Joseph Philip Peters was born in 1838 in Newry, Armagh, Ireland. He was Florence Maud Gallson’s grandfather.
Joseph signed up with the Royal Navy and served on the HMS Hastings in 1859 as a Seaman 2nd Class.
However, in the 1861 census, Joseph was onboard the HMS Topaze “a 51-gun Liffey-class wooden screw frigate of the Royal Navy” in the Esquimalt Harbour – yes, in British Columbia, Canada.
The crew of the HMS Topaze built the Race Rocks Lighthouse:
Race Rocks Light is one of the first two lighthouses that were built on the west coast of Canada, financed by the British Government and illuminated in 1860. It is the only lighthouse on that coast built of rock, (granite) purportedly quarried in Scotland, and topped with sandstone quarried on Gabriola Island. The Islands of Race Rocks are located just off the southern tip of Vancouver Island, about 16 km (10 mi) southwest of Victoria, British Columbia
And another interesting little jaunt that the HMS Topaze made was going to Easter Island and digging up one of the moai statues, dragging it onboard the Topaze and offering it as a gift to Queen Victoria. The lieutenant on the ship made a sketch of the moai (see above) after it was dragged onto the Topaze.
The following is extracted from my book STIGMA (V3), so some of the content may feel out of content.
Phillip John Gallson was born in Zolpho Spring, Florida on March 18, 1926. Part of Uncle Phill’s story is pivotal to GG’s story even though he was only three and a half years old when he last saw her.
Uncle Phill also related his memories of abuse which Sharlene put to paper. The following is an excerpt:
[When my Dad’s father] went into the bush, food was rationed and the children were fed very little. Maw would even put marks on the food containers so she could tell if one of the children snuck something. If she found food missing she would ask who took it and this child would receive a beating with a cat-of-nine-tails which was a leather strap with nine smaller strips attached. If no one would confess, they would all be beaten. My Dad and his sisters resorted to sneaking and eating raw eggs from the hen house or raw potatoes from the ground. They were clever enough to put the tops of the potatoes back in the ground so the area appeared undisturbed. Beatings were frequent for all sorts of reasons. To avoid such a beating, my Dad once stitched a small chick together after accidentally squashing it with a cellar door. Amazingly, the chick survived! Maw refused to call my Dad, Phillip, his given name, saying that he would never be “filled up”.
This is likely the reason why Uncle Phill was called “Bobby” as a child.
Both my mother and Uncle Phill were accelerated by a grade or two when they entered public school after being home schooled by Mary. That alone is cause for pause. Mom graduated from Mattawa Public School with honours. When Uncle Phil graduated from grade 8, called "Senior fourth grade" at that time, he was also exempt from writing the high school entrance exam because of his high marks, but like her, he never attended.
Being an American citizen by birth, the US Army came looking for him in Canada in 1946. By the end of 1947, he had completed basic training, surgical tech school in Denver, Colorado, served at the 172nd Station Hospital in Sendai, Japan, then honourably discharged. As exhausting as this sounds, upon his discharge, he enrolled himself into a 6-month photography course in Memphis, Tennessee after which he returned to Mattawa to open his own photography studio in the summer of 1948.
Pardon the military pun, but why the about-face? Why then? In November 1947, his father had disappeared and by the summer of 1948, had not been found.
Earlier letters from Grampa’s siblings in Estonia were addressed to merely “John Gallson, Mattawa, Ontario” but by 1956, Box 306 had been added. It may be possible that Grampa arranged for certain mail to be delivered to the box while other mail was delivered to merely “Mattawa, Ontario”. Was Grampa secretly sending money to St. Thomas Hospital and corresponding with his Estonian siblings?
Uncle Phill was an honourable man, who would do the right thing for his family. Grampa's disappearance meant that Mary, who Uncle Phill still thought of as being his mother, and his younger half siblings had no one to look after them. Mary’s son Jackie would have been 18-19 at the time and his whereabouts were unknown to me. It is not unreasonable to assume that Uncle Phill came back to Canada and opened a photography studio in Mattawa, to be close to his family and help out.
Gallson Studio was a busy business between 1948 and 1950 in Mattawa. Phill Gallson or Gallson Studio were credited with many photos in the North Bay Nugget during those years. But Uncle Phill had become a man of the world and once you leave your small hometown, as they say, you can never go back. After Christmas of 1948, Uncle Phill took a few months away from his business to be with his father in the bush. In November 1948, Grampa wrote to Mom that he thought Bobby (Uncle Phill) was not going to do well in his job after Christmas and that he’d be wise to go “to work for 3 months” so he’d be “making something”. I believe this meant that Uncle Phill would be joining Grampa in the bush which he did, returning in March 1949.
The story relayed to me from Mom was that an invoice addressed to Grampa from St. Thomas Mental Hospital was mistakenly delivered to Uncle Phill. It requested money to pay for night gowns for a patient by the name of Flora Gallson. It seems very plausible that the mail sorter could have easily mixed up the Gallson boxes at the post office - after all they would have been the only two Gallson boxes around 1948.
Was this when Grampa told Uncle Phill about how the couple who wanted to adopt him separately from the girls when GG was institutionalized?
I can only imagine the shock and disbelief that Uncle Phill felt upon reading that letter from St. Thomas Hospital. He called the hospital and tried to arrange a visit with his mother but was discouraged by someone who said she was “too far gone” and visiting would only upset her and him. He made the decision not to go.
When Grampa returned to Mattawa, Uncle Phill headed back to the U.S. to reenlist in the army. In 1953, after serving in Korea and Japan and while on leave, he returned to Mattawa and met the most beautiful woman in town and a recent England emigrant, Marian Gamble.
If Grampa and Uncle Phill bonded during the several months they were in the bush together, something happened after this that led to Grampa not being invited or not attending Uncle Phill’s marriage to Marian in 1953. Barbara confirmed that they (Mary and the half-siblings) were not invited to this wedding. Uncle Phill’s wedding announcement says he is the son of “Mr. J. Gallson and THE LATE MRS. GALLSON of Mattawa.” Mattawa residents who knew the Gallsons must have thought Mary had died. This announcement made a very clear statement.
Uncle Phill’s sister-in-law, Helen Gamble, was 15 years old when she was Marian’s maid of honour. Helen revealed to Sharlene on a 2024 visit that the only family members that were welcome at the wedding were Mom and Aunt Jean under no uncertain terms. The wedding was held in Mattawa, a small enough village that everyone knew everyone. Mary, Grampa and all her children lived in Mattawa, but were not invited.
When Uncle Phill and his family came to our farm for visits, Sharlene and Phillip (Jr.) addressed their parents with “Yes, Sir” and “No, Ma’am”. Also, “May I be excused from the table?” caused Wayne and I, who had already left the table, to pause with “What’s happened?” looks on our faces.
Did Uncle Phill have any signs of childhood trauma? He, like my mother, suffered from the need to be perfect. He dressed impeccably at all times. Even in his pictures of horseback riding and tricks, he’s in a suit jacket. Sharlene said his closet was filled with many suits, meticulously rotated according to use. His house was immaculate, a strong compulsion from him that thankfully equalled the desires of Aunt Marian. When he was in the hospital just before he died, the nurses commented on how handsome he was, and how soft and well manicured his hands were! Uncle Phill never had a hair out of place.
Thus, the reason why the story of Mary sending him upstairs to put on a decent pair of pants when the minister came to visit, knowing he only had the ones he was wearing, was such a memorable event for him.
Sharlene Buszka wrote an amazing memorial to her mother, Aunt Marian, which contains a lot of information about Uncle Phill. Click the button below to see that memorial.
