BFH: Rosamond Boultbee (1878-1957)

Rosamond Boultbee (1878 - 1957)

(written by the Editors)

ROSAMOND BOULTBEE aged about 46

     Rosamond was the fourth daughter of William and Marian Boultbee. She was born June 6, 1878 in Toronto while her parents were on a two-year furlough from the railroad project in India. Late that year, she and her parents returned to India. The project was completed by 1882, and the family returned again to Toronto. She would have had some memories of her childhood in India.
     She published a book Pilgrimages and Personalities in 1924 about her childhood, her early adult years in Toronto, Ottawa, London and Paris, and her war correspondent years. Beginning in the fall of 1914, she reported originally to the Toronto News and in 1916 to the Toronto Star and to the London Bystander from London, Paris, Petrograd, Kiev, Odessa, Bucharest, Moscow, Rome, London again, Venice, Sienna, Milan, Berne, and Geneva, in that order, and ending in the summer of 1918. She had a breakdown that summer, and returned to England to convalesce. Her health improved by November, and she reported on the Peace Conference from Paris. She returned to Toronto in January 1920.
     It is amazing that she was not harmed during those four wartime years of travelling in Allied and neutral countries. She was delayed several times at borders by staff who were suspicious of her intentions, but she had a domineering voice that managed to gain her access each time. She made friends of persons with authority wherever she went, and carried letters from them to gain privileges when needed.
     She became fond of a Russian man whom she nicknamed The Pole Boy in her book, and they kept in touch by letters for a while. Eventually he had to join the army. He served at the front, was wounded, shell shocked, convalesced, returned to the service, and unfortunately was killed in action at Galicia.
     After the war, and the preparation of her book, she retired to England to live at Eastbourne on the south coast. During the Second World War, she served as a volunteer Air Raid Warden. Also, she returned to journalism, mailing articles to Toronto Saturday Night about life in England as she saw it.
     She died at Eastbourne in 1957.