Roderick James “Rod” Gillis was born at Mulgrave, Guysborough County, on August 7, 1913, the sixth of Neil McLean and Mary Elizabeth “Eliza” (Hayes) Gillis’s 10 children. Neil, the son of Roderick and Catherine (McLean) Gillis, was born at McPherson’s Ferry, Richmond County, on December 5, 1873. The small community was the Cape Breton terminus for one of three ferries crossing the Strait of Canso by mid-19th century, with its mainland terminus located at Steep Creek, near Mulgrave. Each operation consisted of a small barge capable of transporting a horse and wagon across the Strait.
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| Brothers Rod (left) and Alec Gillis |
The couple’s four oldest children were born in Richmond County. Around 1911, the family relocated to Mulgrave, where Neil initially worked as a deck hand on the SS Scotia, the first steam-powered train ferry to cross the Strait and the mainstay of the operation during the last century’s early years.
By 1921, Neil had advanced to the position of CNR ferry operations manager at Mulgrave. According to that year’s Canadian census, the Gillis household consisted of five girls—Annie, Ida, Tena, Stella and Margaret—and two boys—Rod and his younger brother, William Alexander “Alec,” known to friends as “Sam.” Three years later, the couple's sixth daughter, Nora Bernadette, joined the family. Sadly, two of Neil and Eliza’s children—a son, Harold George, and a daughter, Hilda Catherine—had passed away in infancy in 1919 and 1920 respectively.
Rod attended school in the local community and according to a later news item was active in the local sports scene. Family sources recall that he initially worked on the railway, a major employer in the local community. However, born and raised in a small port with strong connections to the ocean, Rod eventually settled on a career at sea.
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| Mulgrave Hockey Club—Alec (far left) and Rod (goalie) |
Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Rod enlisted with the Canadian merchant marine. A report at the time of his passing claimed that he “had sailed on a number of ships[,]… visited many distant parts of the world and had been torpedoed a number of times” during his first three years at sea aboard merchant vessels. Unfortunately, no documentation is available to support these statements.
The war overseas also had an impact on Rod’s younger brother Alec, who enlisted with the Royal Canadian Artillery and served at Halifax for a period of time. By late 1942, Alec had relocated to the United Kingdom, where he continued to train in preparation for an eventual Allied invasion of the European continent.
By the autumn of 1942, Rod was serving as a “fireman and trimmer” aboard SS Roxby, a 4,252-ton steam merchant vessel built at Stockton-on-Tees, UK, in 1923. Around that time, an undated article from an unidentified Nova Scotian newspaper reported “the safe arrival at a Scottish port after an uneventful voyage of Rod Gillis, son of Mr. and Mrs. Neil Gillis, Mulgrave….” The item went on to note that Rod’s brother Alec was also “in the old country, and Rod hopes to meet up with him, when and if opportunity offers.” In fact, the two brothers did meet and posed for a photograph before Rod set out on the perilous voyage back to Canada.
The Roxby departed the British Isles as part of Convoy ON-142 (outward, northbound) in early November 1942. As convoys proceeded across the North Atlantic, it was not uncommon for older, slower vessels to lag behind the main group. These “stragglers” were prime targets for German U-boats. In the case of Convoy ON-142, two vessels—SS Glenlea and SS Roxby—were unable to keep pace with their counterparts as the convoy proceeded westward.
At 14.46 hours November 7, 1942, the German U-boat U566 surfaced and struck the Glenlea with a torpedo north of the Azores. The vessel sank and its crew abandoned ship. The U-boat surfaced, took its Master prisoner, and transported him to Brest, France, where he became a prisoner of war. While three crewmen and one gunner were rescued by a Norwegian merchant vessel three weeks later, 39 crew members and five gunners from the Glenlea perished during or after the vessel’s sinking.
The U-boat “wolf pack” continued to pursue the second straggler. At 15.40 hours November 7, 1942, U-613 surfaced and fired two torpedoes at the Roxby. One of the missiles struck the target, approximately 670 miles north of the Azores. Within 30 minutes, the vessel slipped beneath the water. Its Master, George Robison, 10 crew members and two gunners were rescued by the merchant vessel Irish Beach after two weeks at sea and safely transported to St. John’s, NL. The remaining members of the Roxby’s crew were not so fortunate. A total of 28 men and five gunners perished in the sinking, while the ship’s first radio officer died of exposure in a lifeboat and was buried at sea on November 11, 1942.
Roderick James Gillis was among the 28 crew members lost at sea. According to a family source, the ship’s Master later wrote to his parents, stating that Rod was asleep below deck when the torpedo struck. A contemporary news report indicated that the majority of fatalities occurred “when an explosion shook [the crew’s] quarters.” The article went on to state that Rod had perished on his 12th voyage across the Atlantic since joining the merchant marine.
Rod’s name is inscribed on the Halifax Memorial, Point Pleasant Park, Halifax, erected in memory of the 3,267 Canadian and Newfoundland sailors and soldiers who perished at sea during the First and Second World Wars and have no final resting place. Several years prior to the war, Rod had a son, Francis Jerome Gillis MacIsaac, the result of a non-marital relationship. Throughout his lifetime, locals referred to Francis as “Roxy,” an altered reference to the vessel on which his father had perished.
Rod’s brother Alec served as an artillery gunner with 1 Canadian Corps during the Italian campaign, from the initial invasion of Sicily in July 1943 to late February 1945. At that time, the Corps commenced “Operation Goldflake,” a clandestine operation that transferred all units to the Western Front for the final stages of the Netherlands liberation and Allied push into western Germany.
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| Alec's souvenir of the Netherlands liberation |
After the conclusion of hostilities in Europe, Alec safely returned home to Mulgrave. He took up residence with his mother, as his father Neil had passed away from carcinoma of the bladder on April 13, 1943, five months after Rod’s tragic death. Alec worked as a stevedore on the local docks and never married. He passed away at 49 years of age, the result of pancreatic cancer, on August 20, 1965. The disease was a common affliction among the Gillis clan, also claiming the life of Neil and Eliza’s oldest child, Annie Bell Aikins, on December 10, 1964. Eliza outlived her husband, two sons and daughter, passing away at Mulgrave on April 20, 1966.
Special thanks to Neila (Carter) MacDonald, Mulgrave, and Iain Murray Brown, Fredericton, NB, for contributing photographs and information about Rod, Alec and the Gillis family.
