Recruiting – Sir Ernest Had the Key – Saint John's School of Alberta

January 21st, 2010 by Barbara McKay

Recruiting – Sir Ernest Had the Key

(article from the St. John’s annual report of 1969-1970, author Ted Byfield)

“Men wanted for hazardous journey, Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success”. – Sir Ernest Shackleton

When the British Antarctic explorer ran his famous advertisement in the London dailies of 1906, the results astonished him. Thousands of men came forward. Three years later those selected enabled Shackleton to locate the south magnetic pole and press within 150 miles of the south pole itself. Sixty-four years later the same ad did one thing more. It enabled St. John’s Schools of the Prairies to solve the central problem of their existence – how to find top notch men at a salary of $1 a day plus living essentials.

For the Company of the Cross, 1970 was a year when the recruiting of competent men had become crucial. Its two schools were built and well on the way to being paid for. Traditions were established. The schools were nationally publicized. Fees were low enough for a wide income group and new bursary funds were making it wider. The time had come to direct full attention to the academic program. But this meant finding men and women, educated enough to have something to teach, imaginative enough to put heart and soul into it, of intelligence and humility enough to learn what had to be learned – all for $1 a day plus necessities. Such people, Shackleton discovered, can be found best by honest advertising.

The Company knew only one live and bona fide advertising man. He looked nothing like Madison Avenue, but was shy, almost timid, absent minded, unfashionably dressed, unaggressive in conversation, drank almost not at all, and never, simply never, slapped backs and passed around cigars. All this was, of course, deception. In fact, he was one of the sharpest copy writers in the business, possessed a satirical and happy wit, had single handedly conceived, organized, publicized, directed and propagated the national Help-a-Stranger campaign, had been written up in The Star Weekly, and was, to those who knew him, one of the few great letter writers that the mid-century had produced. His name is Tam Deachman (pronounced Dakeman) of the Gordon Roundtree firm in Vancouver, a booster of St. John’s since he heard about the movement five years ago. When it decided to advertise, the Company thought instantly of Deachman and Deachman thought instantly of Shackleton.

“The success of the Shackleton ad,” said Mr. Deachman, “lay in its honest appeal to those instincts for meaning and adventure which lie deep and unfilled in all good men. I knew if I could duplicate that Shackleton approach, we’d find that such men still existed.”

Copy of the original ad

The resulting advertisement, pictured on this page, was carried by the daily papers at Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal and the university papers of B.C., Ontario and the Montreal district. The response was as startling in its way as that which had greeted Shackleton’s appeal. Over 150 men replied, many with full degrees or successful careers in business and industry. Why did they want to join the Company? The explanations were always the same – meaning, purpose, adventure and genuine service.

Company members crossed the country, reduced 150 to 22 and invited these to visit the Selkirk school, Company and candidates sharing the cost.

At Selkirk, they were required to teach one class, snowshoe up to 18 miles, and discuss with Company members their reasons for joining and what they thought they could contribute. Married couples, of course, visited the school together. So impressive were the people who came that the Company decided to add 14 men instead of the eight originally planned.

Does the Company owe it all to Shackleton? More probably it owes it to Deachman, the man who remembered the Shackleton experience. On behalf of an industry, so frequently accused of deception and ruthless exploitation of human gullibility, the Deachman effort offered some distinct evidence to the contrary. The fact is that the Company could not have fulfilled it purpose this year without it.