Stories of the Foreign Drillers

Roland Blackwell	Roland Blackwell: Roland was born on June 28, 1876 in Restigouche county, near Campbellton, New Brunswick. His family moved to Petrolia when he was still a small child. He attended local schools and then took up drilling. Most of Roland's work was in the oil and gas fields near home, and in Kansas, U.S.A. He had one contract to drill in the Argentine Republic around 1915. Roland died in 1945, and is buried in the Hillsdale Cemetery, in Petrolia.
James and Ada Brown	James Brown: James left to drill oil in Persia in 1915 when he was 23 years of age. He would spend close to 14 years away in the foreign fields. His work in the oil fields was considered valuable by the authorities. These Persian oil fields were called "the lifeline of The Royal Navy",(Gary May, Hard Oiler!, p.175) as they maintained the supply of oil to the British during the war. James was attacked by German soldiers and Arabs while working on a Persian pipeline. Several workers were killed, but James and others hid in the mountains. They had to survive in those mountains for four months before they would be spotted and returned to camp. The company had mistakenly assumed that they were dead.
T.E. Lawrence	Fred Edward: Fred first worked in the Lambton fields when he was 14, earned his steam-engineers certificate and left for Mexico by the time he was 17. He returned home three years later, with $2,000.00 and a case of malaria. Three months later, Fred left for Egypt, where he drilled on an island near the Sinai Peninsula. Returning from Egypt, Fred had a ticket on the Titanic, but due to delays in London traffic, he missed the boat. In 1913, he left for Persia, where he drilled in the foothills of western Persia. He contracted rheumatic fever a couple of years after his arrival, and needed to sneak out of Persia on camel back, dressed as a Persian, to seek medical aid. Fred claimed to have met T.E. Lawrence, (Lawrence of Arabia), when he arrived at the Gulf, and obtained passage on a boat home with Lawrence's help. Fred traded in his camel for boat passage home. When Fred arrived in England, he weighed only 97 pounds, and needed to return home to Petrolia in order to recuperate.
William McCrae	William W. McCrae: William spent many years with the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company in Borneo and Sumatra. He was born in Beauharnois, Quebec on February 15, 1867 and died in 1926. During his years as a foreign driller, a skill he learned in Petrolia from his uncle Hammond, Bill was an avid hunter. Many photos have been taken with Bill and his trophies, especially his elephant. He was among the first of the foreign drillers and spent 25 years of his life abroad. During his last trip, he was sent home suffering from malaria. He did return to work, but eventually had to retire. He died from the ravages of gangrene and was buried in Hillsdale Cemetery, Petrolia.
Young Duncan McIntyre Elderly Duncan McIntyre	Duncan McIntyre Duncan McIntyre was born in Scotland in 1870, moved to Michigan with his family, and finally to Lambton County. He arrived in Lambton County when he was still a boy, his family being split up due to extreme poverty. He went to school in Marthaville, and realized his dream of becoming a driller. His first drilliing contract was in 1905, when he went to Persia. Of Duncan's 46-year career, he spent 26 years as a foreign driller, drilling in such places as India, Burma, and Borneo. Duncan's toughness was made evident in Borneo around 1914, when a two ton pump that he and his crew were moving, fell and rolled completely over his body. It took a whole day for the workers to carry him out of the jungle, and to a field hospital of the Burma Oil Company. Duncan lost consciousness at the hospital and remained that way for 10 days. A devoted Scottish nurse, Margaret E. Clark, nursed Duncan back to life. Duncan had a total of 21 fractures, and news was sent home to his wife that he might not survive. Sadly, his wife Annie, who was left at home with five children, could not handle this added stress, and walked into the St. Clair River and drowned herself. After several months of recuperation, Duncan walked out of the field hospital and boarded a ship for home. It wasn't until he arrived home in April 1915, that he learned of his wife's death. He recuperated at home for three months before leaving for Burma on another three year contract. He stayed there until his retirement in 1930.
Titanic	James McRie: In 1912 James was in London, England, having just returned from drilling in Egypt. In England he received word that his wife was ill back home in Sarnia, Ontario. Impatient to return home, McRie traded boat tickets with Gus Slack, another Lambton driller. James' voyage was to be on board a brand new ship, the Titanic, and he was grateful to his friend for the ticket. Unfortunately, James perished along with 1500 other passengers on the Titanic's maiden voyage. He was only 35 years old.
