Senneville's Three Most Famous People

September 27, 2023, 1:30 PM
These are Robert Carswell's speaker notes

INTRO

2 of the 3 people aren’t well known to everybody but all 3 deserve to be called INTERNATIONALLY famous. Many here know the 3 families better than I do. Please let me know when I get dates and family connections wrong.

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER 1929-2021

Sir John Abbott’s great-grandson.
One of the best English language actors, of stage and screen, in the last half of 20th century and the 21st. 70 years of acting!
Of his role in Othello (he played Iago) in 1982, the NYT reviewer wrote: Mr. Plummer, a sensational actor in peak form, has made something crushing out of our Shakespeare’s archvillain. He gives us an evil so pure – and so bottomless, that it can induce tears. Our tears are not for the dastardly Iago, of course--that would be wrong. No, what Mr. Plummer does is make us weep for a civilization that can produce such a man and allow him to flower.
Born Toronto, but raised by the Abbots in Senneville.
I met him and his wife on a dark street in Stratford Ont., after a superb performance of LEAR. Told him I knew his three AUNTS (Phyllis, Ruth and Betty Abbott), birdwatchers. We talked about Boisbriant, and about In Spite of Myself, his rollicking MEMOIRS (647 pages). Both he and Elaine were utterly charming.
Much about Canada in the Memoirs, including Sennevile, Boisbriant, Stratford, and Montreal (HSM) in the olden days, Wm Shatner, Janina Fialkowska (a distant cousin of his).
Toby Johnson was his best man.
He knew just about every famous star of stage, screen and TV you could name, from ORSON WELLES, LAURENCE OLIVIER, RALPH RICHARDSON, MAGGIE SMITH, ALEC GUINESS, PETER O’TOOLE, REX HARRISON, and RICHARD BURTON to SOPHIA LOREN and many others. Many were drinking buddies.
He won nearly every important acting award, including an Academy Ward, a Tony and a Primetime Emmy Award.
He took a long time to admit The Sound of Music wasn’t “sentimental and gooey”, the SOUND OF MUCUS. At the time it was the top grossing film.
Died in 2021 at 92.

JANINA FIALKOWSKA b.1951

A superb classical pianist, who has performed to international acclaim.
If you would like to get some idea of her ability, check YouTube Franz Liszt 3rd piano concerto, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (recorded 1986). How is it possible to play such a difficult composition so flawlessly and brilliantly!
She was a descendant of wealthy Sir Edward Clouston, who bought Boisbriant from the Abbott family.
Clouston had two daughters, one married Dr. John Todd, a pioneering scientist (founded Institute of Parasitology). Todd had three daughters including Bridgit (aka Biddy).
Biddy worked as an ambulance driver during WWII. Met Polish flying ace George Fialkowski in London. They fell in love and discussed moving to Canada. George said “I’m a Count, and an engineer, and I fly airplanes, but I don’t have any money”. Biddy responded, “George, you don’t have to worry.”
They moved into Boisbriant. As kids, my friends and I used to sneak on to Boisbriant to play among the ruins of Fort Senneville. Biddy told me “you should have knocked on our door, I would have served tea”.
Biddy had studied piano in Paris just before the War. When Janina was born, Biddy was quick to encourage her to play. Janina became a prodigy. At 12, she played with the MSO under Zubin Mehta. After studying at U of M she enrolled in the Julliard School of Music in New York.
1974: Arthur Rubinstein was impressed with her playing; said she was “a born Chopin interpreter”. She has also become known for her playing of Franz Liszt.
Played with SZOLTI, MEHTA, MAAZEL, SIR ANDREW DAVIS, HAITINK, NEZET-SEGUIN and many others, in Canada, US and Europe.
1990: played the “lost” Liszt 3rd piano concerto.
1995 she played at the Corpus Christi church as part of Senneville’s 100th anniversary.
2002: aggressive tumour in her upper left arm. Unable to use it. She knew of Maurice Ravel’s piano concerto for left hand, (composed for Paul Wittgenstein who had lost right arm in WWI). She transcribed it for right hand. Toured internationally playing with one hand. High praise for her courage and determination.
2004: Cured. Since then, has toured as a two-handed pianist, world-wide incl. Mexico and Japan.
And in 2018: Juno Award for Chopin Recital 3, classical album of the year.
She shares her enthusiasm for classical music with people in small communities across Canada. Non-profits Piano Six and Piano Plus.

RAYMOND BOYER

He was a grandson of Louis Joseph Forget, one of Canada’s great capitalists, and one of the wealthiest. LJF’s Sennevile chateau was Bois-de-la-Roche.
LJF had four daughters, who married Johnson, Skinner, Chevalier and Boyer. Nic Farrell is a grandson of Chevalier, a great-grandson of LJF.
Raymond Boyer was son of Blanche Forget and Guy Boyer, and so a grandson of LJF. Brought up in Senneville, he attended McGill, BSc 1930 and PhD 1935, in industrial chemistry. He did post-doc work at Harvard and at the Sorbonne in Paris and at the university of Vienna. Known as one of the best scientific specialists on high explosives in North America.
After returning from Europe he began meeting with left-wing political groups (“study groups”) interested in progressive causes. Fred Rose member of parliament, Communist Party of Canada) a party member. RB was never a member, never paid dues.
Starting as early as 1940, he devised improved a “far better method” of producing RDX, a high explosive (and its different elements). He reported to the National Research Council. All reports secret. In early 1940 he took an Oath of Secrecy. Worked on this until 1945.
Starting in 1943, he communicated complete information with regard to RDX to Fred Rose, to be transmitted to the Russians.
A plant to manufacture RDX was built in Shawinigan, starting in 1941.
1946: Igor Gouzenko revealed all. Royal Commission Enquiry. Boyer was charged and found guilty under the Official Secrets Act and served the minimum 2 years.
- In his defence:
- 1) He only gave them laboratory information.
- 2) The ingredients for RDX were already publicly known (“no longer possible to keep the process secret”).
- 3) He felt that the scientific war effort should be coordinated between the Russians and the Canadian allies.
- 4) The Russians were our allies!
After jail term worked for progressive causes (eg the peace movement).
1959 wrote Barreaux de Fer, Hommes de Chair.
1966 wrote Les Crimes et Chatiments du Canada Français du XVII au XXe siècle.
RVH painting by Norman Bethune, of operating room. DONATED by Boyer to the hospital. Bethune a communist, of course, must have known Boyer. (Sir John Abbott married a Bethune ancestor.) Cecily at the ceremony.