To the left a photo of multiple families, including the Bosloy family. 9yo Philip can be seen in the back row farthest to the left. (Image Credit: The Ottawa

Jewish Archives Facebook)

Philip Bosloy

Philip Bosloy was born Monday, July 26th, 1920. He lived on 885 Bank street. His parents were named Louis Bosloy and Chawa (nee Gosewitz) Bosloy. His father, Louis, was a Ukrainian immigrant from Kiev, and his mother was Russian. When his father still lived in Kiev his last name was Boguslavsky. His parents were grocers and 885 Bank street was the address of their store. His family lived above the store. He had two older siblings, a brother named Jack and a sister named Mary, and one younger brother named Sydney. His family was Jewish. According to his Royal Canadian Airforce examination from May 1st, 1941, he was wiry and tall, with green eyes, dark-brown hair, and it describes him having large, flat feet, and says that he was 1.8 meters tall, and weighed about 67kg. He was described as a quiet and responsible person. He attended Hopewell Avenue Public School for elementary school, and then attended Glebe Collegiate. He enjoyed playing basketball, softball, tennis, and skiing, and wanted to be a cartoonist after the war. He worked for three years in the Department of Finance as a clerk before the war. He was married to Ida Bosley (nee Gordon) on May 4th, 1942.

Photo of current 885 Bank street, the former home and store of the Bosloys, now a pub.

Before joining the RCAF, Philip Bosloy had been a clerk for the department of finance for three years, from 1938 to 1941. He enlisted in Ottawa on the 17th of July, 1941. He enlisted in the RCAF, in the unit of #4A M.D. St. Hubert. He was assigned to a coastal squadron, and never left for England. I believe that he enlisted to serve the country to which his parents had immigrated, and to protect the Jews like himself who were oppressed and murdered by the Germans. Philip Bosloy, throughout his career, was promoted to flying officer from airman second class, a total of 9 promotions, becoming an officer and gaining his commission. He was based at RCAF station Sydney and at Scoudouc. His normal operations involved spotting shot for the coastal batteries, towing target gliders for the anti-aircraft gunners, and, when convoys came through, overflights to protect against German submarines, using light machine guns and small bombs. When he crashed, he and his wireless operator, J.J Slabick, were flying Lysander II number 459 to Scoudouc for maintenance work. This was the last time they were ever seen.

On February 24th, 1943, flying officer Philip Bosloy and his wireless operator John Joseph Slabick embarked on a flight from Sydney, Nova Scotia, to Scoudouc, New Brunswick, in the plane Lysander II 459. Their goal was to bring Lysander 459 to a repair depot in Scoudouc, to fix the aircraft’s carburetor. Tragically the plane would never reach its destination. Philip and John were told that the weather would be favorable, but conditions deteriorated before the forecasted time. Other planes reported having trouble landing in Sydney, and both John and Philip were not experienced enough to have made this journey. At 7:30 PM, a message was received saying Philip and John were overdue in Scoudouc by an hour. The next morning at around 8:00 AM, the search for the two missing men and their plane had begun. However the search team was forced to return just an hour later due to terrible weather conditions. The two men were announced missing later that day, and as searches continued, days turned into weeks, and hopes for the two young men dwindled. Before this, Philip had taken out life insurance, his wife, Ida, being the recipient, for $1000. Only the premiums were paid back to Ida after Philip’s death, amounting to a measly $200. An infinitesimal amount of money when compared to the loss Philip’s death caused. Philip’s father, Louis, never truly gave up hope on his son, and continued the search for many years, but for naught. Philip and John never received proper graves, and their bodies were never recovered. Set in bronze instead of stone, their names are immortalized on the Commonwealth Ottawa Air Force Memorial. Though we are blessed to have been born in a time of relative peace for Canada, losing a loved-one is something that transcends time-periods, beliefs, and languages. One of the greatest horrors of modern life is the ease at which lives are lost to war, whitewashing fellow humans into faceless enemies and resources. But behind every helmet, gun, and cockpit is a person just like you and me. Someone who had hopes and dreams, someone who felt emotions, someone who made mistakes, someone who learned. Though we have adamantly divided ourselves with countries, beliefs, and borders, we all breathe the same air, walk on the same paths, and will rest in the same earth.

To the left, the Ottawa Memorial, where the names of Philip Bosloy, John Slabick, and almost 800 other graveless Canadians who were lost in WWII. (Image Credit: Ottawa Memorial, Government of Canada)

A photo of one of the two plaques in the entrance hall to Glebe Collegiate memorializing the soldiers who died in WWII and attended Glebe. Philip Bosloy is in the non-cropped row, seven up from the bottom. (Image Source: Leo Barrett Smith-Moores)

Map displaying in red, the direct route and in blue, the route Philip and John probably took. (Image Credit: Vintage Wings “The Phantom Airman”)

Above Philip Bosloy’s photo on admission to the RCAF (Image Credit: Canadian Virtual War memorial)

Above Lysander 459, the same John and Philip flew (Virtual War Memorial)

Above Sydney Harbour with Anti-submarine nets and gate boat, this is where Philip Bosloy was stationed (Image from Vintage Wings of Canada)

Primary Source Documents : https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/2622473?Philip%20Bosloy Bibliography/Works Cited

Commonwealth War Graves Commission. “Flying Officer Philip Bosloy.” CWGC, https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2622473/philip-bosloy/

Government of Canada. “Bosloy, Philip.” Government of Canada, 17 October 2024, https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Home/Record?app=kia&IdNumber=3326&ecopy=42127_83024005548_0054-00270

Government of Canada. “Flying Officer Philip Bosloy.” Government of Canada, 29 January 2024, https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance//canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/2622473

O'Malley, Dave. “The Phantom Airman — Vintage Wings of Canada.” Vintage Wings of Canada, 15 June 2023, https://www.vintagewings.ca/stories/the-phantom-airman Accessed 24 October 2024.

Ottawa Jewish Archives. “Family Photographs.” Facebook, 28 October 2015, https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=982732971768466&set=a.996584117050018

Ottawa Memorial Project. “Philip Bosloy.” Ottawa Memorial Project, https://www.ottawamemorialproject.org/men/Philip-Bosloy.html

The biographies appearing on this website have been written by students, roughly the same age as the soldiers they are studying, using primary source evidence from Library and Archives Canada, in addition to primary source documents from The Virtual War Memorial on veterans.ca. We welcome any corrections or additions you may have to these biographies.

'If we do preserve it, we honour them, and when we in our turn pass on, we will know that behind us lives a generation of free men and of free women to be the keepers of this great heritage of ours - Canada.'

- Ian A. McPhee, former student at GCI, 1937.

Glebe Collegiate Institute
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada