Edwin Alonzo Boyd (April 2, 1914 – May 17, 2002) was a Canadian bank robber and leader of the Boyd Gang. His career made him a notorious Canadian folk hero. Early life Edwin Alonzo Boyd was born on April 2, 1914, four months before the British Empire, of which Canada was part, entered World War I. His father, Glover Boyd, joined the army in August 1915 and did not return home from the war until a few years later. The apartment the family lived in was then too small so they soon moved to a duplex on Bee Street in Todmorden, an area beyond the Don Valley, in East York. Soon after, Edwin's mother Eleanor became pregnant again, so Glover Boyd took a job at the Toronto Police Department. Edwin was enrolled in school in the 1921–22 year, but due to an incident there he did not remain for very long and during his first year of schooling his family had moved again. He then switched to Gledhill Public School to finish out the semester. In September 1923 Glover moved the family a few blocks north and Ed switched to Secord Public School for a brief period of time before being transferred back to Gledhill Public School. The Boyds soon moved again, this time to Glebemount Avenue, and Boyd transferred to yet another new school, this time to Earl Beatty Public School and it was here that Boyd became more of his own person, joining the school's soccer team so that for years his picture hung in the hall of the school. Boyd also then joined the YMCA marching band where he mastered the mouth organ and accompanied the band when they won a world championship at the Canadian National Exhibition. In early 1930 his brothers Gord and Norm Boyd contracted scarlet fever, and while taking care of them Eleanor Boyd became sick herself and died from the disease. In 1933 Edwin had his first brush with the law when he was picked up for vagrancy by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. World War II A few years later, Boyd joined the Royal Canadian Regiment, First Division. In June 1940, his regiment crossed the channel to France. When his regiment was posted to Reigate, Surrey, Boyd met his first wife, Doreen Mary Frances Thompson. On August 20, 1941, almost nine months to the day after Boyd and Thompson married, she