153 Mile House: Dr. Cecil Boyd’s First World War Letters
153 Mile House History
The 153 Mile House is one of the last surviving roadhouses built along British Columbia’s historic Cariboo Waggon Road. During the Cariboo Gold Rush, thousands of miners, freight teams, and travellers passed along the Cariboo Waggon Road. Mile houses such as 153 Mile House, provided meals, supplies, and rest before continuing to the goldfields.
153 Mile House – Credit: BC History Diary
The gold rush in British Columbia ended by the end of the twentieth century, however, the 153 Mile House remained an important gathering place for those in the surrounding ranching community. The general store served the local ranching families and travellers in the Cariboo region.
The Crosina and Patenaude Families
In 1900, Louis and Clara Crosina opened the general store at 153 Mile House. They served ranchers, travellers, and local families and over time built close relationships with their neighbours and customers. The store was more than a place a business, it was also a meeting place where neighbours exchanged news and travellers stopped to rest, resulting in lasting friendships.
After Louis and Clara passed away, Lil took over running the store. By 1958 she decided to step back and sold the ranch to Joe and Peggy Patenaude. Today, visitors can tour the historic store.
First World War Letters Sent to 153 Mile House
Among the items preserved by the Crosina and Patenaude families, are letters written to their families from customers and friends. Customers had the habit of mailing in their orders and also wanting to know the last gossip in the region. This didn’t stop when these customers and friends went off to war. Instead the store received letters from those overseas fighting in the First World War, still eager to remain connected to the Crosinas and their community.
Who was Dr. Cecil Anderson Boyd?
Dr. Cecil Boyd’s Family and Rugby Career
Cecil Boyd- Credit: Ancestry.ca
Cecil was born in Dublin to Walter Boyd and Annie Catherine Anderson. His father, Sir Walter Boyd, was an Irish bankruptcy judge and also a High Court Justice and Privy Counsellor who became the 1st Baronet Boyd of Howth House in 1916. Cecil was an Irish rugby union play who played international rugby for Ireland. In 1896 he represented a British Isles team in their tour of South Africa. He was the second son Sir Walter Boyd, 1st Baronet. As the second son, Cecil did not inherit the baronetcy, which passed to his older brother before eventually passing to Cecil’s son.
Dr. Cecil Boyd: Cariboo Physician
In 1908, Cecil was appointed as health officer for the Province of British Columbia and in 1909 became the resident physician for 150 Mile House and Chilcotin districts.
Dr. Cecil Boyd’s First World War Service
Cecil Boyd Credit: The Crosina and Patenaude Families
Cecil began the war by serving in France in 1914. After only one year he was promoted to Captain and by the end of the war he was a Major. He was awarded the Military Cross for his devotion to duty. Cecil would repeatedly attend to wounded soldiers while under heavy shell fire, repeatedly risking his life in order to save others. There were a few occasions when he had to leave his first aid post, and each time he was able to remove all the wounded soldiers with him. He successfully evacuated many wounded soldiers to safety.
Dr. Cecil Boyd After the First World War
After the war, he remained overseas for several years serving with the Royal Army medical Corps. In 1923 he married Gwendolyn Hardie of Prince Rupert. The bride was a very popular young woman who had only graduated from high school two years prior to the wedding. Yes, there was nearly a thirty year age difference between Dr. Boyd and his bride. Dr. Boyd had long been close to the family so it surprised no one when these two decided to get married. After their wedding they lived in Shawnigan Lake.
The couple welcomed three daughters, Deirdre Anna Boyd in 1925 and Aideen Gwendolyn Boyd in 1926, and Ruth Mary born in 1928. Sadly, Gwendolyn died in 1930 at the young age of 25. In 1932, Cecil remarried to a lady named Marjorie Catherine Kinloch. They had one child, a boy named Alexander Walter Boyd born in 1934.
Credit: The Province, March 2, 1942
Cecil died in 1942 at the age of 66 at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, British Columbia.
The War Through One Officer’s Eyes
Cecil paints a vivid picture for the Crosinas about what war is like in France. He speaks of the stark contrast in landscape. From endless mud to ruined French towns, Cecil longs for the peaceful ranching world that is the Cariboo region. Wagons and horses were no strange sight in the Cariboo.
Below is an image of a freight team of horses on a muddy Cariboo Road in 1910. It makes you wonder what the conditions were like where Cecil was when he said that the mud in France is something those in the Cariboo have never seen.
Freight Team on Cariboo Waggon Road- Credit: BC Archives Reference I-58408
Supporting the War Efforts in the Cariboo
While the soldiers were on the front lines, those remaining at home were focused on fundraising for the troops. Whether it was a masquerade ball put on by the local Red Cross branch, or the Women’s Institute going door-to-door to gather warm clothes to send abroad. The war and those fighting it were never far from anyone’s mind.
Credit: Quesnel Cariboo Observer, January 20, 1917
The Letters
Cecil Boyd’s Letter to Mrs. Crosina – April 16, 1917
April 16th
My dear Mrs. Crosina,
I am very sorry for not answering your last letter soon but I’ve had a fairly busy time and very little in the way of news. I got home all right from Salonika and after a very short leave and a spell of duty in the old —– I came to France in February. I was sent straight up to the front to an ambulance and have since put in a very cold and muddy time. At first it was mostly snow and hard ground other since the that it has been snow and acres of mud. You never saw such mud Cariboo at its very worst in the that was clean and good going compared with what we have had for the past six weeks.
One only saving grace is that I was given a job to my likely, namely transport officer of the ambulance. I have 55 horses, 49 men and several wagons under my control. It was hard work at first licking them into shape as everything had been terribly neglected before I came but I’ve got things going now more or less to my liking and hope to be able to take life a bit easier. This particular division has not had much fighting since I joined and at present we are supposed to be resting and training to be ready when out turn comes to strafe the Hun which I don’t think will be long coming now.
