as some kind of folk hero – an old warrior bravely facing his sentence. I tried to imagine how Sven would have spent his time in incarceration. The poem sent by my cousin served as an inspiration for me to reflect upon his life and forms the basis of my short story, Carte de Viste, one of seven short stories by seven authors featured in the anthology To Wear a Heart So White (available through Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DKFZRRLC ). His life was so full of quirks and interesting occurrences. One last tale before I finish: Sven was nearly ninety-years-old and on his sickbed while being watched by his neighbour, the painter Tiselius, as the family went about some errands. Drunken Tiselius insinuated that Sven must have stolen the medals, and in no way deserved them. With all his remaining strength, old Sven grabbed his walking stick and whacked it hard over the head of his tormenting neighbour. The family legend is that proud Sergeant Sven Stenander was buried with the medals he treasured so much.
Ronan Beckman is a retired former educator living in Northampton, England. He writes historical fiction and biography, often based on characters discovered while researching family history. You can find out more on his website: www.ronanbeckman.com
