Collection search - Lieutenant Colonel William Boss papers [textual record, graphic material].

Record information – Brief
1
Lieutenant Colonel William Boss papers [textual record, graphic material].

Hierarchical level:

Series

Date:

1917, 1938-1969.

Reference:

R13619-8-4-E

Type of material:

Photographs, Textual material

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

4020023

Context of this record:

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Bill Boss fonds

Lieutenant Colonel William Boss papers
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Record information – Details

Series includes:

19 lower level description(s)
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Date(s):

1917, 1938-1969.

Place of creation:

Canada

Extent:

0.1 m of textual records.
1 photograph : b&w.

Language of material:

English

Scope and content:

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The series comprises the papers of Lieutenant Colonel William Boss, which were kept by his son Bill Boss, documenting his career in the Canadian Army and his Catholic religious beliefs. For his military career, it holds his warrant as Sergeant Major in the Corps of Military Staff Clerks, dated 1917; a portrait of him in uniform ca. 1940 by Blank and Stoller of Montreal; pension correspondence relating to his retirement in 1947; and a draft chapter for his regimental history of the Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry Highlanders. In addition, some of the material relating to the army historical section in his son's Miltiary service series may in fact have belonged to the elder Boss.

The religious material is more extensive and reveals, in particular, his devotion to St. Francis of Assisi and involvement in the Third Order of St. Francis. Lt. Col. Boss helped to establish a fraternity of the order in Ottawa, in which he served in various capacities. The series includes the texts of a numbered series of talks about the life of St. Francis that he made to the fraternity on a monthly basis between 1958 and 1960. It also includes three chapters of a historical novel he wrote about Agnes of Assisi that was published in "Fraternite" in 1964 and 1965 under the name Brother Lawrence (as he was known in the order). In addition, there are his speaking notes for meetings of the order, news bulletins, correspondence with the Franciscan Review, various writings on St. Francis, and notes and writings on other martyrs and saints. The series also holds records of his nomination of Dudley D. Spencer for the Order of Canada in 1969.

Provenance:

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Boss, W. (William), 1892-1970

Biography/Administrative history:

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Boss, W. (William), 1892-1970 : Lieutenant Colonel William Boss was born in 1892 in England, the son of William Boss and Sarah Jane Warren, and died in 1970. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Regiment in 1910 and served in the First World War in England and France, being promoted to sergeant-major in 1917 in the Corps of Military Staff Clerks. After the war, he served as secretary to the commandant of Royal Military College from 1919 to 1923 and later secretary to the Adjutant-General at Army Headquarters. Boss joined the Historical Section in the 1930s and was promoted to Lieutenant shortly after the outbreak of war in September 1939. He served in London and Ottawa during the war, and had attained the rank of major by 1943. Boss was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1946 and retired from the army in 1947 to write a regimental history, "The Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry Highlanders, 1783-1951" (Ottawa: Runge Press, 1952). Lt. Col. Boss converted to Catholicism in 1948 and became involved in the fraternity of the Third Order of St. Francis in Ottawa. He made three visits to Assisi, and wrote articles about St. Francis. William Boss married Marcelle Blanche Ramont in Montreal on 15 January 1914.

Container note(s):

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17 : The portrait photograph is in file 17-9
17 : His warrant as Sergeant Major is in this oversize volume in file 17-8.

Source:

Private
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Conditions of access:

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Graphic (photo)

[Consultation90 Open]

Volume [R13619] 17

[Consultation 90 Open]

Textual records

[Consultation90 Open]

Volume [R13619] 17--18

[Consultation 90 Open]

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