Filip Konowal

Filip Konowal
Born	15 September 1888 Kutkivtsi, Podolia Governorate, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)
Died	3 June 1959 (aged 70) Hull, Quebec
Allegiance	Russian Empire  Canada
Years of service	1909 - 1913 (Russia) 1915 – 1919 (Canada)
Rank	Sergeant
Unit	77th Canadian Infantry Battalion 47th (British Columbia) Battalion Canadian Infantry 1st Canadian Reserve Battalion Canadian Forestry Corps Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force Governor General's Foot Guards
Battles/wars	World War I *Battle of Hill 70 Russian Civil War *Siberian Intervention
Awards	Victoria Cross Cross of St George, 4th Class
Other work	special custodian in the Office of the Prime Minister

Filip Konowal VC (Ukrainian: Пили́п Миронович Конова́л; Pylyp Myronovych Konoval; 15 September 1888 – 3 June 1959) was a highly decorated Ukrainian Canadian soldier. He is the only Eastern European recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy given to British and Commonwealth forces. He was also entitled to the Cross of St George, 4th Class.

He is the patron of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 360 (Konowal Branch) in Toronto.

Konowal was born to a peasant family on 15 September 1888 in Kutkivtsi, in the Podolia Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Ukraine) near the border with Austria-Hungary. At an early age, he worked as a mason alongside his father. He married Hanna (?-1932/33) in 1908. They had a daughter, Marichka.

Soon after his marriage, he decided to join the Imperial Russian Army, where he served as an instructor in hand-to-hand combat. After demobilization, Konowal returned home and took up work as a feller in Siberia, before accepting a job with a Canadian company in 1913. Departing from Vladivostok, Konowal crossed the Pacific Ocean to Vancouver, British Columbia, and continued working as a feller, gradually making his way east. By the beginning of 1914, Konowal had lost his job as a feller and ended up working a series of odd jobs until the outbreak of World War I.

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