Cpl. Filip Konowal VC Born - September 15, 1888 Kutkivtsi, Ukraine Died - June 3, 1959 Hull, Quebec Force - Army Units - 77th Canadian Infantry Battalion, 47th (British Columbia) Battalion Canadian Infantry ,1st Canadian Reserve Battalion, Canadian Forestry Corps , Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force , Governor General's Foot Guards Awards - Victoria Cross, British War Medal, Victory Medal, George VI Coronation Medal, Elizabeth II Coronation Medal Filip Konowal, a Ukrainian Canadian volunteer serving as a corporal with the 47th Canadian Infantry Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, fought with exceptional valour in August 1917 during the battle for Hill 70, near Lens, France. For his courage Konowal was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration of the British Empire, by King George V, in London, on 15 October 1917. His Majesty remarked: "Your Exploit is one of the most daring and heroic in the history of my army. For this, accept my thanks." After being hospitalized in England, Konowal was officially assigned for a time as an assistant to the military attache of the Russian Embassy in London. Later he was transferred to the 1st Canadian Reserve Battalion, served with the Canadian Forestry Corps and eventually with the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force. He returned to Vancouver on 20 June 1919, after soldiered for three years and 357 days in the ranks of the Canadian Army, one of as many as 10,000 Ukrainian Canadians who had so served. Honourably discharged, Konowal was subsequently troubled by medical and other problems, most thought to be a consequence of his war wounds. Nevertheless, by 1928, he had begun to rebuild his life. He enlisted in the Ottawa-based Governor General's Foot Guards. He re-married in 1934, taking for his second wife a widow, Juliette Leduc-Auger. (His first wife, Anna, and their daughter, Maria, were lost in Ukraine during the Stalinist terror.) Thanks to the intervention of another Victoria Cross winner, and also a member of the Governor General's Foot Guards, Major Milton Fowler Gregg, Seargeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons (1934-44), Konowal found employment as a junior caretaker in the House of Commons, a humble job, but, in the years of the Great Depression, a welcome one. Spotted washing floors of the Parliament building by Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, Konowal was reassigned as the special custodian of Room No. 16, the Prime Minister's office, a post he held until his death. While others might bemoan Konowal's apparently low employment status, the man himself was much more sanguine. Konowal was again acknowledged for his valour during the 1939 Royal Tour when His Majesty King George VI shook his hand during the dedication of the National War Memorial, in Ottawa. He also kept in touch with his wartime comrades, even attempting to fight for Canada during the Second World War, an impossibility given his age. On 20 December 1945, Konowal joined the Hull, Quebec, branch of The Canadian Legion of the British Empire Service League, recording on his application for membership that he had been born on 15 September 1888 [in Kudkiv, Ukraine], had been wounded in the war, was receiving a disability allowance and working as a cleaner in the House of Commons. Required to state why he was discharged he wrote simply, "War was finish". In 1953, Toronto's Royal Canadian Legion Branch 360 voted to make Konowal its patron, which was officially confirmed during a Remembrance Day dinner held in Toronto on 7 November. And Konowal received yet another distinction when he participated in a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the institution of the Victoria Cross, held in London in 1956. Too poor to travel to England on his own resources -- even though Ottawa offered to cover the actual transportation costs -- Konowal turned to his fellow Ukrainian Canadian veterans for help. With the financial assistance of Ukrainian Canadian branches of The Royal Canadian Legion he was able to go overseas. On 25 June 1956 Konowal joined 300 other Victoria Cross winners from around the world at a formal tea party at Westminster Hall hosted by the British Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden. On 26 June he participated in a march-past at Hyde Park, reviewed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, followed by an afternoon garden party. In a photograph taken at the time Konowal is shown at centre of the front rank of Canadian Victoria Cross winners, a hero among heroes. Filip Konowal died on 3 June 1959, aged 72. His Victoria Cross and other medals were entrusted to Mr. G.R. Bohdan Panchuk, a Ukrainian Canadian veteran who had served with the R.C.A.F. during the Second World War and had become a leading member of the Ukrainian Canadian Veteran's Association. The Canadian War Museum in Ottawa purchased Konowal's Victoria Cross and other medals in 1969. The medal went missing sometime in the 