HAROLD B. DISBROWE

Harold Boyne Disbrow, son of George Arthur and Melissa Ann (Monteith) Disbrow, was born 12 July 1901 in Malahide Twp., Ontario, and died 10 July 1988 in London, Ontario, where he resided. He married Edith Arley Lowe (daughter of Thomas Lowe, C. E., Amherstburg, born 26 Sep. 1901; died 16 July 1977), and they had one daughter, Barbara (Disbrowe) Treleaven, born 5 Nov. 1923.

Harold was educated at the Ontario Agricultural College, receiving a B. S. A. degree in 1923, and he took additional work at the University of Toronto. After graduating, he followed a life-long career in teaching. He taught at International College in Izmir, Turkey, 1924-27. In 1932 he became a secondary school teacher of science and agriculture, and taught at Stirling, in eastern Ontario, and Simcoe in Norfolk County. In 1945 he was appointed principal of Elmira District Secondary School in Waterloo County, which post he occupied until his retirement in 1965.

After retirement Harold resided in London, where he became a freelance writer, and had numerous articles published in the London Free Press, the Ottawa Journal and the Toronto Daily Star. He also wrote and published two booklets describing his early years on his parents' farm and his years in the teaching profession. Down On the Farm, published in 1981, was subtitled: "A nostalgic glimpse of farm life in Western Ontario during the First Quarter of The 20th Century". His second book, entitled A Schoolman's Odyssey, was published in 1984.

Harold had some knowledge, and a curiosity, about his famous ancestor John Disbrowe - as his introduction to the biography explains, which led to his doing a great deal of research on the man and his relationship with Oliver Cromwell. In 1984 Harold attended our second Disbrow Family Workshop in Paw Paw, Michigan, at the invitation of Donald W. Disbrow of Ypsilanti. We who were there learned that Harold's ancestry also included other distinguished persons in England - including his great great grandfather Edward Disbrowe (1754-1818), who was a Colonel in the Staffordshire Regiment, a Vice-Chamberlain to Queen Charlotte, and a member of Parliament. Harold's father emigrated to Canada in 1873 with three brothers, and settled in the London area, where he was a farmer.

The above was compiled from three sources: (1) an untitled Disbrowe family genealogy compiled in 1984 by Mr. Eddis Johnson (partly from Harold Disbrowe's family tree); (2) an author's bio on the back cover of his booklet, Down On the Farm; (3) an article on the 1984 Disbrow Family Workshop, written by myself and published in the Disbrow Family Newsletter, No. 3 (Sep. 1984).

Back to "John Disbrowe - Major General of the West"