The Wilderness Patrol

Chapter 3

Harold Bindloss (1866–1945) was an British novelist who published an extensive list of adventure novels, mostly set in western Canada, West Africa, and England. He drew on his experiences as a seaman, a dock worker, and a farmer for his settings and characters, which gave his work a sense of realism missing from his contemporaries who wrote based on second-hand information.

Bindloss was born in Wavertree, Liverpool, England, eldest son of Edward Williams Bindloss, an iron merchant. He had three sisters and four brothers.

As a teenager, he went to sea and worked his way through the British African colonies before returning to England in 1896, suffering from malaria. The 1891 census reports him with his parents and working as an iron-merchant’s clerk (most likely for his father). Adventure continued to call, and he soon abandoned this job for Canada—working his way across the Atlantic as a sailor, then working in Canada as a dock worker, a farmer, and a planter. He returned to England in 1896, presumably from West Africa, since he was again suffering from malaria.

He remained in England, where he began a new career as a journalist, publishing a pair of non-fiction books based on his travels. The first, In the Niger Country, appeared in 1898 and concerns West Africa. The second, A Wide Dominion, appeared in 1899 and is about Canada.

In the Niger CountryA Wide DominionIt wasn’t until his first novel, Ainslie’s Ju-Ju, appeared that he seemed to his his stride. This book, set in West Africa, mixes adventure, romance, and an exotic locale to good effect. 86 more novels would follow, mostly alternating between books set in Canada and West Africa. Most people agree that the Canadian stories were better.

Ainslie’s Ju-JuHarold Bindloss died on December 30, 1945 at Chertsey Hill Nursing Home in Carlisle, England. The town of Bindloss, in Alberta, Canada, was established by the Canadian Pacific Railroad in 1914 in his honor.

—Karl Wurf

Rockville, Maryland