Joseph W. Boyle
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Joseph Whiteside Boyle (6 November 1867 – 14 April 1923), better known as Klondike Joe Boyle, was a Canadian adventurer who became a businessman and entrepreneur in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. In the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
he came to see service assisting the allied
Kingdom of Romania The Kingdom of Romania ( ro, Regatul României) was a constitutional monarchy that existed in Romania from 13 March ( O.S.) / 25 March 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian ...
.


Family

Joseph Boyle was born in
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
,
Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
, the son of
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame was established in 1976 to honour those who have made a significant contribution to the sport of harness and Thoroughbred horse racing in Canada. It is located at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario. The ...
racehorse trainer A horse trainer is a person who tends to horses and teaches them different disciplines. Some of the responsibilities trainers have are caring for the animals' physical needs, as well as teaching them submissive behaviors and/or coaching them for e ...
Charles Boyle Charles Boyle may refer to: * Charles Boyle, 3rd Viscount Dungarvan (1639–1694), British politician * Charles Boyle, 2nd Earl of Burlington (died 1704), British politician * Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery (1674–1731), author, soldier and st ...
and wife Martha Bain Boyle. His brother, David A. Boyle, would follow in their father's footsteps and become a Thoroughbred racehorse trainer. His family had immigrated from the
Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...
region of Ireland (modern
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
) to Canada in 1839. The Boyle family were Protestants and Unionist in their political sympathies, but he was always proud to call himself a "fighting Irishman". Though he was born in Toronto, he grew up in Woodstock.


Early career

Boyle was early to recognize the potential of large-scale
gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
mining in the Klondike gold fields, and as the initial placer mining operations waned after 1900, Boyle and other companies imported equipment to assemble enormous
dredge Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...
s, usually electric-powered, that took millions more ounces of gold from the creeks while turning the landscape upside-down, shifting creeks. An avid hockey fan, Boyle began in 1902 to sponsor hockey teams to play in Dawson City for the benefit of the miners. Boyle organized an
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...
team in 1905, often known as the
Dawson City Nuggets The Dawson City Nuggets (also known as the Klondikes) were an ice hockey team from Dawson City, Yukon, that challenged the reigning champion Ottawa Senators (original), Ottawa Hockey Club, aka "the Silver Seven", in January 1905, for the Stanley ...
, that endured a difficult journey to
Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
(by overland sled, train, coastal steamer, then transcontinental train) to play the
Ottawa Silver Seven The Ottawa Senators were an ice hockey team based in Ottawa, which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario, a founding member of the National Hockey League (NHL) and played in the NHL from 1917 until 1934. The c ...
for the Stanley Cup, which until 1924 was awarded to the top ice hockey team in
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and could be challenged for by a team. Ottawa thrashed the Dawson team. In 1909, he married an American woman, Elma Louise Humphries while on a visit to
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
.


