Burners of the White House
From Mr C.D.C. Armstrong Sir: No doubt Paul Robinson (`Land of the free', 31 May) is right to extol Canadian military prowess. However, he goes too far when he asserts that the White House was burned down by Canadians. The expeditionary force which destroyed much of Washington DC (the White House included) in August 1814 was drawn from the British army; the Canadian militia was not involved. Credit should go more to Ulster than to Canada: the commander was Major-General Robert Ross, an Ulsterman; the second-in-command, Colonel Arthur Brooke, was also a native of the province. Brooke was a collateral ancestor of Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, chief of the imperial general staff during the second world war.
Colin Armstrong Belfast.
Northern Ireland
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