Book Description

With the frankness and clarity of someone whose life has been lived to the full, Sam Hughes tells the story of that life, from his early years in Victoria, BC – his father was a chief engineer at Canadian Northern Railway – to his many years on the bench in Ontario as a Supreme Court judge. Hughes gives moving details about his life, from his time in England as a child while his father was in action in France during World War I, to time abroad in the army during World War II, to events during his twenty-six-year tenure on the bench. His passion for family and for law shine through his account. Even after retirement, he was still very much involved in the law and was appointed to lead the Royal Commission investigating child abuse at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in Newfoundland. Steering the Course not only documents a life but provides a poignant first-hand account of this century. His recollections of the events and changes that this country has undergone during the last eighty years are a stirring reminder of an important part of our recent past. From the book: "My earliest recollection was of the first daylight air raid on London when my mother and I were living in St John's Wood. I remember the explosions that accompanied the bombing of Selfridge's in Oxford Street and I remember clearly that the taxi from which we were hastily removed had yellow facings on its doors." "On New Year's Day 1944 misery and frustration prevailed. Slit trenches, the natural refuge and even sleeping place for soldiers in combat, were full of water ... George Renison and I took a bottle of Scotch whisky to the command vehicle of the First Brigade ... The bottle, which went only once around the company, was a reminder of the celebrations of other days and its like had not been seen for weeks."