First World War

On 4 August 1914, Great Britain declared war on Germany following the invasion of Belgium and Canada as part of the British empire was now at war. The same day, Boyle attended a rally at the Dawson City Athletic Association to sing "God Save the King" and declared his support for the war. Boyle took an ultra-patriotic line, declaring that if any of his employees expressed any sympathy for the enemy, they would be fired immediately. His greatest disappointment came when his attempt to volunteer for the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) was turned down on the account of his age, being informed at 46 he was too old for the CEF. During
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Boyle organised a
machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ar ...
company, giving the soldiers insignia made of gold, to fight in Europe. In 1914, he wrote
Sam Hughes Sir Samuel Hughes, (January 8, 1853 – August 23, 1921) was the Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence during World War I. He was notable for being the last Liberal-Conservative cabinet minister, until he was dismissed from his cabinet post ...
, the minister of national defense, offering to raise at his own expense the machine gun company made up of Yukon miners. The company was trained in Dawson City under the direction of the local
Royal Northwest Mounted Police The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian para-military police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert’s Land and North-Western Territory ...
detachment and the Dawson City Rifle Association and later received more professional military training when it reached
Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
. Boyle was present at the parade on 27 October 1914 when the company left Dawson City for Vancouver. Morale problems began in the winter of 1914-1915 when the unit was not deployed to Europe immediately as promised, and were indeed not officially accepted as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force until 18 February 1915. Boyle wrote several letters to Hughes warning that with the unit living in tents in Hastings Park it would wither away due to desertion if kept there much longer, and finally on 11 June 1915 the "Boyle Battery" boarded a ship for Britain. On 19 June 1915, a puzzled Boyle wrote to Hughes asking why he had not been presented with the invoice for the costs of raising the "Boyle battery" and for the purchasing machine guns, insisting he wanted to pay these costs out of his pocket. Only later did Boyle realize that Hughes had promoted such a chaotic mobilization that he had forgotten that Boyle was supposed to pay for the costs of raising the "Boyle Battery" himself. The unit was incorporated into larger units of the
Canadian Army The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also res ...
. On 27 July 1916, Boyle left Dawson City for London with the intention of negotiating a deal with the South African Goldfields Company to operate a gold-mining concession in Russia. Boyle was especially interested in the gold fields around the Lena river in
Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
owing to the similarities between Siberia and the Yukon. Hughes was visiting London in August 1916 when Boyle arrived, and thus Boyle finally met the bombastic Defense Minister whom he had corresponding with since August 1914. In September 1916, Hughes appointed Boyle an honorary lieutenant colonel of the militia, allowing Boyle to wear a uniform which he embellished by adding in maple leafs made of Yukon gold. In London, Boyle also met in London a prominent American engineer and businessman,
Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
, who was a member of the American Committee of Engineers and who had much money invested in Russia. In June 1917, Boyle undertook a mission to
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
on behalf of the American Committee of Engineers in London to help reorganize the country's railway system. Boyle arrived in Petrograd (modern
St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
) on 25 June 1917. In December 1917, he successfully petitioned the new
Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
government of Russia to return archives and paper currency from the Kremlin to
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
.


