July 21, 1921
What was happening a century ago this week from the front page of the Cowichan Leader.
July 21, 1921
There was a solemn ceremony at the Canadian Bank of Commerce on Station Street to unveil a bronze memorial honouring local staff who’d served in the recent Great War. Attending were Duncan Mayor T. Pitt, MLA Kenneth Duncan, A.J. Marlowe, branch manager, Mr. And Mrs. R.W. Carr Hilton and their daughter, and the Revs. F.L. Stephenson and A. Bischlager.
The Rev. Bischlager opened the ceremony with a prayer then manager Marlowe noted the bank’s country-wide contribution of employees to the war effort. Of 2400 staff at the outbreak of war, no fewer than 1701 bank employees had enlisted; of these, 258 didn’t return.
The bank had also published a book listing all those who served and giving brief details of their experiences overseas and biographies of each.
The bronze tablet at the Duncan branch was intended to remind staff and the general public of their contributions and sacrifices.
One of the names on the tablet was that of Gunner A.D. Carr Hilton whose father, in attendance with his wife and daughter, had been manager of the Duncan bank in 1914. As we can imagine, his brief talk, unreported, was described as a “feeling” one.
Of bronze, circular in shape with a diameter of 22 inches the tablet was flanked by the caduceus* with folded wings and the floral design displayed an emblematic olive branch with two poppy blooms intertwined.
*The caduceus was described as “the familiar sign, of classic origin, long adopted by the bank. It is a staff around which two serpents are entwined and is surmounted by a pair of wings”.
There was a second memorial, this one at St. Mary’s, Somenos, to honour their dead of the war. The Very Rev. C.S. Quainton came from Victoria to unveil it. His words were sobering: he described the two and a-half years since Armistice as not a real peace (a caustic reference to the torturous Versailles Treaty talks) but “a time to think.
“The peace conference [is] only acting through fear of war. The drums of war [are] only sleeping...” (He obviously was a man of prophecy, alas.)
After 13 years’ working with Indigenous people at the Koksilah Mission the Rev. C.A. and Mrs. Dockstader and their five children were leaving for a new posting in Coombs. He’d seen a new church, mission house and school erected during his time in the Valley. Previously he’d served at Hedley, Elko and Clo-oose.
Nine local students had passed their high school examinations, two more than in 1920.
The G.A. Tisdalls held a summer fete at their mansion, The Grange, on Drinkwater Road, with the Women’s Auxiliary of St. Mary’s, Somenos. The former Clive Philllips-Wolley house is so big that the festivities concluded in the evening with a dance.
Sixteen residents of Westholme petitioned the Duncan Consolidated School Board for a school of their own; as matters stood, Westholme children attended school either in Duncan or Chemainus. Capt. Gaisford, a farmer, cited the lengthy travel time required that resulted, he believed, in lack of parental control and was a major problem with parents. Worse, in Duncan, students were receiving “an education which alienated the children from the land and made them dissatisfied with conditions on the farm”.
Leander Hamilton disagreed—strongly. He’d noticed a marked improvement in the children’s behaviour and deportment since they attended school in Duncan. He then reminded Capt. Gaisford, wo’d been a recruiting and training officer during the war, that he’d impressed upon recruits that “discipline was the foundation of all well being”. Now Gaisford would have the children taken away from where they were under good discipline?
Mrs. Coppock, Mrs. Devitt and others suggested a compromise—that younger children be educated in a primary school at Westholme to save them the long rides to and from town.
W.M. Dwyer, school board chairman, asked all parties to consider the board’s position: they were responsible for the education of children in both the Duncan and North Cowichan areas, the Municipality’s school-age population having mushroomed in recent years. The board had three choices of action:
—They could go to the ratepayers for more money to build an addition to the Duncan school which was operatig at full capacity. (He thought ratepayers would resist the expense.)
—They could build a new school at Westholme—another great expense—and one that the provincial department of education, which had expressed itself as highly satisfied with things as they were, would resist.
—The third and cheapest solution was to use a vacant classroom in the Chemainus school for Westholme children.
He then touched upon the racially contentious matter of “Oriental” students of whom 15 were attending Chemainus school. The matter, he said, was totally out of the Board’s hands, they were bound by law to accept such pupils, a minimum of 40 being required for segregation as in larger cities.
The Board then retired to further consider building a Westholme school and to rubber-stamp a recommendation that teachers be given modest raises. As an example, Dr. N.F. Black, principal, saw his salary rise from $2000 per annum to $2400.
Mrs. St. George H. Gray and her three sons and daughter had moved to the Valley after motoring for a month across the continent, from Florenceville, N.B., a total of 4438 miles. They’d averaged 211 miles per day by following the Yellowstone Trail through the U.S., not re-entering Canada until after they reached Blaine. Their Dodge touring car had worked well throughout the trip, achieving 22.2 miles per gallon on seven gallons of oil, with five blow-outs. All at the cost of $92.00! They’d further reduced costs by sleeping in a tent but bought their meals on the road.
The Leader described their overland odyssey as “a lively topic of conversation for months to come. Their record and experience with the car is exceptional.” (Indeed it was–this was in 1921, remember.)
The Maple Bay Aquatic Club was planning its next Regatta using the same program as the previous year but adding a sailboat race, a 10-foot dinghy rowboat race for ladies, and a swimming race for girls.
The public was urged to start preparations for the different races, swimming, rowing, canoeing, sailing, log rolling, surf riding, greasy pole, diving and “any other stunt that can possibly be done in or on the water”.
The newly-formed South Cowichan Bull Assocation was out to borrow a pure-bred Jersey bull under the Dominion Livestock branch’s policy of loaning breeding bulls. They had in mind Girlies Golden Lad, 7932, presently on duty in the Comox Valley.
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