The Balsam Lake Tragedy almost 100 years ago

On My Walk at St. James-the-Less Cemetery – Remembering the Boys of Balsam Lake

On my walk through St. James-the-Less Cemetery in Toronto, with my canoe paddle in hand, I visited the long-overlooked grave of eleven boys and young men who tragically drowned during a summer storm in 1926.

On July 20, 1926, a group from The Brotherhood of St. Andrew leadership camp, located on Balsam Lake, set out in an oversized canoe. They were caught in a sudden and violent storm. A massive wave overturned the canoe, and the group—despite their strength, youth, and training—couldn’t make it back to shore.

Eleven perished. Most were from Toronto. Their deaths shook the city, but as decades passed, so too did memory of the tragedy begin to fade.

The gravesite, once carefully marked and honoured, slowly fell into disrepair. Weeds crept over the engraved stone rim, and vandals toppled the imposing granite cross, which lay abandoned and broken for years.

But on June 20, 2024, nearly a century after the tragedy, the memorial was restored. A new granite cross, modeled after the original, was installed on the same base. The surrounding site was cleaned, landscaped, and brought back to dignity.

A small and reverent group—clergy, descendants of the victims, and members of the community—gathered to rededicate the site, give thanks to those who restored it, and most importantly, remember the eleven young lives lost on that fateful July day in 1926.

The initials of 7 of the 11 boys and young men who died and are buried at St. James the-Less Cemetery.

The original base with a wave carved into the monument and the missing cross that was vandalized over the years.

New York Times reporting on the tragic drowning in 1926