(Klondike Joe) the Canadian Hero of WW1 and the Spirit of Canada.
by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC,
FEC, CET, P. Eng.
Former Member of Parliament Pickering-Scarborough East
As we approach Remembrance Day, it is important to have a look at our history, traditions and values and be proud of the achievements of exceptional Canadians often forgotten by new generations. One of the heroes who defined the real spirit of what today is solely Canadian, is Col. Joseph Whiteside Boyle.
Joseph Boyle is one of Canada's genuine but little known heroes. He was born in Toronto in 1867 of Irish and Scottish parentage. He moved with his family to Woodstock, Ontario, when he was very young. There his father, a racehorse trainer, continued his business and became a successful cattle breeder. Thoroughbreds trained by him won the Queen's Plate in 1862, 1883, 1897, and 1898.
Educated in 1883-84 at Woodstock College, a school with a strong Baptist tradition, Boyle often accompanied his father to racing meets, and it was during a trip to New York in 1885 that he ran off to sea. Three years later he returned to the city a mature, hardened young man.
He then settled in New York, where he started a feed and freighting business, and was married and divorced. He began managing Australian boxer Frank Slavin in 1897 hoping to capitalize upon Slavin's reputation - he had fought notable bouts in England and was once considered to be a contender for the world championship -, touring Toronto, San Francisco Victoria and finally Juneau, Alaska.
Arriving at the height of excitement over the Klondike gold strikes Slavin and Boyle headed for the diggings in July 1897, joining the first party to reach Dawson via the White Pass. It was Boyle who opened the trail to Lake Bennet and Lake Tutshi. He and Slavin filed a claim of 8 mi (13.3 km) along the Klondike River, but Boyle immediately realized that success would depend on a large-scale operation.
He then lobbied in Ottawa for a concession to dredge, finally achieving it in 1900. Meanwhile, he established a profitable sawmill, docks and wharfs. In 1904 he formed the Canadian Klondyke Mining Co, and by 1910 had massive dredging equipment in operation, as well as a hydroelectric plant (May 1911) in Dawson, Yukon.
As a true Canadian Boyle was deeply involved in all aspects of Dawson's community life; spearheaded efforts for community improvements, promoted boxing events, and in 1904-5 financed a hockey team, variously known as the Klondikers, the Nuggets, and the Wanderers, which unsuccessfully challenged the Ottawa Silver Seven, the Stanley Cup holders. What was interesting and typically Canadian; for the love of hockey, they traveled from Dawson to Ottawa for almost a month, from December 19, 1904 to January 11, 1905, on foot, by bicycle, boat and train for the game which took place on January 13 1905 which they unfortunately lost.
With the outbreak of World War I, Boyle, too old to enlist, volunteered to recruit and finance a 50-man machine-gun company, giving the soldiers insignia made of gold, to fight in Europe. The unit was incorporated into larger units of the Canadian Army, a contribution for which he would be awarded the honorary rank of lieutenant-colonel by the Minister of Militia and Defence, Samuel Hughes.
In July 1917, Boyle undertook a mission to Russia on behalf of the American Committee of Engineers in London to help reorganize the country's railway system. Despite reluctant support from the British Foreign and War offices, and difficulties caused by Bolshevik revolutionaries, Boyle was instrumental in rationalizing rail traffic within the military zone extending from Petrograd (St Petersburg) to Odessa (Odesa, Ukraine). By November his leadership proved to be decisive in clearing the Moscow knot, a bottleneck of abandoned, damaged, and destroyed rolling stock paralyzing the city's marshalling yards.
His role, the following month, in returning the Romanian archives and paper currency from Moscow, where they had been sent for safekeeping, and his efforts in February 1918 as the principal intermediary on behalf of the Romanian government in effecting a ceasefire with revolutionary forces in Bessarabia (Republic of Moldova) were notable exploits. They, together with his rescue in March-April 1918 of some 50 high-ranking Romanians held in Odessa by revolutionaries, made Boyle a national hero in Romania and a powerful influence within its royal court where he had a special relation with Queen Marie of Romania, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and well loved by the Romanian people.
At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 he was instrumental in helping the country to obtain a $25-million credit from the Canadian government in order to save Romania from famine.
Throughout his service in Russia and Romania, Boyle, in cooperation with Captain George Alexander Hill, a Russian-speaking member of the British secret service, and the extended intelligence network, carried out clandestine operations against German and Bolshevik forces in Bessarabia (Republic of Moldova) and southwestern Russia. Unilingual, disdaining disguise, and insistent upon wearing his Canadian uniform (to the exasperation of British and Canadian authorities), he received altogether eight decorations from Great Britain, France, Romania, and Russia, however, notably, none from Canada.
Then after 2 years of action that had exhausted him to the point of death Boyle left Romania for England. Boyle, who had never fully recovered from a stroke suffered in 1918, died of heart failure in Hampton Hill, London, England on 14 April 1923 at the home of a Klondike friend.
Queen Marie of Romania installed an ancient Romanian stone cross on his grave, as well as a ledger stone on which was engraved 'man with the heart of a Viking and the simple faith of a child', quoted from the Robert Service poems he had read to the queen and her family.
Only 56, he had packed several lifetimes of adventure into his few decades, an extraordinary man of extraordinary times.
His remarkable career in Eastern Europe went unrecognized in Canada. Like many men of remarkable achievement he was held in suspicion for his independence.
In 1983, at the request of his daughter, Flora, a committee of Woodstock citizens arranged for the repatriation of Col. Boyle's English grave to Woodstock. The Department of National Defense flew his body home for a full military funeral. Among the official guests on Joe Boyle Day, June 29th, 1983, were Lt. Governor John Black Aird, Ontario Heritage Board Chair John White, Col. T.F.G. Lawson of the Royal Canadian Regiment, and Whitehorse Mayor Florence Whyard.
To commemorate Canadian-Romanian military co-operation and sacrifices during WW1, and the Canadian contribution to rebuilding Romania after the war, a plaque was unveiled in 2018, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the conclusion of WW1. The plaque is displayed at the entrance of the Romanian Orthodox Church, St Stephen the Great and Nektarie, in Oshawa.
This is a story to reflect upon…….
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