Since I exchanged e-mails with him only about three weeks ago, it has been a sad shock to learn of the death on 26 July of our long-time author, and my friend of some 35 years, the French-Canadian historian René Chartrand. I knew that he had recently completed a course of chemotherapy, but as far as I knew there had been no reason for any immediate concern. A researcher and writer whose depth and breadth of knowledge was matched only by his friendly generosity, René will be greatly missed by all the many military history professionals and enthusiasts who had the pleasure of knowing him, benefiting from his help and advice, and enjoying his friendship. He is survived by his wife Luce Vermette (herself a respected scholar), by his sons Louis and Alexandre, and by a young granddaughter.

René was born in Montreal in 1943, and his educational path was unconventional, including studying philosophy and history at universities in Montreal, Boston, and the Bahamas. For the bulk of his career he worked for the National Historical Sites Directorate of Parks Canada as a curator (1968–89), chief curator (1989–96), and as a historian seconded to the Defence Department (1991–92). Over those years he brought his expertise to the development of the sites at Louisbourg Fortress, Quebec City and Halifax, at Fort Ticonderoga in the USA, to various sites connected with the War of 1812, and in Grenada in the West Indies.

Meanwhile, he was writing steadily for specialist publishers, societies and journals. At this moment I don’t have by me a complete list of his publications, but his books certainly numbered more than 70, of which the most widely read were probably Tomes I (1000–1754) and II (1755–1871) of Le patrimonie militaire canadien d’hier à aujourdhui (Art Global, Montreal, 1993 & 2007). In recent years he wrote seven titles for Helion Books, five of them on the army of Louis XIV; and I must also recommend a valuable reference work, French Military Arms and Armour in America 1503-1783, published in 2016 by Andrew Mowbray Inc. of Woonsocket, Rhode Island (ISBN 1-931464-73-1). 

In the course of his career René amassed a huge electronic archive of documents and photographs, which he never hesitated to share. (On one typical occasion a few years ago, I happened to mention during a phone conversation that I was trying to verify a quotation from an extremely obscure French book published in 1888; after the briefest pause for thought, René replied, ‘H’mmm… You know, I’m pretty sure I’ve got that.’ The following morning, I found the book’s complete text e-mailed to my in-box.)

Over more than 20 years René wrote just over 50 Osprey titles, in the Men-at-Arms, Elite, Warrior, Campaigns, Fortress, Raids and New Vanguard series. From memory, I believe that the first was MAA 203: Louis XIV’s Army, published way back in 1988. The most recent that I had the pleasure of editing was the very well-received Elite 229: Raiders from New France: North American Forest War Tactics, 17th-18th Centuries, published in 2019. (And it really was a pleasure, though often embarrassing; René was one of those few veteran writers who underestimated their own skill, and tended to overstate an editor’s contributions.) As well as 17th-, 18th- and 19th-century armies, he also wrote on the Canadian forces in both World Wars (MAA 439 and 359 respectively); while these were necessarily concise, he brought to both of them the understanding that only a native Canadian could offer.

In Canada itself and the USA his contribution was genuinely unique. While the basis of his studies was ‘New France’, they inevitably led him south over the American frontier as he pursued archival and on-the-ground research into the armies, fortifications, battles, uniforms, weapons and equipment of the French-Indian War, the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Since part of his education was spent at Nassau in the Bahamas, his interests also extended over the ‘Spanish Main’ and Spain’s military activities in the Americas. His consequent ability to read both Spanish and Portuguese enabled him to write, between 1998 and 2001, two ground-breaking trios of Men-at-Arms books on those armies in the Peninsular War  (MAA 321, 322 and 324, and 343, 346 and 358, respectively), solidly based on what was then his very rare familiarity with the archives in Madrid and particularly in Lisbon.

Especially since he became an independent military history consultant from 1997, René travelled widely as a researcher and lecturer. Every few years he would visit London to carry out research in the National Archives at Kew, giving us the welcome opportunity for old-fashioned ‘publisher’s lunches’ at Le Garrick Wine Bar; and I once had the great pleasure of luring him down to Sussex for a summer weekend. He was wonderful company, and I shall greatly miss those rare meetings and his regular phone calls.

Martin Windrow, 12 August 2024