Canadian Deaths in Cairo Remembered

Jim Elliott thought that in the light of today's news from Egypt the Amigos could spare a thought for Joseph MacLeod Boyer.

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1952 Jan. 27: "CANADIAN TRADE COMMISSIONER SLAIN - Rioters in Cairo Kill J. M. Boyer, Former N.B. Man - Canada Will Protest To Egypt Through U.K.; Two Others Die as Mobs Burn City's Fashionable British Turf Club.

Ottawa, Jan. 27 - Canada will make an official protest against rioting which led to the death of Joseph MacLeod Boyer, Canadian Trade Commissioner, killed in Cairo Saturday, diplomatic officials
said today.

Since Canada has no direct diplomatic link with the Egyptian government, the protest will be made through the United Kingdom, officials said.

But no other action is being planned against Egypt, though officials here were deeply moved buy the report that the 54-year old commissioner was a victim of anti-foreign demonstrations in Cairo.

H. W. Cheney, acting director of the trade commissioner service, said the report of the death was "a tremendous shock". Officials in Cairo had said only a short while ago that they thought they could
ride through the uprising without being molested.

It was believed to be the first such killing in Canadian trade commissioner history. There had been other deaths in the worldwide service, but none involved the same set of circumstances which saw a
Canadian become a victim in a split between two other powers.

Mr. Boyer, a veteran of two world wars, was not the kind of man to incite hatred or ill-feeling, his trade department colleagues said. Tall and spare, he was reserved and hard-working, ever mindful of
his duty.

Reports from Cairo said Mr. Boyer, a native of Victoria, N. B., was among three men who died when the rioting mobs burned the fasionable British Turf Club in the centre of Cairo.

The body has been identified by C. E. Butterworth, 27, of Ottawa, assistant trade commissioner at Cairo.

Joseph "MacLeod" BOYER 1897-1952
MacLeod Boyer, B.A., is the first to win an appointment as Junior
Trade Commissioner in Canada, he having led 400 applicants from
coast to coast. In 1946 he was Canadian Trade Commissioner
living in Chicago.
In the late war J. MacLeod Boyer won the Military Cross at Cambrai.
married on 5 Sept. 1923 Helen Marion GANTER 1896-1989

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The above from a history of his birthplace in New Brunswick. I [Jim Elliott] have a bit of an interest. His ATC, Charlie Butterworth, apparently witnessed his boss being torn apart by the street mob, escaped in Arab dress, and resigned. While he was waiting for the separation paperwork, claims etc, to be processed he was sent on a sort of recruiting tour. Among those to whom he spoke was yours truly.

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Five years later, Cairo was the location of another Canadian death, this time of our Ambassador, Herbert Norman, who took his own life as a result of anti-communist hysteria in the US Senate. A CBC archives clip can be heard here. - Ed