Last week, I complained that Nanaimo doesn’t really remember or honour its coal mining history when the 135th anniversary of the No. 1 Esplanade Mine disaster, the second worst in Canadian history, passed without a word in the NewsBulletin.
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“Have you hiked the old Mount Sicker Railway grade?”
Read MoreLast week I wrote of various Remembrance services and historic anniversaries that all came within a week of the Chronicles going to press.
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Google the term ‘hell ship’ and you’ll find that it has come to be applied to the Japanese transport of American and Allied prisoners-of-war for slave labour in the home islands during the last two years of the Second World War.
Read MoreIt was a week of remembrance ceremonies.
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Can you even imagine downtown Duncan without its iconic City Hall?
Read MoreLast week’s editorial reference to a nickel candy bar prompted reader Bill Irvine to write…
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All these years later, I can see and hear him now. The late Jack Fleetwood, the man with the photographic memory, the man fellow local historians regarded as the Oracle of the Cowichan Valley, was addressing a small gathering of the Shawnigan Lake Historical Society.
Read MoreIt’s a hard world out there, even for some of the giants. Latest to fall, or almost, is K-Mart, from a high of 2000 outlets now down to three stores in the continental U.S. What a far cry from decades ago.
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We’re following the incredible story of one of the most colourful mariners ever to sail out of Victoria. Capt. Jemmy Jones has gone down in history as, of all things, a pirate.
Read MoreCoincidental to another anniversary of Vimy Ridge that has just come and gone, I’m reading The Madman and the Butcher by award-winning historical writer Tim Cook.
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He was a public nuisance, a drunkard and a scamp; some even said he was crazy. Others went so far as to brand him a pirate. But when he’d finished he’d, single-handed. defied and defeated the courts of three nations.
Read MoreOne of the downsides of being a one-man-band is the inability to do everything right every time; errors and omissions are inevitable, sometimes costly.
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Her only known photo is fascinating in itself. She’s young (23), fair skinned with a clear complexion, plainish bordering on attractive, without makeup and neatly coiffed. She isn’t looking into the camera but slightly upward to her right, as if at something across the room. You can’t read anything in her expression other than that she shows no visible emotion.
Read MoreThe unfolding horror and tragedy in Ukraine—thousands of deaths, millions of people who’ve lost everything and who are now refugees dependent upon the generosity of their European neighbours—is history in the making, history happening before our very eyes.
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As I recently reported, the Cowichan Station Area Association, operators of the Hub, is working to take possession of the deconsecrated St. Andrew’s Church. Negotiations are underway with the Anglican Diocese of B.C. Apparently the beautiful century-old church beside the Koksilah River needs serious and expensive repairs and funding remains to be determined.
Read MoreIt’s not likely that any Chronicles readers knew Frank Clapp who died in Victoria several weeks ago.
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“Great excitement has been recently produced in Victoria by the exhibition of a nugget of pure gold weighing 14 ounces, procured by the agents of the Hudson’s Bay Company from the Indians of Queen Charlotte’s Island. There is a generally prevalent impression founded on the discovery of gold in that island in the year 1851, that it will yet become a productive gold field.”
Read MoreI can’t remember when Birks Jewellers on Yates Street wasn’t a Victoria landmark. But soon to be no more, it being reported that the “luxury” jeweller/retailer is closing its Victoria store.
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To his superiors he was a rebel, a troublemaker and a bore; to his students he was a stern taskmaster whose word was law and whose temper, uncertain at best of times, was to be avoided at all costs. Still, he left his name on our maps.
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