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James Boyd in Sumatra (Indonesia). -
Elizabeth Douglas and James Boyd
“Just a line to let you know that old Pop has arrived safely back to the Island,” wrote International Driller James Boyd in a letter home to his family from New Caledonia, “[I’m] taking a fishing rod with me to try and catch some fine fish in the little streams below our camps.”
Life for an International Driller was filled with promise, risk, and the hope of reward. Men like Boyd had to be away from their families for months, or even years, at a time with the promise that they would one-day return. In the international fields they risked war, disease, unrest, and harsh work conditions for the hope of making their fortunes abroad.
James Gardner Boyd, born in Eastern Ontario in 1862, took on the risk of international drilling. Born to pioneering parents Gardner went on to work in the domestic oil fields of Petrolia. He married his wife Mary in 1895 and by 1899 Gardner moved his new family to Austria to work in the foreign fields.
The Boyd family moved across the world as James worked for companies like Imperial Oil, Standard Oil, and Anglo-Dutch Oil. In 12 years his family lived in Australia, Borneo, Romania, Sumatra, and Venezuela.
While some International Drillers chose to have their children educated by tutors in the work camps, Boyd chose to send his children to boarding school in England. Mary Boyd split her time between visiting her children in England, visiting her husband, and living in their home in Petrolia.
While working in Sumatra, James Boyd contracted malaria. Owing partly to complications from the disease and partly to the looming threat of the First World War, the Boyd family returned permanently to Canada in 1911.
James Boyd passed away due to complications from malaria in 1929.