African Exploits

Born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Stairs (1863-1892) attended the Royal Military College in Kingston before being commissioned in the British army. Wearied of peacetime soldiering, he volunteered in 1887 to participate in Sir Henry M. Stanley''s final trans-African expedition to rescue Emin Pasha, the last of "Chinese" Gordon''s lieutenants in the Sudan. The expedition emerged almost three ...