The operetta focussed on typical character types, events and concerns of Telgmann and Cameron's time and place.

Mackay fought tribes near Sierra Leone and became an acting administrator of the British East Africa Company.

William Henry Robinson, Royal Engineer, the first ex-cadet to be killed in action, died while attempting to blow up the gate of a stockade at Tambi near Sierra Leone.

Kenneth J.R. Campbell was the first ex-cadet to be mentioned in despatches for his part in the operation against the town of Brohemie, Niger Coast Protectorate.

[2] Sir George Norton Cory participated in operations in Natal, South Africa in 1899 and later edited 'The Diary of Reverend Francis Owen M. A., missionary with Dingaan in 1837-38 together with extracts from the writings of the interpreters in Zulu, Messrs. Hulley and Kirkman'(Cape Town, South Africa: Van Riebeech Society, 1926).

[4] The work premiered "under the Patronage of the Commandant and Staff, and Gentleman Cadets of the Royal Military College" on 11 July 1889 at Martin's Opera House in Kingston.

It played successfully in Kingston, Ottawa, Guelph, Toronto, Woodstock, Ontario and Utica, New York.

[7] Commandant Commodore William S. Truelove (Royal Roads Military College 1985), as Honorary Patron for Toronto Operetta Theatre's Leo, The Royal Cadet, attended on Opening Night with a contingent of cadets and alumni on February 19, 2010.

The opera is a light-hearted piece about love and war which traces the career of Leo before, during, and after he entered the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario.

The opera opens with Leo and his beloved Nellie on picnic grounds outside the Royal Military College.

The opera ends with his reunion with his true love, Nellie, on a village green on the St. Lawrence River.

[10] The opera opens on the picnic grounds outside the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Queen Victoria’s birthday, May 1878.

Wind, a young poet and composer friend of Leo attends the picnic in pursuit of material for his Faerie Opera.

The picnic party resumes ("The red sun sinks to sleep") with dances, ("The Rideau") and military hymns ("Glory and Victory").

As the curtain rises, Gaspard, Bloodswigger, Leo, Quip, el al, are discovered about the table.