Special ceremony celebrates return of Filip Konowal's Victoria Cross (09/05/04)

Special ceremony celebrates return of Filip Konowal's Victoria Cross

by Christopher Guly
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

OTTAWA - Claudette Wright remembers her grandfather, who died in 1959 at the age of 72, as being "a nice, quiet man" who spoke little and "seemed to be thinking a lot."

For her, Filip Konowal was a diminutive Ukrainian Canadian man who loved gardening and playing cards, who could dance like a Kozak and who married her French Canadian grandmother, Juliette Auger, a widow who had two sons from her previous marriage.

Now married with four grown children, Mrs. Wright, 65, has begun to appreciate the significance of her grandfather's World War I heroism that earned him the British Empire's highest decoration for bravery, the Victoria Cross.

She has also learned about the journey that medal has taken when it mysteriously disappeared from the Canadian War Museum's collection in Ottawa three decades ago to its recovery by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) this past spring just prior to it being sold at an Ontario auction.

"I still don't realize how important it is," Mrs. Wright said of Konowal's Victoria Cross in an interview from her home in the east end Ottawa suburb of Orleans.

"My grandfather never talked to me about his wartime experience and I didn't think about talking about the war. I wish I had - and I think I'd ask him what he went through, because it wasn't easy," she mused.

On August 23, Konowal's VC was officially welcomed back at the museum at a special ceremony attended by 90 people, including Mrs. Wright, Ukrainian Ambassador Mykola Maimeskul and Ukrainian Defense Attaché Col. Ivan Plyska.

Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk, research director of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, also spoke at the 90-minute ceremony attended by members of the Toronto-based Royal Canadian Legion Branch 360 (Konowal Branch) and the Governor General's Foot Guards, the regiment Konowal first joined.

Following a minute of silence in honor of the VC winner, the Rev. Cyril Mykytiuk, pastor of Ottawa's St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Shrine, gave a blessing.

Heroism under fire

Between August 22 and 24, 1917, the Ukrainian-born Konowal, a corporal at the time in the Canadian Expeditionary Force's 47th Infantry Battalion, single-handedly took out three German positions and killed at least 16 German soldiers during the battle for a German position known as Hill 70 near Lens, France.

While recovering in a British military hospital from sniper fire that shot half his face off, Konowal received a visit from King George V, who presented him with the VC - the only one ever given to a Ukrainian Canadian.

"Your exploit is one of the most daring and heroic in the history of my army," the king told the Canadian soldier who was born in Kutkivtsi, Ukraine.

Mrs. Wright witnessed some aftereffects of that chapter in her grandfather's history. She remembers how his wartime injury left him speaking out of one side of his mouth and how the bullet lodged in his head was never removed.

She also saw his revered VC, many times. "My grandmother had it with her when she lived with me," Mrs. Wright recalled.

Konowal also regularly wore the brass cross and maroon ribbon, and was known to use it to get free bus rides around Ottawa. Mrs. Wright said she believes her grandfather's practice of wearing the VC also helped get the attention of the late Mackenzie King, a former Canadian prime minister.

An encounter with the PM

Widowed when his first wife, Anna, died during Ukraine's Great Famine, Konowal took a job in Ottawa during the Depression as a junior caretaker at the House of Commons. But one day King noticed him scrubbing floors and reassigned him to become "special custodian" of the prime minister's office, a job Konowal held until his death.

"My grandfather must have been wearing his Victoria Cross, otherwise Mackenzie King wouldn't have known about it, and my grandfather wouldn't have told him because he was a humble man who never bragged," said Mrs. Wright, a retiree who once worked as a secretary for the Department of National Defense.

But Mrs. Wright remembers her grandfather more as a family man than as a decorated soldier. "He let my grandmother's brother, who couldn't talk and didn't walk, live with them," she noted. The Konowals' homes in Ottawa and Hull were also always open to guests, with adults and children piling in every weekend, said Mrs. Wright. "They always had a happy house."

Konowal even learned to speak his Québécois wife's first language. "He spoke very good French, but I don't know where he learned it," said Mrs. Wright.

Historic medal sold

After Konowal died, his widow sold his VC for $2,500 (Canadian) in 1969 to Joseph Shkwarek, a Saskatchewan-born, 83-year-old World War II Ukrainian Canadian veteran who lives in Ottawa. He then presented it to the Canadian War Museum, which gave him a $1,000 finder's fee.

"I promised Juliette that the cross would go to the museum," said Mr. Shkwarek in an interview. "I didn't want that medal to go to a private collection in the States."

Though she still has the cancelled check cashed by Mrs. Konowal as proof of purchase, Mrs. Wright claims that her grandmother gave the VC to a cousin, who then sold it for $2,000 to a collector.

Mr. Shkwarek did not attend the recent ceremony at the museum.

"I was not even invited," he said angrily, adding that he believes the reason is that he has always maintained the medal's disappearance around 1973 was the result of an "inside job."

Explained Mr. Shkwarek: "I know the two people who were involved. One was an employee and one had the run of the museum and he was ex-RCMP.

He said he received an invitation to the August 23 ceremony celebrating the return of Konowal's VC after it was held but did not get an acknowledgment for the role he played in the medal's journey.

However, museum spokesperson Christina Selin said an invitation was sent to Mr. Shkwarek prior to the event. Nevertheless, Mr. Shkwarek is pleased that Konowal's VC is back in the Canadian War Museum's museum's national collection where it will "once again able to bear witness to a young man's bravery," said Joe Geurts, director and chief executive officer of the museum at the recent ceremony.

When the museum opens its new location during the first weekend of May 2005 to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, Konowal's story will be told in the First World War gallery, which will also look at the internment of thousands of Ukrainian Canadians during that period of history.

[IMAGE]

Seen above is the Victoria Cross Medal set awarded to Cpl. Filip Konowal. From left are:

Victoria Cross: Instituted in 1856, it is the Commonwealth's highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy. The recipient's serial number, rank, name and unit are engraved on the back of the suspension bar and the date of action on the back of the cross.
British War Medal: This medal was awarded to all ranks of the Canadian Expeditionary Force who came from Canada and served between August 5, 1914, and November 11, 1918. The recipient's serial number, rank, name and unit are indicated on the lower rim. There were 427, 993 issued to members of the CEF.
Victory Medal: This medal was also issued to all ranks of the Canadian Expeditionary Force who served in an active unit in a theater of war between August 5, 1914, and November 11, 1918. The Victory Medal was a shared medal among the British, French and Americans, who each issued their own version. There were 351,289 British medals issued to members of the CEF. The recipient's serial number, rank, name and unit are on the lower rim.
King George VI Coronation Medal - 1937: This medal, to celebrate the coronation of the new monarch, was issued to each surviving recipient of the Victoria Cross, as well as selected military personnel, politicians, dignitaries and nominated individuals. In all, 10,089 were issued to Canadians. This medal is not named to the recipient.
Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal - 1953: This medal was issued under the same set of guidelines as listed for the King George VI Coronation. All surviving Victoria Cross and George Cross recipients received this medal. There were 12,500 issued to Canadians. Again, not named to the recipient.

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