Lawrence Oliver	Lawrence Oliver: In 1922, Lawrence went to California where he joined St. Helen's Petroleum Company. For the next 46 years, he worked around the world, on five continents. He returned to Canada in 1940 and spent 12 years drilling blast holes for northern Ontario mining companies. Lawrence then found work with a water drilling company in 1952, and travelled to Israel and Venezuela. When he returned home after these work contracts were completed, he retired. His retirement was to be short-lived, as in 1966, missionaries from India arrived in Petrolia searching for men to drill for water in the Punjab. "Once more Lawrence Oliver went out, a man of advanced age, to work in the boiling heat of India, with a half-ton truck, a light experimental drilling rig, and a team of enthusiastic but untrained young Indians. For months they punched down holes in the churchyards of rural India, and everywhere the water flowed. Families rushed to the wells with pots, pans and jars. Struck down by the awful heat, Oliver took to the mountains, then went on to finish his work, before returning once again to settle into a quiet retirement. It was, he says, the only job where he kept a careful log of his work, and refused his wage-his personal tribute to a great age, and the Canadians who helped build it."( Oil Heritage District pamphlet)
Joe Thompson and family	Joseph Thompson: Joe was born in Petrolia and learned drilling in and around Petrolia. He signed on for foreign service and drilled in Cuba in 1904 and 1905. After traveling around Canada for a few years, he returned to Petrolia in 1914, when he signed a contract to drill in Egypt for one year. He then drilled in Yenangyaung, India for three years. After a short return visit to Petrolia he signed a contract for three more years in Burma, in 1918. He was a horse lover and had a successful stable in Rangoon. He died and was buried in India in 1935. Joe's two sons, Arnold and Melvin both became foreign drillers.
Fred Webb and family	Fred Webb: Fred worked in the fields of Sarawak, Sumatra, Borneo and Colombia. Fred was credited with drilling the first oil well in Colombia. In 1906, he signed a three-year contract with Royal Dutch Shell to drill in the East Indies. In later years he would drill in Ecuador for a subsidiary of Imperial Oil. He drilled in Ecuador for two years and then retired. Few drillers took their families overseas, but some had circled the globe twice. The Webb children visited most of the countries of the globe.
James and Olive Webb	James Webb: James was the next generation of foreign drillers, following in his father Fred's footsteps. James was born in 1900 in Petrolia. He joined Imperial Oil foreign service in 1927, and then traveled to Talara, Peru for the International Petroleum Co. James married Olive Peacock from Petrolia, and they had two children while living in Peru. James retired to London, Ontario in 1954, and then moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1956. There are numerous photos of his expeditions in Peru and Ecuador, at the Oil Museum of Canada.
Winnett's Journal	Edward Winnett: Edward tried the life of a foreign driller just once, and decided that it wasn't for him. When he left for Sumatra in 1897, Edward left behind his wife and six children. Edward's journey is recorded in his personal journal, which is also on display at the Oil Museum of Canada. He records his sadness on leaving his family, as well as his excitement at seeing the sights and sounds of this new world. He tells of crocodiles, cobras and other snakes, as well as the wilderness that surrounded them in the rain forest. Winnett sent home $90.00 each month to his family, but he found the loneliness too much for him. He finished his term abroad, and returned home. He and his wife Annie, and family, moved to Sarnia after his return from Asia, and then to Port Huron, Michigan, where he lived until his death in 1917. Edward's exciting journey is chronicled in Gary May's book,(Gary May, Hard Oiler!, p.177-191).
Charles Wallen Jr.	Charles Wallen Jr.: Charles Jr. was living in Grosny, Russia, the son of foreign driller, Charles Sr., when the Russian Revolution broke out in 1917. Charles Jr. and his family had to flee from Russia. He was almost three years old at that time, and vividly remembers Fanief, one of the Cossack guards, who helped his family to escape. Fanief, who had been a guard at the Czar's Imperial Palace, had received a bolt of cloth from Princess Tatiana to make a uniform. With the material left over, Fanief had a small uniform made for his son. During their journey to safety, he gave this little uniform to Charles Jr., which is now on display at the Oil Museum of Canada. Charles Jr. himself grew up to become a foreign driller, and traveled far and abroad drilling for oil.
Charles Wallen Sr.: Charles Sr., his wife Florence, and his two children had been living in Grosny, Russia for years before the Russian Revolution in 1917. He was the field manager of the North Caucasian Oil Company, in Russia, and had lived a fairly wealthy existence until forced to flee the country. As things heated up in Russia, Charles was forced to arm himself to protect his family. When the robbing, kidnapping, and terror increased he had no recourse but to try to escape. He and his family had a "hellish" journey, finally arriving at the Scottish coast in July 1918. They made their way to London, England, and finally home to Oil Springs, Ontario for Christmas Eve. They were destitute, as all of their funds in the Russian banks had been seized. They lived for a while with Florence's parents. He died in 1921 of pneumonia , perhaps brought on by this ordeal. He was 47 years old, and had spent half of his life in foreign fields. He also worked in Germany, Russia, Barbados, Africa, Mexico, California and Java.