Clonard Keating Henry Edward Clonard Keating ( 13 December 1871 – 1898 ) was a Nova Scotian and celebrated military officer who served Royal West African Frontier Force on Niger River in Nigeria ( British West Africa ) when he was killed in the line of duty . Career . Keating began in the Prince of Wales ' s Leinster Regiment . From there he requested to be succonded to the West African Frontier Force . As part of the 1st Battaltion , Lieut . Keating arrived at Lokoja on 2 May 1898 . He made the trek up river approximately 400 miles to Lafagou , reaching his destination on 12 September 1898 . By October , the attrition rate was reported to be 63 % of the Europeans , officers and NCOs , dead or invalided home because of the climate and disease . Keating had 22 men from which to command a sixty mile district from Lafagu , Nigeria to Rofia and Illah . He was stationed in Lafagu and every six weeks had to visit Rofia and Illecon . He took his first tour of inspection of his own - river posts early in October . When it came time to return to Lafagu , on October 9 , Keating went with 14 of his troops to the island village of Hela , near Yelwa , for additional canoes . The tribe refused Keatings request . In response , Keating killed the king of the village , expropriated the canoes he needed , and abducted the men required to work them . The villagers attacked Keating with bow and arrow and spears . Keating and his men returned fire . Keating ’ s troops soon ran out of ammunition . A hand to hand fight ensured in which a number of Keating ’ s party were killed on shore before a remnant of the party was finally able to embark . Then the men who had been impressed into service overturned the canoes . The villagers pursed in canoes , throwing spears and shooting arrows at the fleeing patrol . Keating was wounded five times when finally he was killed by a spear to his head . The rest of the patrol was also killed except for two native soldiers who were severely wounded . In response , British troops arrived at Hela the following week , on 16 October 1898 , killed 100 of the villagers and burned their villages and adjacent fields . Commemorations . Keating ’ s body was eventually recovered . and buried in the new British fort at Yelwa , a half mile away from Hela . At Keating ’ s gravesite , Keating ’ s comrades built a memorial with a brass plaque and a tablet erected . ( There is also a tombstone for Keating at Saint James Cemetery in Toronto . ) The incident received significant coverage . In Halifax , on Arbor Day , 8 May 1899 , the teachers and pupils of Morris Street School , Keatings alma - mater , planted a tree in his memory in the Halifax Public Gardens . General Lord William Seymour , commanding the British troops , gave an address . An easel was set up in front of the tree bearing pictures of both Queen Victoria and Keating , the whole draped in the Leinsters ’ colours . " The Herald " headline declared “ Planted a Tree for Halifax Hero ” . In 1925 , a marker was installed at the tree . In 1900 a memorial plaque was unveiled to honour Keating in Saint Luke ’ s ( Anglican ) Cathedral , Halifax , subsequently lost to fire . A second plaque was put up in the parish church at Birr , Ireland ( where the Leinsters ’ depot was located ) to honour Keating and other Leinsters killed in Africa the same year . At Aldershot , England , Keating ’ s name was included on a tablet to the memory of all the men of the West African Frontier Force who did or were killed in Nigeria . References . Texts Endnotes