Photo Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Photograph |
Collection |
Oil Museum of Canada Collection |
Accession number |
OMC 1992.024 |
Catalog Number |
OMC 1992.024.010 |
Other Number |
FD.001.003.014.pstcrd |
Description |
Black and white photograph in a sepia tone of three men standing on top of a large piece of a coral reef. Two are holding long sticks and the middle man is holding a gun. They are all either wearing or holding a pith helmet. Written on the back: Jubal Island, Egypt, Red Sea. John Millar, Elmer Kerby and W.O. Gillespie. Three years in Egypt and a trip to Sudan to inspect a drilling rig. |
Provenance |
Photograph belonging to International Driller, William Gillespie. William was born in Petrolia in 1878 and attended the first wooden school in the east end. He was the son of Joseph Gillespie, a livery stable operator who was killed while erecting an oil rig. Young Bill learned his drilling trade in Petrolia then left for foreign fields. He went to Cuba at 18, where he packed a mule train to the interior, returning via a railway that once ran through the Florida Keys. After his second Cuban expedition, he joined Fred Edward, another early Petrolia driller, on Jubal Island in the Red Sea. They made their own rafts, swung boilers and gear off ships and taught the native labour to use such elementary tools as hammers and wrenches. Next he opened a big field in Burma, near Rangoon. In subsequent years he drilled in Borneo, Sarawak, Java and Sumatra and punched down artesian wells in Australia. While returning home from Borneo in 1926, he met a young lady from Leeds, England, while immigrating to Canada. Her name was Dorothy Cromeweeke and after a shipboard romance they married and settled in Petrolia. Bill never travelled far from home again. They had two daughters, Olive (Mrs. Bennett) of Klienburg, and Kathy Gillespie of Toronto. The Gillespie's first lived in the old Grant House next to the Fairbank House on Petrolia Street. Mr. Gillespie operated the wells on the Gray estate just east of Tank Street until the early war years when the labour supply dwindled. He worked at the Canadian Oil refinery until his retirement. Mrs. Gillespie died in 1964. Mr. Gillespie was predeceased by two brothers and a sister. He attended Christ Anglican Church and was a member of the Masonic Lodge. He died at the age of 97 in 1975. The funeral was held at Bradley Funeral Home with interment at Hillsdale Cemetery. The service was conducted by Rev. George Menzies. |
Print Size |
9cm x 14.7cm |
Search Terms |
Coral Reef Egypt Fishing International Driller Jubal Island Photograph Pith Helmet Red Sea Rock |
People |
Gillespie, Bill Gillespie, Will Gillespie, William Kerby, Elmer Millar Miller, John |
Place |
Jubal Island, Egypt/Red Sea |