C.H. Dickie: Out of the Past (Part 3)

Welcome to the third instalment of Charles Herbert Dickie’s memoir, Out of the Past, “by an M.P..” As I’ve noted, you’re not likely to find it in a used book store—or even online.

Dedicated to the memory of carefree friends, it’s small, just 20,000 words in length, but it’s a fascinating look at not just Dickie’s colourful career, but also the remarkable circumstances in which he found himself in Michigan, California then British Columbia, and the oftimes bigger-than-life characters he encountered along the way.

Dickie, who never lost his sense of humour, had a keen eye for human frailty—that of others and his own. The resulting tale is of particular interest to students of Cowichan Valley and British Columbia history as, once he arrived in B.C., he never left other than to serve for 14 years in Ottawa as the Member of Parliament for Nanaimo.

After an exciting stint as a sheriff in Michigan, he hoboed his way through California and arrived, penniless, in Victoria where he quit work in a sawmill because of the poor food and accommodation, quit his job as a fireman on the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway after an altercation with an engineer, served as a special constable during race riots n Vancouver, then returned to the E&N as a conductor—a story in itself.

This is where we resume Out of the Past in this third instalment of Charles Dickie’s rollicking life story....

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