In service of Romania

In February 1918 he served as the principal intermediary on behalf of the Romanian government in effecting a ceasefire with revolutionary forces in Bessarabia. On 23 February 1918, when Romania was on the brink of defeat, Boyle first met Queen Marie, who was lying dejected on her sofa as she heard the news that Romania had asked for an armistice with Germany. Although Marie was only a queen consort, she was vastly more popular with the Romanian people than her husband, King Ferdinand, and it she who was the focal point of popular affection. At the time she vowed: "My English blood refuses to accept disaster. If there remains the smallest, most meagre fighting chance, I shall fight on-a losing battle no doubt, but I shall consider myself unworthy of my own ideals were I to give in before I am completely convinced that all is lost". Boyle's arrival at the Romanian court and his promise as he got on his knees to shake the queen's hand and to swear that he would never abandon her did much to lift her spirits. Marie later wrote of him: "I can honestly say that during that dark period of my life, Joe Boyle kept me from despairing...This strong, self-reliant man had been my rock on a stormy sea". One biographer of Queen Marie wrote of him: "An exaggeration of a man, Colonel Boyle reads today like a fictional hero created by his contemporaries to lighten the frustrations of defeat. Were it not for the corroborating memoirs of his partner, Captain George A. Hill of the British Secret Service, we would write Boyle off as the wish fulfillment of a desperate queen looking for a twentieth-century version of Lancelot". Boyle, in cooperation with Captain George Hill, a Russian-speaking member of the British secret service, carried out clandestine operations against German and Bolshevik forces in Bessarabia and southwestern Russia. Just one of their many exploits together had been secreting the Romanian crown jewels and Romanian treasury out of the Kremlin and back into Romania. In March–April 1918, he rescued some 50 high-ranking Romanians held in Odessa by revolutionaries. This made Boyle a national hero in Romania and gave him influence within its royal court. At a time when defeatism was rampant in Romania, Boyle together with Queen Marie and her lover, Prince
Barbu Știrbey Prince Barbu Alexandru Știrbey (; 4 November 1872 – 24 March 1946) was 30th Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Romania in 1927. He was the son of Prince Alexandru Știrbey and his wife Princess Maria Ghika-Comănești, and grandson of another ...
were the main advocates that the Allies would still win the war. Over the queen's strong opposition, Romania signed on 7 May 1918 the humiliating Treaty of Bucharest. One of the terms of the Treaty of Bucharest was that German civil servants were to be placed in charge of every Romanian ministry with the power to veto decisions by Romanian cabinet ministers and to fire Romanian civil servants, a clause which effectively stripped Romania of its independence and turned it into a German protectorate. Other terms of the treaty subjected Romania to a ruthless policy of economic exploitation, which caused living standards in Romania to collapse. Marie spent much of her fortune on charity attempting to assist her destitute people, an endeavour in which Boyle joined in, spending much of his own fortune on charity. Adding to Marie's woes, on 31 August 1918, the Crown Prince Carol, whose debauchery and dissolute ways had often worried her, impulsively deserted his Romanian Army unit and eloped to marry in Odessa
Zizi Lambrino Joanna Marie Valentina "Zizi" Lambrino (3 October 1898 – 11 March 1953) was the first wife of the later King Carol II of Romania. They had one son, Carol, born in 1920, in Bucharest. Life Born in the former Byzantine, Phanariot Rangabe-Lambr ...
. Marie was strongly opposed to her son's marriage to Lambrino and feared the fact he had deserted his unit would discredit the monarchy. Boyle provided the queen much emotional support as she later wrote that Carol's actions were "a staggering family tragedy which hit us suddenly, a stunning blow for which we were entirely unprepared. I felt myself very sick. Carol! My honest big boy, at such a moment when the country is in such a state, when all our moral courage is needed, when we, the Royal Family, are the only thing that holds it together. I was completely crushed. Only Boyle and Barbu knew". Boyle advised Marie to be strict with Carol, who technically could have been executed for desertion, arguing that if Carol was not punished in some way, then the monarchy would be discredited with the Romanian people. Boyle realized that as the Romanian Army had executed a number of men for desertion during the war that to allow Carol to escape unpunished for doing the same thing that commoners were executed for would ruin the prestige of the monarchy. Carol was banished to a remote Orthodox monastery located high up in the Carpathian Mountains with instructions that he would be released only after he agreed to annul his marriage to the commoner Zambrino and publicly apologise for deserting his unit. Marie visited the monastery to inform him that King Ferdinand was planning to exclude him from the succession unless he met their conditions. When Marie could not convince Carol that she was serious with this threat, Boyle visited Carol at the monastery on her behalf and was more successful. When Boyle returned to tell the queen that Carol had agreed, she wrote: "Boyle was as near tears as a man can be, it was a cruel and sickening victory...Nando er pet name for Ferdinandand I both thanked Boyle with emotion". On 8 November 1918, Romania renounced the Treaty of Bucharest and declared war again on the
Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...
and Germany, thus technically making Romania one of the victorious allies. Though Romania was finally able to gain
Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
, Marie confessed to Boyle that she was highly worried about the future, writing to him: "The main dangers and difficulties are, it seems, the famine danger and a strong Bolshevik propaganda conducted by the Germans in the occupied territories, a ruthless propaganda because they carry with them whatever could be carried, and the empty stomach doesn't reason. The theory is: if they fall, they want Romania to sink first, to be totally destroyed under all aspects; but we don't want it destroyed, do we?" Marie was the driving force behind the promise issued by King Ferdinand that to reward his subjects for their wartime suffering, then postwar Romania would pursue land reform, breaking up the estates of the ''boyars'' (nobility) to provide land for their peasants and provide universal suffrage. At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 Boyle was instrumental in helping Romania to obtain a $25-million credit from the Canadian government. He was awarded the special title of "Saviour of Romania". On the Queen's behalf, Boyle organized millions of dollars of Canadian relief for Romanians, earning the title of hero. He was decorated for his exploits by the governments of Tsarist Russia, France, Britain and Romania. Queen Marie, who was notably fond of him, made him the Duke of Jassy. He remained a close friend, and was at one time a possible lover of the Romanian Queen, British-born Marie of Edinburgh (better known as Marie of Romania). His relationship with the queen remains something of a mystery. Some historians speculated they were lovers and point to a mysterious woman in black who is said to have brought flowers to his grave every year on the anniversary of his death in 1923. Queen Marie died in 1938 and nobody appeared at his grave after that year, so it was always thought that she was the mystery woman.


Death

Boyle died at "Wayside" in St James's Road,
Hampton Hill Hampton Hill (initially known as "New Hampton") is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames to the south of Twickenham, bounded by Fulwell and Twickenham Golf Courses to the northwest; the road bridge over the railway line; a ...
, on 14 April 1923. His remains were buried in the churchyard of
St James's St James's is a central district in the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the West End. In the 17th century the area developed as a residential location for the British aristocracy, and around the 19th century was the focus of the d ...
on 17 April 1923. Boyle's remains were re-interred in his Canadian home town of
Woodstock, Ontario Woodstock is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The city has a population of 40,902 according to the 2016 Canadian census. Woodstock is the seat of Oxford County, at the head of the non-navigable Thames River, approximately 128 km from ...
in 1983, in a full military funeral.


In fiction

In the 2018 historical novel ''The Romanov Empress'' by C.W. Gortner, Boyle presents himself to Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna at
Yalta Yalta (: Я́лта) is a resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Cri ...
—as a Canadian
White Army The White Army (russian: Белая армия, Belaya armiya) or White Guard (russian: Бѣлая гвардія/Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya, label=none), also referred to as the Whites or White Guardsmen (russian: Бѣлогв ...
colonel—with news that
George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...
is sending a British battleship HMS ''Marlborough'' to rescue the remaining Romanovs.‘’The Romanov Empress: A Novel of Tsarina Maria Feodorovna’’ Ballantine Books (2018) In the novel, Boyle claims to have been in
Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg ( ; rus, Екатеринбург, p=jɪkətʲɪrʲɪnˈburk), alternatively romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( rus, Свердло́вск, , svʲɪrˈdlofsk, 1924–1991), is a city and the administra ...
where he learned first-hand of the death of Nicholas II and his family—and is the first to report it to the tsar's mother. He also reported the death of her other son, Grand Duke Michael. In the graphic novel ''
Sous le soleil de minuit The Sous region (also spelt Sus, Suss, Souss or Sousse) ( ar, سوس, sūs, shi, ⵙⵓⵙ, sus) is an area in mid-southern Morocco. Geologically, it is the alluvial basin of the Sous River (''Asif n Sus''), separated from the Sahara desert by ...
'', published in 2015 by writer
Juan Díaz Canales Juan Díaz Canales is a Spanish comics artist and an animated film director, known as the co-creator of '' Blacksad''. Biography At an early age, Juan Díaz Canales became interested in comics and their creation, which progressed and broadened ...
and artist Rubén Pellejero, Joe Boyle accompanies
Corto Maltese ''Corto Maltese'' is a series of adventure and fantasy comics named after the character Corto Maltese, an adventurous sailor. It was created by the Italian comic book creator Hugo Pratt in 1967. The comics are highly praised as some of the most ...
in 1915 in his Alaskan adventure.''Bajo el sol de medianoche'',
Juan Díaz Canales Juan Díaz Canales is a Spanish comics artist and an animated film director, known as the co-creator of '' Blacksad''. Biography At an early age, Juan Díaz Canales became interested in comics and their creation, which progressed and broadened ...
and Rubén Pellejero,
Norma Editorial Norma Editorial is a Spanish comics publisher, with its headquarters in Barcelona.Home
Norma Editori ...
, Barcelona, 2015.
Boyle is a character in the 2012 historical novel, ''The Romanov Conspiracy'' by Glenn Meade.


Awards

*
Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, ty ...
- England * Croix de Guerre - France * Order of the Star of Romania (Grand Cross) - Romania * Order of the Crown of Romania (Commander) - Romania * Order of Regina Maria - Romania * Order of St. Vladimir, 4th Class - Russia * Order of St. Anne, 4th Class - Russia * Order of St. Stanislaus, 2nd Class - Russia


References


Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''


Books and articles

* * * * * *


External links




''Woodstock Public Library''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyle, Joseph 1867 births 1923 deaths Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) People from Dawson City Businesspeople from Toronto People of the Klondike Gold Rush