Sydney Austin Beal
Section 14, Lot 482
York Cemetery
Sydney Beal came to Toronto as a teenager, from Dunkirk, England, and worked at several different jobs until the outbreak of World War I. He enlisted in the Canadian army and served a stint in a machine gun corps before transferring to the Army Service Corps where he became the personal driver for General Sir Arthur Currie, GCMG, KCB Canada’s top military commander. Following the war, Beal turned down an offer to remain Currie’s driver in Ottawa, instead settling down in Toronto with his wife. He joined The Star in December 1936. In the early years he drove out-of-town routes, delivering the paper throughout southern Ontario. Later, he worked in-town routes, and was a delivery driver for The Toronto Star for 26 years. He retired in December, 1962. Beal died on November 29, 1988 at the age of 95.