Hon. Pat Duncan: Honourable senators, I have the difficult task of following Senator Manning.

April 14, 2023, marked the one hundredth anniversary of the passing of Colonel “Klondike Joe” Boyle.

In 1867, Joseph Whiteside Boyle was born in Toronto, the son of Irish immigrants, and grew up in Woodstock, Ontario. In 1897, among the first to reach the goldfields in the Yukon, he mined gold in the traditional manner. By 1900, having the hydraulic mining rights to eight miles in the Klondike Valley, Joe’s Canadian Klondike Mining Company brought in giant dredges to mine gold from the creeks. One of the dredges is a restored national historic site on Bonanza Creek near Dawson City.

An incredibly wealthy miner, in 1905 Joe sponsored a hockey team, the Dawson City Nuggets, who travelled from the Yukon to challenge the Ottawa Silver Seven for the Stanley Cup.

When war broke out in 1914, the “King of the Klondike” was too old to enlist. Instead, he established and financed 50 recruits, the Yukon Motor Machine Gun Battery. The unit saw varied action throughout the war, including fighting at Vimy Ridge. In 1916, Boyle was appointed an honorary Lieutenant-General in the Canadian Militia, entitling him to wear a military uniform, which he decorated with maple leaf-shaped buttons made of gold from the Klondike mines. Taking himself to England, he looked for more opportunities to serve the war effort.

In 1917, he was sent to Russia to help reorganize the railway system. His adventures across Eastern Europe earned Boyle medals from Romania, Russia, France and Britain. After a daring rescue of Romanian officials, Colonel Boyle became known as the “Saviour of Romania.”

Boyle became a spy for the British Secret Service, running a network of 500 agents across Russia, Ukraine and Romania.

He romanced the Queen of Romania — the British royal Marie of Edinburgh — and negotiated the first peace treaty of World War I. He was a friend of King George V and earned the admiration of Vladimir Lenin.

He attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. Advocating for Romania, he secured $25 million in aid for the country from Canada.

In 1923, he was buried in England. In 1983, thanks to the efforts of his daughter Flora and citizens of Woodstock, Ontario, his remains were repatriated to Canada and reburied in the Woodstock Presbyterian Cemetery with full military honours.

A large monument marks his grave. The original, a gift from Queen Marie, can be seen today in the Woodstock Museum. The original bears the words, from Robert Service, “Man with the heart of a Viking and the simple faith of a child.”

In 1984, Boyle was recognized by Canada as a person of national historic significance. In the Yukon, the Department of National Defence cadet camp is named Boyle Barracks.

Max Fraser, a Yukon filmmaker, is planning a documentary about the “King of the Klondike,” Colonel Joe Boyle, so Canadians can learn more of the story of this Yukoner, Canadian and international hero.

Mähsi’cho, Gùnáłchîsh. Thank you, senators.