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One of my true regrets of having earned my journalistic spurs back in the ‘60s is that newspapers and magazines at the time were mostly black and white. Meaning no, or rarely, colour photos because they were too expensive to process and to print. Meaning that I took 1000s of photos in black and white—and we now live in an age of full colour reproduction!
Read MoreThe big story of the day is another Maple Bay Regatta with 100s of Valley residents enjoying “pleasures of shore and sea and excellent racing” with the bonus of the events being promptly conducted.
Read MoreIt's not that Telesforo Trinidad wasn't duly recognized at the time: he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour, the highest American commendation for courage when the CMH could be awarded for heroism in non-combat duty.
Read MoreUp until recent years, Penelakut Island, east of Chemainus and midway between Saltair and Ladysmith, was known as Kuper Island. It was originally named, as were 100s of other B.C. geographical place names, after a British naval officer.
Read MoreThe most dramatic story on this day’s front page is also the saddest…
Read MoreOne of the victims of the wildfire that ravaged Lytton earlier this month was the privately owned Lytton Chinese History Museum. The creation of Lorna Fandrich was built on an empty lot on Main Street that was said to be the site of a Chinese joss house or temple, 1881-1928.
Read MoreIn my promo for this week’s Chronicle I noted that, as recently as the 1960s, Victoria was so quiet, t’was said they rolled up the sidewalks at night. It was even called a cemetery with a business section. Times have certainly changed, if not for the better, crime-wise.
Read MoreSome things never change. As sure as summer you have heat, swimming...and tragedy. In July 1921 it was that of 12-year-old Donald Smith Hawkins, a student of Duncan Public School and the adopted son of James Hawkins, foreman of the James Logging Co., Cottonwood Creek.
Read MoreWhat a ride it has been. Two days ago we marked—celebrated seems too strong a word in the face of recent events—the 150th anniversary of British Columbia as a province of Canada. If ever we as Canadians had a moral duty to be good citizens by informing ourselves and engaging in a renewal of our society it’s now.
Read MoreDramatic headlines for Jan. 15, 1903 proving that it was a great news story is the fact that these headlines are from the Winnipeg Free Press which had picked up the story by wire.
Read MoreThere 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…
Read MoreCoincidental to the B.C. government having declared a state of emergency because of raging wildfires on the Mainland (July 21, 2021) fire was the subject of the leading news story for the day in 1921, too.
Read MoreOne of the victims of the wildfire that ravaged Lytton last week was the privately owned Lytton Chinese History Museum. The creation of Lorna Fandrich was built on an empty lot on Main Street that was said to be the site of a Chinese joss house or temple, 1881-1928.
Read MoreThe most gripping story on this front page, SOUTH SEA TRAGEDY, is a real heartbreaker. Poor Maj. J.D.H. Roe, formerly a stalwart of the Duncan Board of Trade. Talk about jinxed!
Read MoreA stroll along Ladysmith’s Sixth Avenue is a stroll into the past—Boer War era.
Read MoreAs you read this it’s—or it isn’t, depending upon your response to calls for its ‘cancellation’—Canada Day.
I never thought I’d live to see July 1st be anything but a celebration of Canada’s birthday. But then I didn’t foresee events unfolding as they have over the past few years, and the last few months in particular.
Performed at Chemainus Theatre amid rave reviews, the Other Guys Theatre Company’s Good Timber was “a terrific local history lesson” built around (to quote the Cowichan NewsLeader Pictorial) “the logging camp poems of former Chemainus sawmill worker Robert E. Swanson [featuring] many historic clips of Cowichan’s logging days.” Bob who?
Read MoreAh, the age of innocence. A century ago, the Leader heralded Dominion Day with photos of Sir John A. Macdonald and the Hon. George Brown. Fathers of Confederation, they’re wreathed and flanked on each side by Union Jacks.
Read MoreIn his prime actor John Wood was hailed as an actor who “stood alone on the Pacific Coast”. But when he died he became an embarrassment to almost all who knew him when the circumstances surrounding his death touched off a furor that only ended in a crowded courtroom...
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