Page 20 - NJC Newsletter Spring 2016

Still in Search of
Leonard Wilde
year of Ethics, Society and Law and community for clues, as during Mr. Boyer’s initial investigations, he discovered that Mr.
by Sarah MacKay Marton ‘14
About the Author
Like many great institutions, NJC was born from a passionate and driven individual who saw an opportunity to create something lasting. As I embarked on my own journey to Neuchâtel, I had not given Mr. Wilde a second thought. However, now, approaching two years since my graduation from NJC, I find myself learning about and investigating the life and death of Mr. Wilde. In the Spring 2014 edition of NJC Magazine, a piece was published detailing the exploration of Mr. Wilde’s final resting place; which seems to have become quite a mystery. The school reached out to the NJC
Sarah MacKay Marton ‘14 is in her second
Psychology studies at The University of Toronto, at Trinity College. She is currently a research assistant at the university, and is planning on pursuing further studies in law.
Wilde had been buried in the Neuchâtel cemetery, but he was moved just eight months later. Throughout the past year, I have explored aspects of Mr. Wilde’s life and attempted to discover where our founder was finally laid to rest.
My investigation took off when members of the NJC community reached out to help our search for Leonard Wilde; our jumping off point stemmed from passenger lists dating back as early as 1954. Each list gave us more information. From a voyage in 1954, we found what we assume was his British passport number, from 1956 we found his date of birth, from a list in 1958 we found a connection to the College, and in 1960 Mr. Leonard T. Wilde was listed as a teacher in Switzerland. Through these lists, we then found an address in Blackpool for Mr. Wilde, which was then reaffirmed when an alumna helped us with our investigation by sending us a probate of Mr. Wilde’s will. This confirmed his date of death and connection to Neuchâtel Junior College.
Our next step seemed clear at the time: if he was no longer buried in the cemetery in Neuchâtel, he must have been sent home to England. Our research continued with a search of all the churches in the Blackpool area, as well as Lancaster and Lancashire, which were all the areas we found Mr. Wilde had been linked to in his life. Cemeteries were emailed, public records were searched, and parishes were contacted; however, we unfortunately found no traces of Leonard Wilde. Disappointed with the lack of new leads and my lack of information, I entered “Leonard Wilde Switzerland Accident Canadian” into Google, expecting no search results. Surprisingly, this was not the case and Google delivered! During my first attempt at googling his whereabouts, I discovered an obituary written in the Ottawa Journal, and in another attempt, I found a second obituary from
NJC Founder, Leonard Wilde 1912-1965
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Neuchâtel Junior College Magazine