The Great Imposter: A Story from the Collection

Picture this: you are a volunteer cataloguing the uniform collection at the Maritime Museum of BC and you find a naval officer’s card tucked into the pocket of a cap. This is just an ordinary day in the collection until you read the name: Surgeon Lieutenant Joseph C. Cyr, Royal Canadian Navy.

Only one phrase flashes through your mind: “The Great Imposter!”

At least, that flashed through the mind of Lieutenant-Commander (Ret’d) Gene Fedderly, a collection and archives volunteer.

Surgeon Lieutenant Joseph Cyr was the stolen identity used by Ferdinand Waldo Demara. He was known as the Great Imposter for impersonating, amongst many other cons, a doctor in the Royal Canadian Navy on HMCS Cayuga in 1951 during the Korean War.

Lieutenant-Commander Fedderly knew there was one man in Victoria who had actually met the Great Imposter, and recorded an interview with Commander (Ret’d) Peter Godwin Chance. A wonderful storyteller and highly decorated officer, Commander Chance passed away this year at age 104.

Commander Chance recounted to a group of Maritime Museum of BC volunteers and staff stories of his own service in the RCN, and his first-hand memories of Demara at work.

Commander Chance recalled that Captain James Plomer, commander of HMCS Cayuga, had an infected tooth, and Demara duly expanded his practice into dentistry. This is only one of Demara’s several successful surgeries and exploits–his fellow officers and the Cayuga crew were so impressed with the man that they put him forward for a medal. This extra attention was his undoing, and Demara’s con unraveled.

How did the cap make its way into the Maritime Museum of BC collection? A Master at Arms who was likely on the scene of Demara’s apprehension at CFB Esquimalt donated it in 2000.

We are delighted to share Commander Chance’s eyewitness account of an incredible naval story, and remember the late Commander Chance on this day.