Jack Munroe
Cape Breton’s Jack Munroe got rich as a prospector, but he also found time to defeat a world champion boxer and become a war hero and best-selling author (ghost-writing for his dog!).
John (Jack) Alexander Munroe was born in 1873 in Kempt Head, Boularderie Island, and worked as a youth in Glace Bay coal mines. He left home in his teens to work in copper mines in Butte, Montana.
He took an interest in boxing and did some training with a coach in San Francisco. He won the American Amateur Boxing Championship in 1900, then lost his first professional fight and returned to Butte to work as a miner.
In 1903, heavyweight world champion James J. Jeffries was doing an exhibition tour, offering to pay $250 to anyone who could last four rounds in the ring with him. This was a way several boxers in that era promoted themselves and Jeffries prided himself on the fact that he had never had to pay out the $250 prize.
Munroe took up the challenge when Jeffries came to Butte. Jeffries did not appear to take Munroe seriously at first, but Munroe surprised him with his speed and strength and held his own for the first three rounds. In the fourth round, Munroe knocked Jeffries down, the first time the champ had been down in his career. (Some accounts suggest Jeffries threw a big punch and missed and fell down because he lost his balance.) The referee, who often also served as the sole judge of matches in those days, declared Munroe the winner at the end of the fourth round.
The newspapers got hold of the story and Munroe became famous overnight. This unknown miner had defeated the world champion, and articles about the match were printed far and wide.
This new-found fame led to Munroe becoming a professional boxer for a couple years and he did his own exhibition tour challenging all comers – but he only offered a $100 prize, not the $250 he had won from Jeffries.
When he had a rematch with Jeffries in 1904, a Cape Breton bar owner named Hughie Johnston arranged for a live play-by-play of the fight to be delivered to the bar in the form of a series of telegrams. The bar was packed. Strangely, the telegrams kept coming throughout the night, describing as many as 100 rounds. The fans stayed until sunrise, drinking the whole while, and did not learn until later that Munroe had lost, badly, in the second round. Johnston had arranged for the telegrams to keep coming so he could keep selling booze.
Munroe had a few more fights but he soon returned to his real passion: mining. Munroe told the Winnipeg Tribune in 1909, “I have always been a miner except for my short excursions into the fighting game. Even then I only tried fighting to get money money to go back to mining. I needed capital.”
Munroe moved to northern Ontario, where he was involved in the discovery of a silver deposit that led to him and several others founding the town of Elk Lake. He served as the town’s first mayor.
He later moved to several areas near Timmins where gold rushes occurred, including Night Hawk Lake, Kirkland Lake and South Porcupine.
In 1911, during a devastating forest fire at South Porcupine, Munroe drew pistols to ensure women and children were the first evacuated on the ferry, holding off men who were desperate to escape the flames. Much of the town was destroyed and over 70 people died in the fire.
When World War One started in 1914, Munroe joined the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI).
He took his dog, Bobbie Burns, to war with him. The collie had reportedly been given to Mexican President Madero by a friend in Cleveland. Madero then gave the puppy to the family nurse who had little time for the dog. Munroe, while visiting Mexico, gave Bobbie a drink and from then on, the dog refused to leave his side.
When the PPCLI left Ottawa, Bobbie was smuggled aboard ship in a potato sack. After the ship docked at Fort Levis in Quebec, Bobbie was attacked by a dog twice his size but won the fight. The men called it the first PPCLI victory of the war and Bobbie was made the regiment's mascot. Bobbie was later given a collar, in the presence of Princess Patricia, which said: "Bobbie Burns P.P.C.L.I.”
After arriving in Britain, Bobbie avoided the quarantine imposed on other regimental mascots when Munroe and his friends hid Bobbie and bought a substitute to put into quarantine in his place.
Private Munroe is said to have been the first Canadian soldier to set foot in France during the war.
He was shot on June 6, 1915, at Armentieres. The bullet severed an artery and a nerve, almost killing him. Munroe survived but lost the use of his right arm.
Bobbie remained in France for two months while Munroe was recuperating in England. The dog became listless and lost so much weight that the soldiers became concerned. Special permission was obtained for Bobbie to stay by Munroe’s side at Netley Hospital in England during his long and difficult recovery.
Munroe returned to Canada, was promoted to Lieutenant, and wrote a book called "Mopping Up,” which recounted his war experiences from Bobbie’s perspective. Bobbie and Jack received a medal from the Toronto Humane Society.
It is sometimes said, but not substantiated, that Bobbie was the inspiration for fictional dog, Lassie, the star of books, a movie and a television show. (It is difficult to separate fact from fiction with the many accounts of Munroe’s life so this account focusses on points about which there appears to be general agreement.)
Munroe married Toronto concert singer Colina Gordon (Lina) Crane in 1923. He continued to be heavily involved in the prospecting and promotion of mining properties in Red Lake where he maintained a summer cabin.
According to the PPCLI archives web site, Munroe spent his final years in Toronto where he died at his home in 1942.
However, the New York Times published a story, true or not, that seems more fitting: “His body was found in his cabin near Royon, Ont., by two men who were attracted to the place by the barking of his dog. He evidently had been dead for several days.” According to the Times, the dog was believed to be Bobbie.
