1 0 3 5 3 " * 5 r 1 3 0 ' * - & LORNE NORMAN BOYD AND THE ARMISTICE CENTENNIAL
GREGG CHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
Boyd did a little out-of-the-box thinking and found a shortcut solution. He found an identical wingtip on another type plane that was not fully assembled. All that was needed was to re-drill the bolt holes for attaching it to their plane. “So, we worked on it overtime until four in the morning, and then we gave them that plane, all fixed and ready, in the morning,” he said, smiling. War time As a crackerjack airplane mechanic, Boyd was too valuable to the war effort at home UPTFOEIJNPGGUP&VSPQFBTQBSUPGUIF $BOBEJBO"SNFE'PSDFTEVSJOHUIF4FDPOE World War. But he was a member of the 17th Duke of York’s Royal Hussars army reserve unit and spent some of his weekends or other free time on maneuvers around the Québec countryside. “We’d drive around in the Bren gun car- riers. The Bren carrier was a caterpillar-style vehicle. It was a little awkward to handle. You didn’t steer it with a steering wheel. You steered with levers in your right and left hands.” One time Boyd and the other drivers were asked to volunteer on a test of the Bren carrier’s ability for extreme maneuver BCJMJUZ&WFSZPOFBIFBEPG#PZEEFDMJOFE to volunteer, because they all had full-time jobs and didn’t want to risk getting hurt and then not being able to work and lose their paycheques. “I said I’ll give it a try, it didn’t look too hard,” he recalled, with a grin. A trench was dug, and the dirt heaped up high on one side of the hole. Boyd’s challenge was to drive the Bren carrier up and off of the berm and clear the trench on the other side. “I had her going wide open. I landed about two or three feet on the other side of the trench.” He grinned. “I wasn’t really thinking too much at the time. I was just hanging on (to the levers) with both hands.” His best friend Boyd met his wife, Gladys, during his off- time away from the plant. “She was working at a factory over in Brownsburg. She was out walking with my neighbour, who waved and introduced me to her.” Boyd smiled. “She (Gladys) quit her job in Brownsburg and got another in Montréal.” They got married two years after they first met. Both continued at their jobs and in between work, they liked to travel, most often using Boyd’s free plane travel benefit as a company mechanic. -PPLJOHCBDLPWFSUIFZFBSTOPX POF thing that stands out most to Boyd is how the opportunity for people to travel away from their homes has changed. “The first thing was how cars became popular,” he said. “When I was born, there wasn’t a single car in the backcountry. People used teams of horses to pull a plough or pull a cart.” Nowadays Boyd doesn’t drive because his eyesight won’t let him qualify for a licence. But he sees things fine as far as he’s concerned. His children now live out West, but they are all coming to Hawkesbury for November 9 for an early celebration of his UICJSUIEBZ XIFOUIF3PZBM$BOBEJBO -FHJPOXJMMNBLFBTQFDJBMQSFTFOUBUJPO UP-PSOF/PSNBO#PZEBTQBSUPG1SFTDPUU Russell’s commemoration of the centennial anniversary of the Armistice.
Lorne Norman Boyd’s birthday this year is a special occasion, not just for the Hawkesbury retiree but for the rest of Canada and many other countries around the world. Boyd turns 100 on November 11 this year, which is also the 100th anniversary of the Armistice and the end of the First World War. Boyd just smiles when asked if he was ever told as a child about the significance of his birthday. It may have been mentioned in passing but, he observed, he and everyone else in his family along with their neighbours, were more occupied with making a go of their farming homesteads in The Glen area PG2VÊCFDT-BVSFOUJBOTSFHJPO “We had a hundred-acre lot, but most of it was bush,” Boyd recalled. “We kept a few dairy cows, a couple of horses for plowing, and a driving horse for Mother. She liked to drive a cutter sleigh in winter to go EPTIPQQJOHPWFSJO-BDIVUF BCPVUUISFF hours away.” "GBSNDIJMETMJGFJO&BTUFSO$BOBEBJO the early years of the last century revolved around chores for the most part. There were cows to milk, eggs to collect, and other work that needed doing. “Most people grew their own vegetables and kept a few cows and chickens. We only killed enough of them to keep for over the winter, either to freeze (in the ice house) or to salt it. When I got older, I used to help my dad in the sawmill. He built a sawmill down the road a’piece, cut logs for folks who needed it done, and also railroad ties, which was a big business at the time.” One-room schoolhouse Schooling for all of the children in The Glen was at a one-room schoolhouse with a teacher who taught them all, from grades from one to seven. When Boyd finished his (SBEF IFXFOUUP-BDIVUFXIJDIIBEB high school. After he graduated, he worked for his dad at the sawmill during the summer and spent winters with him in the woods on
Lorne Norman Boyd, résident de Hawkesbury, célèbre cette année un anniversaire unique et spécial. Il fêtera son 100e anniversaire le 11 novembre, soit le 100e anniversaire de la signature de l’armistice et de la fin de la Première Guerre mondiale. —photo Gregg Chamberlain
HPUBKPCXJUI5SBOT$BOBEB"JSMJOFT XIJDI MBUFSDIBOHFEJUTOBNFUP"JS$BOBEB BOE continued his career in the aviation field, either putting planes together, refurbishing them to meet new design specifications, or doing maintenance or repair work on them. Most of his work was straightforward, except for one assignment. “It was a rush job,” he remembered. “They brought this plane into the hangar and went and chipped the tip of the wing on the hangar door frame. They asked could me could I fix it and I said it would be a big job to fix the frame and replace the (wing) skin. Then they told me they needed the plane for the next day. So, they gave me an engineer to help me and we went at it.”
their land, cutting trees and using a horse team to skid the logs out to the mill for cutting later. “My dad bought a car in 1924, a Stude- baker,” he recalled, smiling. “The only other cars in our area were Model T’s. That Stude- baker was the first gear-shift car around our area. My dad was looked up to by everyone with that car.” Boyd Sr. wanted his son to take over UIFGBNJMZTBXNJMMCVUJOTUFBE ZPVOH-PSOF GPMMPXFEBGSJFOE -FTMJF$MJGGPSE UP.POUSÊBM to work at a plant that made British-designed warplanes. Plane fun “Working on airplanes is the only work I’ve ever done,” Boyd said, adding that he later
Hawkesbury resident Lorne Norman Boyd (front row, second from left) went to a one-room school house with other children in the Laurentian farm country where he grew up in Québec. He was born November 11, 1918, the same day that the Armistice was signed, ending the First World War, so this year has personal historic significance for him. —supplied photo
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