Landmark (park) – Toronto

Sir Casimir Gzowski Park is named in honour of Colonel Sir Casimir Gzowski, KCMG.

Colonel Sir Casimir Gzowski was born in St Petersburg in 1813 to a Polish father who served with the Russian military. He was sent to a military prep school and upon graduation in 1830, joined the Imperial Corps of Engineers. With the Polish Kingdom recreated in 1815 under Russian control, and the subsequent uprisings against their Russian masters in 1830, Gzowski joined the Polish nationalist cause but was captured in 1831 and deported to the United States, where he learned English, completed a law apprenticeship and opened a law office in 1837. Calling upon his previous experience as an engineer, Gzowski was involved in many road, bridge and canal building projects and eventually returned exclusively to engineering. During one of his visits to Canada to review a project, Gzowski was offered the position of Superintendant of Roads and Waterways for the London area. He and his family moved to Canada in 1842 where he embarked on a remarkable 50 year engineering career, involving himself in projects from canal and road construction, to mining operations along Lake Huron to railway construction in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, Guelph and Toronto. In the mid 1860’s, he resumed his interest in military affairs and often submitted petitions calling for stronger military forces in the face of the Fenian Raids. Instrumental in the creation of the Dominion Rifle Association, Gzowski was commissioned as a Lieutenant-Colonel by the Governor General in 1873, appointed honorary aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria in 1879 and promoted to Colonel in 1882. In 1890 he was awarded a KCMG and died in Toronto in 1898.

Voir aussi le mémorial 35019-031.