1970s, apparently stolen, and was sold to an antique shop along with some Hawaiian coins in the mid-1990s. The shop owner believed the medal was a fake, as it was inscribed with "For Valour" – evidently not realizing that all VCs awarded to Canadians had the English motto. (The source of confusion was the fact that a new Canadian VC was introduced into the Canadian Honours System in 1993, bearing the Latin motto Pro Valore). The medal was rediscovered when the shop owner offered it to the Jeffrey Hoare Auction House in London, Ontario in April 2004. A British collector discovered the auction and notified Lubomyr Luciuk, co-author of a booklet about Konowal, who took steps to have the medal secured. It was recovered by police, and returned to permanent display at the War Museum on August 23, 2004, 87 years after it was awarded. Konowal was buried from the St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church, with full military honours by his regiment, in Lot 502, Section A, at the Notre Dame Cemetary, in Ottawa. His wife, who died at age 86, was buried beside him on 3 March 1987. In 1995, Lieutenant (retd) Ron Sorobey, of the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa, began research on Konowal's military record and life. Later he began working with Tony Pidkalenko, other individuals and groups, whose collective efforts ensured that Konowal's story was commemorated in a timely and honourable manner. A wreath-laying ceremony, organized by the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association of Ottawa, involving representatives of The Governor General's Foot Guards, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, The Royal Canadian Legion and the Government of Ukraine, was held at Konowal's grave on 6 December 1995, Ukrainian Armed Forces Day. An upright grave marker, identifying Konowal as a Victoria Cross recipient, was placed in the Notre Dame Cemetary by Veterans Affairs Canada. Trilingual historical plaques honouring Konowal were unveiled across Canada, first in the Cartier Square Drill Hall of The Governor General's Foot Guards in Ottawa (15 July 1996), then at The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 360 in Toronto (21 August 1996) and eventually in New Westminster, British Columbia. Victoria Cross Citation "No. 144039 A./Cpl. Filip Konowal, Can. Inf. For most conspicuous bravery and leadership when in charge of a section in attack. His section had the difficult task of mopping up cellars, craters and machine-gun emplacements. Under his able direction all resistance was overcome successfully, and heavy casualties inflicted on the enemy. In one cellar he himself bayonetted three enemy and attacked single-handed seven others in a crater, killing them all. On reaching the objective, a machine-gun was holding up the right flank, causing many casualties. Cpl. Konowal rushed forward and entered the emplacement, killed the crew, and brought the gun back to our lines. The next day he again attacked single-handed another machine-gun emplacement, killed three of the crew, and destroyed the gun and emplacement with explosives. This non-commissioned officer alone killed at least sixteen of the enemy, and during the two days' actual fighting carried on continuously his good work until severely wounded." London Gazette, November 23, 1917 http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7032923
COMMEMORATING KONOWAL In 1995, Lieutenant (retd) Ron Sorobey, of the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa, began research on Konowal's military record and life. Later he began working with Tony Pidkalenko, other individuals and groups, whose collective efforts ensured that Konowal's story was commemorated in a timely and honourable manner. A wreath-laying ceremony, organized by the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association of Ottawa, involving representatives of The Governor General's Foot Guards, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, The Royal Canadian Legion and the Government of Ukraine, was held at Konowal's grave on 6 December 1995, Ukrainian Armed Forces Day. An upright grave marker, identifying Konowal as a Victoria Cross recipient, was placed in the Notre Dame Cemetary by Veterans Affairs Canada. Trilingual historical plaques honouring Konowal were unveiled across Canada, first in the Cartier Square Drill Hall of The Governor General's Foot Guards in Ottawa (15 July 1996), then at The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 360 in Toronto (21 August 1996) and eventually in New Westminster, British Columbia. In English, French and Ukrainian the plaques read - Filip Konowal, a Ukrainian Canadian who enlisted in the 77th Battalion, while serving as a corporal with the 47th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, fought with exceptional valour in August 1917 near Lens, France. For this His Majesty King George V personally conferred the Victoria Cross on him in London on 15 October 1917. http://www.infoukes.com/history/konowal/
