"Of course, the big thanks goes to Mr Boyle" Eric Stevens 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hedwig spoke of the ‘Quaker’ businessman, Philip Boyle, the family’s guarantor, whose sponsorship enabled them to leave Albania for England just a week before the outbreak of the Second World War, after which national borders closed and escape would be impossible.

 

Philip and his wife Edith sheltered the family under their own roof in their beautiful Arts and Crafts home ‘Low Gap’ in the lovely village of Linton near Leeds. Not long before his death, Dad said quietly in relation to the family’s survival that: “Of course the big thanks goes to Mr Boyle”. This simple but momentous statement prompted us to find out more about Philip Boyle and understand the significance of his actions in support of our family. At the same time it inspired our search for any living relatives we could thank for what their ancestor had done for us, which enabled the survival of our family and future generations.

 

We knew that Philip Boyle was a business contact of Grandpa’s and was a partner in Boyle and Son, hemp manufacturers of Leeds. But we could find no Quaker link. We eventually discovered that the Boyle family weren’t in fact Quakers but Unitarians, an open-minded faith rooted in Jewish and Christian traditions but open to insights from all faiths, science, the arts, the natural world and everyday living. The faith has a strong strand of humanitarianism within it.

 

Unitarian minister the Reverend Rosalind Lee was a leading figure before and during the war in rescuing and advocating for refugees, often collaborating with Eleanor Rathbone MP. We know that Rosalind Lee met members of the congregation at a fundraiser for refugees on 13 March 1939 at Mill Hill Chapel - the beautiful Unitarian church in central Leeds where the Boyle family regularly worshipped. This puts into context Philip’s actions in support of our family. Philip Boyle was our family’s guarantor but his brother, Charles Humphrey Boyle, senior partner in Boyle and Son, was Lord Mayor of Leeds at the time, and would undoubtedly have supported his brother’s humanitarian efforts. The firm employed Jews and supported Grandpa in his appeal to the Home Office to have his Category B enemy alien status reviewed early in 1940.

 

The founder of Boyle and Son, more than a century earlier in 1824, was Humphrey Bellamy Boyle. Born in 1794 he was Philip and Charles’ grandfather. He was a fascinating character - a radical and freethinker imprisoned for publishing seditious pamphlets based on Thomas Paine’s ‘Rights of Man’. He campaigned in Leeds, with the support of his wife Ann, for the extension of the vote, social equality and the abolition of slavery. In 1832 he researched in detail the minimum weekly living costs of a worker’s family with 3 children, information which has proved valuable for historians, anticipating the modern concept of a ‘living wage’.

 

Down the generations it’s not difficult to see a link between the nineteenth century social activism of Humphrey Bellamy Boyle, and Philip’s wartime rescue of our family in the twentieth. It seems Philip was a quiet and modest man despite the big impact of his actions. The Mill Hill Chapel’s ‘In Memoriam’ record after his death in 1963 says: “Unlike his brothers he had not been prominent in public life but he was well known and loved in the village where he had made his home, and a large congregation was present at the funeral service to pay its respects.”

 

We visited Leeds twice in 2019 to retrace our family’s footsteps and find out more about Philip Boyle. On the first visit in February we met the curator planning Leeds Museum’s ‘A City and its Welcome’ exhibition about three centuries of migration to Leeds. We loaned documents and photos for a display about our family’s arrival and life in Leeds and the part played by Philip Boyle. We did press interviews appealing for any more information from the public about Philip Boyle’s rescue of Jews in the second world war and laid flowers at Philip’s grave in Collingham Churchyard near Linton. We attended a beautiful Unitarian Sunday service at Mill Hill Chapel and shared our story with the welcoming vicar Jo James and his congregation. The Chapel put us in touch with Philip’s great niece who sent us a photo of Philip and a family tree, and put us in touch with his great-nephew who was really excited about the connection between our families and our quest.

 

In August 2019 we met up with Philip Boyle's granddaughter and great nephew and attended the migration exhibition together, then shared a lovely lunch at Harvey Nichols in Leeds. We were able to achieve the dream of delivering our thankyous in person to them both. That same night we were hosted for dinner, bed and breakfast in their lovely home near Ilkley. After dinner we played extracts of Hedwig’s recording where she talks about living with Philip Boyle in Linton at the end of 1939.