Desmond Boswell, Hudson's Hermit, dead at 68 Desmond Boswell   HUDSON - Desmond Boswell, the man dubbed the Hermit of Hudson by the Montreal media for his desire to live 'off the grid', died Saturday at the Lakeshore General after a long battle with chronic emphysema and other degenerative illnesses. He was 68. His father, Harry Boswell, was a Royal Military College-educated army officer whose Second World War exploits included parachuting into Nazi-occupied Europe and blowing up military installations, for which he received the Order of the British Empire. Harry was serving with the British Army in Singapore when Desmond's mother Phyllis Henshaw was killed in a car crash. Desmond was just four. His father remarried and had another family. Desmond lived with his grandmother and inherited her home on Brisbane when she died. Over the years, the house fell into disrepair and was eventually torn down when Desmond refused to make repairs for lack of money. Its contents, including valuable paintings, were either stolen or sold; family members recall seeing them for sale in Montreal galleries. Drugs, tobacco and alcohol were constants in Desmond's life and drew a steady stream of young Hudsonites who envied his carefree lifestyle. But it didn't endear him to others, who would look down their noses at the rake-thin bearded man on the bicycle with the large milk carton on the back rack. He steadfastly refused to move indoors, even if it meant heat and a welfare cheque. That meant he would have to stop living 'off the grid,' hooked to a system that had rejected him and that he had rejected. Instead, he existed on money earned from scavenging bottles and junk. He was dubbed the Hermit of Hudson when the town attemped to evict him from the now vacant lot where his house once stood. He had built a sort of yurt out of tarpaulins and other junk, furnished it with old furniture and a discarded mattress, and kept himself warm by feeding stray cats, which would come and sleep on his mattress. He bathed naked in the stream that cut across the property. Hudson residents were divided. Some felt he should be left alone; others wanted him run out of town. Finally, he was evicted and the property expropriated by one of those he had trusted. He could have moved indoors at that point. Instead, he lived at the mercy of others and a town that didn't want him hanging around. Eventually, he ended up in a ramshackle former dépanneur on Bellevue which was eventually purchased by the town and torn down to make way for a small park. He told a visitor it was a palace compared to his previous lodgings, but it wasn't good enough to prevent him from being evicted yet again. His long-suffering family said his death was no surprise. "We'd known for a long time that he was failing," said a relative. She said the family had done their best to help him. "We tried so hard over the years, but Desmond wouldn't listen."