N.S. museum curator works to unearth more history on goat from the Great War

Historian seeks information on WWI goat mascot Curator of Army Museum at Halifax Citadel is looking to learn more about an unlikely participant in First World War. Heidi Petracek reports.

The curator of the Army Museum at the Halifax Citadel is on an unusual quest.

He's hoping to uncover more information about an unlikely participant in the First World War -- and one with a connection to a Maritime war hero.

Lt.-Col. Guy McLean Matheson was one of Canada's most decorated soldiers of the First World War. His medals at the Army Museum represent a forgotten story of that war.

He was a Cape Bretoner who returned home with an unusual wartime souvenir.

"It's always been in the back of my mind," said Ken Hynes, the chief curator at the Army Museum at the Halifax Citadel. "Once we knew that a goat was the mascot of the 25th Battalion and his name was Robert the Bruce, (I thought) what else can we find out about that?'"

Hynes' research has uncovered quite a bit about how a goat bought in Belgium became the mascot for one of Nova Scotia's most famous battalions -- The Nova Scotia Rifles.

"They must have thought it would be a great thing to have a mascot, and the pipe band was actually the outfit that purchased the goat," Hynes said.

In the museum, there is a photo of the pipe band, and their goat, along with a collar made specifically for "Robert the Bruce" to wear -- although only on special occasions.

If you're wondering where the name Robert the Bruce came from, he was actually king of Scotland in the early 1300s and led Scotland in the first war of Scottish independence against England.

Hynes says the goat wouldn't have gone into battle, but would have accompanied the pipe band as it marched with the battalion.

When the war ended, this goat's tale did not.

"Robert the Bruce was given by the pipe band, or by the battalion, to Guy McLean Matheson, and he proceeded to take the goat home to the family farm, at Inlet Baddeck," said Hynes.

As the story goes, the goat lived on Matheson's family farm until it died in the 1920s. It had allegedly snacked on produce in the family garden after it had just been sprayed with insecticide.

Earlier this week, Hynes made the trek to Cape Breton, and with the help of the property owner found what's left of the farmhouse.

But the site is overgrown, making it tough to find any sign of the goat's final resting place.

Still, Hynes isn't giving up.

"The whole thing is indicative of the layers upon layers of history that exist, not just in the Matheson family, but in many families in Nova Scotia," Hynes said. "Everything's connected."

Matheson eventually moved to the United States and died in 1981.

Hynes wants to reach his descendants in the hopes they heard the stories about Robert the Bruce -- a piece of history that is no longer forgotten.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Heidi Petracek.