Robert Service - Dawson, Yukon Territory
Posted by: Weathervane
N 64° 03.772 W 139° 26.124
7W E 576350 N 7104957
This Robert Service plaque is located on the facade of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, on Front Street, in Dawson, Yukon Territory.
Waymark Code: WM12P6Z
Location: Yukon Territory, Canada
Date Posted: 06/25/2020
Views: 3
Inscription on the plaque:
Poet and author
whose writing spread
the fame of the Yukon
was a teller at this
Branch in 1908 and 1909
His first poems including
"The Shooting of Dan McGrew"
were written at our Branch
at Whitehorse.
"Service, Robert William
Robert William Service, poet, novelist (b at Preston, Eng 16 Jan 1874; d at Lancieux, France 11 Sept 1958). Educated in Scotland, Service worked in a bank after he left school. In 1894 he immigrated to Canada, where, after wandering from California to British Columbia, he joined the Canadian Bank of Commerce. He was stationed throughout British Columbia and eventually at Whitehorse and Dawson City. In 1907 he published his first collection of poems, Songs of a Sourdough; an immediate success, it was followed by Ballads of a Cheechako (1909) and Rhymes of a Rolling Stone (1912). Poems such as "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" assured Service of lasting fame and gave rise to his nicknames: "the Canadian Kipling" and "the Poet of the Yukon." During WWI he was an ambulance driver, and after the war he travelled throughout Europe but lived mostly in France. His later works include Ballads of a Bohemian (1921), Rhymes of a Roughneck (1950) and his autobiographical works: Ploughman of the Moon (1945) and Harper of Heaven (1948)."
Reference: (
visit link)