J. Erroll Boyd

Born in Toronto on November 22, 1891, Erroll Boyd, the son of James and Minnie Arabella Boyd, was the youngest of their three children, with a brother, Norman, and a sister, Dorothy. Erroll had his first flight in 1912 - an experience that had life-changing consequences for him. In 1913 he enlisted to serve in the First World War and was granted a commission with the rank of Lieutenant on August 31, 1914 in the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada (2nd Battalion). Later, he was given leave to go to England and join the Royal Naval Services (RNAS) in Great Britain.

After receiving a commission as a probationary Flight Sub-Lieutenant, Erroll learned to fly in a primitive Wright biplane at the Eastchurch naval station in England in 1915.

In September 1915 he was posted to Dunkirk where his duties included stalking Zeppelins and attacking submarines with crude bombs. On October 3, his aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire at 12,000 feet. With severe damage to the engine, propellor and wings, he was still able to make a forced landing just over the Dutch border, where he was taken by Dutch soldiers and interned as a prisoner in neutral Holland.

Paroled in December 1915 with other officers on the promise they would not escape, Boyd spent time in The Hague.  Until the end of the war Lieutenant Boyd was twice granted permission to return to Canada and the United States for visiting. With the amalgamation of the RNAS and the Royal Flying Corps to form the Royal Air Force on April 1, 1918, Boyd was promoted to the rank of Captain.

While in the U.S on leave from his internment, in July 1917 Erroll married Evelyn Carbery, whom he had first met in 1914 when she was playing in a musical comedy in Toronto. The couple eventually became the parents of five daughters - Bey, Kathleen, Jean, Honor and Virginia. Some daughters were born in the U.S. and some in Canada, but all were baptized in Toronto.

Following the war, Boyd operated a garage and rental car business in Toronto. A talented pianist and song writer, he penned the lyrics for Dreams, which became a hit on Broadway song in 1920s, prompting a return to New York, Erroll got a job in hotel management, taking flying jobs when he could. In 1926 he took a position in Detroit as manager of the Michigan office for Cross and Blackwell of marmalade fame. Erroll tried unsuccessfully to get his employer to sponsor an aircraft for transatlantic flight.

In 1928, he accepted a position with Pan-American World Airways to fly in Mexico. Experience gained there with Pan-American and later with Mexicana would serve him well in the future. In February 1929, when the Boyds returned to New York, Erroll was hired as a pilot and operations manager by Coastal Airways, which offered passenger service with float equipped aircraft, mainly on the northeast coast of the United States. A year later, early in the Depression, the company folded, once again leaving Captain Boyd looking for work.

Continuing his quest to fly across the Atlantic, Erroll made arrangements to make the flight using an aircraft named Columbia, a Wright - Bellanca WB-2, built by the Wright Aeronautical Corp. in 1925.

Having first gained employment with Charles Levine, owner of Columbia, in May 1930, Erroll Boyd teamed up with two experienced aviators. Roger Williams had flown the first flight from the U.S. to Rome. Harry Connor was a navigator with the U.S. Navy. On June 9, 1930, with Boyd at the controls, they flew Columbia from Roosevelt Field, New York, circled Bermuda and returned, a flight of 17 hours. Boyd's next challenge was to fly Columbia across the Atlantic, starting in Canada.

The aircraft had been flown to Montreal by Roger Williams, where Boyd took possession of it, to be returned later to its owner. After securing some financial backing for a transatlantic flight, he rechristened the aircraft as Maple leaf. Harry Connor approached Boyd, wanting to be navigator on a flight across the Atlantic, and the two men eventually flew Maple Lead to Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, the starting point for the flight, arriving on September 23, 1930.

On October 9, fully loaded with 460 gallons of fuel and carrying some 300 letters for the first air mail from Canada, Maple Leaf lifted off from the Harbour Grace grass airstrip. It carried no radio, as eliminating weight allowed for more fuel on board.

Intending to touch down at Land's End in the western tip of England, it was discovered that the 100-gallon reserve tank was unusable due to a clogged fuel line. Jettisoning the 100 gallons in the reserve tank to reduce fire hazard in an emergency landing, after nearly 20 hours in the air, Boyd and Connor landed short of mainland England on the narrow beach of Tresco, second largest of the Isles of Scilly, stopping at water's edge with empty tanks. It was the first transatlantic flight by a Canadian, and proved that air mail service across the ocean was possible. 

The Royal Air Force flew in 50 gallons of fuel for Boyd's three-hour flight the next day to Croydon, the original intended destination. There to meet them as the celebrations began was Charles Levine, owner of the aircraft. The next morning both pilot and navigator met for breakfast with Canadian Prime Minister R.B. Bennett and Ontario Premier G. T. Ferguson.

On October 30, Boyd and Connor flew Maple Leaf to Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris, and were celebrated in all three cities. Returning to Canada by ship in November, the aviators were welcomed as heroes. A huge crowd in Toronto welcomed the aviators and celebrations included a civic reception and a banquet. The aircraft had been dismantled, shipped to Canada and taken to St. Hubert for reassembly.

In 1932-33 Erroll Boyd established President Airlines Inc. with himself as president and was successful in getting financial backing for another record-setting flight. In June 1933, he flew from New York in the eight-year old Maple Leaf with co-pilot Robert Lyon and a journalist on a pioneering travel promotion non-stop flight for Port-au-Prince, Haiti, returning to Washington. Difficulties caused by rough weather caused Boyd to say it was the toughest flight he had ever flown.

In 1938, as the aviation editor of the Toronto Star, Boyd’s popularity as a newspaper writer in his regular ‘Wings Over Toronto’ column placed him in a position of influence to raise awareness of the importance of aviation in Canada. He formed the Aviation Scouts of Canada, another effort to popularize aviation, this time to inspire young people. It was a non-profit venture for which he published and edited a magazine by that name. The organization became the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets.

In 1939, prior to the start of the Second World War, Erroll Boyd moved to the United States and applied for American citizenship, hoping the move would lead to better employment opportunities. With the outbreak of the Second World War, in New York he was taken on as executive officer of the Clayton Knight Committee, named for its organizer, which worked towards generating interest among American pilots to assist Great Britain and Canada in their war effort. Erroll was involved in extensive travel to encourage men to enlist as pilots in the RAF or the RCAF.

Boyd then landed a job with aircraft builder Higgins Aviation in New Orleans, a short-lived position.

Following the war, Erroll Boyd returned to hotel management, operating a hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. He continued his association with aviation, flying until 1957, by which time he had logged over 9,000 hours as a pilot.

In 1930, following his transatlantic flight, Erroll was presented with a gold medal from the International League of Fliers for France and a huge flagon by Canada’s Governor General, The Viscount Willingdon. The City of Toronto presented Boyd with a cabinet of sterling silver. A station on the Hudson Bay Railway was named for him. In 1933 after the non-stop flight to Haiti, he was presented with the country’s Medal of Honour and Merit.

Retiring in Florida with his wife, Evelyn, the Boyds purchased a home in Pompano Beach. Erroll continued to suffer health problems. While working on a book about his life in aviation, Erroll Boyd died at the family vacation home in Connecticut at the age of 69 on November 27, 1960. James Erroll Dunsford Boyd was buried near his home at Pompano Beach, Florida.