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LO Ee NN A Ee ets. ot hn bh S8 a tee Oe te ® 4 +, See who EEE EEO ee @porr PERRY STAR -- Wadnesdoy, March 31, 1971 By P. Hy. Most people in Port Perry esther know Mr. Samuel Eyre personally, or at least they are acquainted with him. Every day. weather permitting, he cam be seen, straight as « ramrod strolling Port Perry streets for his daily exercise. To this writer, Mr. Byre has always given the impress- ion to be a person with a tong and exciting background. The decision made quite some time ago to sit down with him and find out what is "ticking™ within the man be- came a reality a couple of weeks ago Our conjecture, that Mr. Eyre Was not just an ordinary man soon became a conclusive quently the discovernes some- tumes are quite startling and so it was this time BORN IN ENGLAND Mr Eyre was born in Yorkshire, England on March 13, 1880 and was able to celebrate his 91 birthday about three weeks ago He came to Canada in 1904, but prior to emigrating here, his life was filled with exciting and interesting events in Britain and South Africa. Mr. Eyre was only 16 old when he in 1896 ee] the Royal Navy. Mostly on coast guard duty along the British coastline he served in the savy until 1900 GOES TO SOUTH. AFRICA In December of that year he volunteered and went to South Africa and joined in the fighting of the Boer War At the mention of the Boer War, Mr. Eyre most emphatically said: "Great many people call it the Boer | War, but it wasn't. The Boer| War was fought in the 1880's | and what most people cal) the Boer War, was a native war, a/ peiitical uprising In company with 300 ywther men they arrived in ape Town Christmas eve The next morning a number of ladies came on board the ship and gave the young men| Thristmas gifts "The following day, we went by Pretoria where we were sworn into the South African Army. Mr. Eyre said. "The pay was much better than in the Britis!) Army. While the poor Tom : mes received one shil ing and sixpence a day, we got f Gam to oniy | ive shillings | went PROMOTED DISPATCH RIDER Three months later Mr Eyre was promoted to a dis patch rider and his pay was raised to eight shillings per | day "Baden Powell was our commander in chief, and it was while he was in South Africa he got the idea about the Scout movement, "Mr Eyre said 'Following the signing of the peace treaty on May 28, 1902, we were amigned to police duty for some time We had to travel around the country to all the small vill- ages and search for hidden | Ocean about 800 miles west! | of Ireland." | covered with yellow paint. "! Lied 'A Man With Colourful Background ' Looks Optimistically To The Future : Growing a Centennial beard, Samuel Eyre is looking at a couple of pictures from two stages in his colourful life. The picture to the left was taken at 16 years old while in the Royal Navy during Queen Victoria's reign and to the right is Mr. Eyre during the Second World War at 60 years of age in his Canadian Army uniform. GETS HOMESICK / The urge of returning to England became stronger and stronger and after a short while with the circus he quit and went to Port Elizabeth on the east coast. Because of his four years in the navy, Mr Byre was able to get a job on a sailing ship bound first for Buenos Aires and from there destined for England | After idling a few weeks on home ground he got himself hired on a Canadian Pacific liner "Lake Manitoba" with Montreal as destination. "By the way, Mr. Eyre said, this ship was sunk in the English Channel! during the First World War." DITCHED IN OCEAN i Mr. Eyre had a rather un comfortable experience on the | return trip to England. While painting, hanging on to a scaf fold on the side of the ship, | one of the boards broke loose, | and as he called it "I was) ditched into the Atlantic A gallon of yellow paint) down with him while | his partner working from another scaffold yelled, "Man overboard." A boat was daunched and when it reached him and the crew pulled him out of the water, he was thought an Englishman fell overboard, and here we are pulling out a Chinese," one of the crew members exclaim ed ' On board the ship again the doctor ordered him to take a drink of cognac, but Mr. Eyre refused and told him he had never had a drink before and didn't intend to start then ARRIVES IN TORONTO On the next trip over from England. the ship first docked in Boston where Mr. Eyre left the ship and travelled by train to Montreal. He stayed onle a few days here and was "riding" # train from out of Montreal to the west cast, ne tnought. However the destination hap- pened to be Toronto and it was there he ended up. "The brakeman had seen me jump the train and knew I was on, but he told me GOES OVERSEAS | afterwards, he liked my looks and let me come along," Mr. In 1916 Mr. Eyre was Eyre said. | transferred overseas with the This happened in 1904 and 123rd battalion, but on arri- he stayed in Toronto until] ¥#! the mem were disbanded 1906 when he was offered aj 8*™t to various places in job as a chauffeur for a mill-| England. Before travelling ionaire in Cincinatti. overseas, he had been promo- ted to drill sergeant and was married. It was not before some time in 1915 married men were accepted in the armed. forces. Winchester, a town near South hampton. Except for two weeks in France, Mr. Eyre was stationed in England for the duration of war drilling and training Canadian men when they arrived at camp. Following armistice he re- turned with thousands of other Canadians and was dis- charged. His first job was as a mechanic in a garage. How- ever, he later was given the job of operating a garage on ACROBATICS AT C.N.E|**"* to 2 one month course at | Dundas Street, West. However, shortly after he 6 arrived in Toronto, he again was able to make use of his skills as a circus artist. Making good money for three weeks at the Canadian National Exhib- tion he was engaged under the' fascinating name "'Morando"™ to show his many stunts of acrobatics. He was married while in Cincinatti and returned to Toronto in 1914. By co-inei- dent Mr. and Mrs. Eyre arrived in Toronto the morning the First World War was declared. He attempted to join up in the Canadian Army, but was turned down because he was|! ASTEL, THE MAN WITH THE HERCULEAN JAWS The fine looking, athletic person in the oval frame is Mr. Samuel Eyre at 24 years of age. He was engaged at Canadian National Exhibition in 1904 and did acrobatic stunts during a three week period. He was featured under the name ot * Morando. Above is facsimile of the pass he was provided with by the C.N.E. authorities in order to move freely in and out of the area. Mr. Eyre speaks devotedly about his wife Bell who passed away in 1947. He was married for the second time a few years after, and following his second wife's death in 1959, ¥ Mr. Eyre moved to Port Perry, and purchased the house he is still living in. HAD A VISION A couple of days after his 9st birthday, March 13, Mr Eyre dropped into the Star © office and during our con- Continued on page 16