The war _____lately have been great, My brother is on staff of the Canadians who took Vimy Ridge on Easter Sunday. I had a note from him yesterday which was full of praise for the way the Canadians had done their work then. They did not over burden themselves better than live ones I’m glad they got this chance as they owe Bochesquite a bit to wipe out old scum. We are fighting hard still and there is lots of noise day and night and if only the weather would buck up and get fine we could do far better. Even then we have already done. I’m not going to prophesy about the end, the pooches arriving is very strong yet and will take a lot of beating. Our only hope of an early peace is their food supply running short and the navy giving theirs a good licking, otherwise we are here for another year or more but I’m an optimist and always hope for the best.
I’m still hoping to see the end this year and I’ll be a long way from sorry when it comes as I want to get back to a peaceful life again. I often envy you all on the Cariboo Road, not that you have not got your worries too but you don’t have to listen to the eternal roar of guns and to see nothing but men dressed in Khakis and counting laid waste. I was in one of the large towns which the bocheshave retreated from the other day. In peace times it was a beautiful place with fine buildings. Before they left the bochesblew up every house having first driven all the inhabitants into the churches. They next drove them out of the churches into the streets & blew the churches up. Then they retaliated taking all the younger women with them, leaving the old men & women & children to be — & cared for by us.
The filthy crimes they have committed on them inhabitants of these towns and villages in unwritable and makes me wonder if their really is a God to take revenge? God help the —- women if even the french get amongst them as there will be no controlling them after these latest outrages. It is impossible to conceive that white men supposed to be civilized could behave as the —— have behaved and it makes one ask oneself if civilizations is really a great thing it is suppose to be. Of course we are all glad Uncle Same has stopped note writing and intends to get to work if he had come in a year ago the war would have been over now but it did not look a safe investment then as it does now.
I heard from Mr. Dunn the other day that the gov’t agent’s office at 150 Mtn had been burnt down. I hope —–had nothing he valued in the house. I’ve not heard from him in a very long time.
Well, Mrs. Crosina, I must “begin to end” I hope you are all very fit and have lots of good luck and have good news of Lil and Willie from Victoria. Please write and tell me some good news. Write to 66 Merrion Square Office as if I am moved from this division, a letter sent here might not find me.
Kind regards to all old friends and the very best of good wishes to you, Louis, & the pups. I’m afraid I must stop using the last name or I’ll be liable to a beating from some grown up young ladies when I get back .
Cecil A. Boyd
Credit: Crosina and Patenaude Families
Cecil’s Letter to Mrs. Crosina – January 19
66, Merrion Square, Dublin.
Jan. 19th
My dear Mrs. Crosina,
Your letter and cards only arrived three days ago. Thanks very much for them and for all your good wishes by best wish in return is that it may not be long till I see you all. I had hoped to start about the end of the month but so far I have failed to get passage so I’m going over to London tomorrow night as letter writing to the authorities seems useless. I’m longing to get back to Canada in general & B.C. and Cariboo in particular.
I wish I could tell you when I was likely to start but I won’t know that until after my London visit when I do get out I must go to the Coast first and try to get things straightened out there. That will take two or three weeks at least so I don’t expect to see Cariboo much before. I wish I could come up right away but I must go to the Coast as I have a lot of money there invested in my name which belonged to my father and that has now to be divided up among the family. I want to get the worry of it off my mind as soon as possible. I hope you had a real jolly time at xmas.
I was thinking of you that day and wishing I was with you as we had of course to put in a very quiet one here. I miss the old Dad very much especially in this big house as when I was home both before and during the war we always used to sit together in the smoking room and yearn away till all hours in the morning. Now I have to smoke alone and too much of your own company with sad thoughts is good for no one.
I’m going to let all my news keep till I see you as I’ve been real busy for the past two months. First in France with army work and since getting over here with family affairs which I have not got finished with, so you must excuse this hurried letter. I have not forgotten you and all your kindness to me. Of that you may be sure so don’t be thinking because you have not heard that I’ve put you and all my Cariboo friends on a side track. Not much. —– They are the best friends I have and I’ll let you all know it when I hit the road. Please thank Lillie (beg her pardon Miss Crosina) for her card. Best love to you all Very —- yours. Cecil A. Boyd
The Patenaude family has carefully preserved the original manuscripts featured in this post at the 153 Mile Ranch. I transcribed the letters verbatim, retaining the original spelling, grammar, and punctuation to preserve their historical authenticity. To make the collection more accessible, I added editorial introductions and historical context that place the letters within the broader social and historical landscape of twentieth-century British Columbia.
For over sixty years, Louis and Clara Crosina, and later on their daughter Lil, welcomed customers at 153 Mile House. When the store closed after Lil’s death in 1963, the building and its contents remained exactly as they were on her final day. Today, the building offers a…
153 Mile House’s History The 153 Mile House is one of the last surviving roadhouses built along British Columbia’s historic Cariboo Waggon Road. During the Cariboo Gold Rush, thousands of miners, freight teams, and travellers passed through the region in hopes of striking it rich. They stopped at…
The 153 Mile House is one of the last surviving roadhouses built along British Columbia’s historic Cariboo Waggon Road. During the Cariboo Gold Rush, thousands of miners, freight teams, and travellers passed through the region in hopes of striking it rich. They stopped at the houses at the…
Life at 153 Mile House offered many opportunites, but higher education was not one of them. The Crosina children attended a one-room school at nearby 150 miles, but to continue their education they had to travel hundres of kilometers to Victoria for their high school Education. Among the…
