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Until I embraced the digital age and all that it offers, including finger-touch research capabilities, my most thumbed reference books were the Oxford Dictionary, the B.C. Department of Mines’ Annual Reports, the British Columbia Gazetteer and Capt. John T. Walbran’s British Columbia Coast Names, 1592-1906.
Read MoreIt’s uncanny how history mimics if not actually repeats itself. Last month’s excitement over a series of so-called ‘scientific’ research balloons from China provided an eerie reminder of the Second World War. That’s when the Japanese attempted to ignite our forests with incendiary bombs delivered via the air currents of the aptly-named Japanese current.
Read MoreAs we’ve seen, throughout the 1850’s the Iroquois guide and interpreter Tomo Antoine was in the thick of almost every major exploration and police action that occurred on Vancouver Island. He was, in fact, Chief Factor/Governor James Douglas’s right-hand man in the field. For all that, he’s been all but forgotten.
Read MoreAs we’ve seen, two men were pivotal to the events leading up to the Cowichan Valley’s only recorded hanging. The first one is well known; in fact, Sir James Douglas is remembered as ‘the father of British Columbia’.
Read MoreWith Truth and Reconciliation has come a new awareness of and sensitivity to our colonial history. Everything about British Columbia’s formative years, once taken as gospel, is now under review.
Read MoreMany are the pitfalls awaiting the unwary history student.
Even the experienced researcher can be lured off course by these sirens of our colourful past. To a writer of ‘popular’ history, these detours can be profitable as well as pleasant; ofttimes, research of one story can uncover another. And another and another.
Read MoreBy the time I was in my 20’s I was deep into writing about British Columbia and Canadian history, including, of course, stories about the RCN.
Read MoreThere’s no getting around it: people and their actions—the good, the bad and the ugly—are fascinating. And the treasure trove of documented history available even to casual researchers is beyond calculation. I was reminded of this recently while reorganizing my library: a story I’d researched way back when I was writing weekly for the Victoria Colonist. It’s a sad tale, one so unlikely that I defy any fiction writer to make it up.
Read MoreIn last week’s Chronicle we saw how Frank Hulbert aka Frank Pepler appears to have gotten away with murdering 15-year-old Molly Justice in 1943. He ended his life as a recluse, living in a converted bus. According to his obituary he died “peacefully,” 53 years later.
Read MoreMy Aunt Ada’s best friend, she’d lived one house down and across the road from our home on Brett Avenue, just east of Swan Lake, in Saanich. Ada and Uncle Cec lived next door to us; Ada was expecting when Molly Justice died and named her daughter, my cousin Molly, for her.
Read MoreTo begin a brand-new 2023, let's take a walk on the lighter side, with a chuckle or two from my archives. We have all year to get back to the darker side of our history...
Read MoreAs I noted in a recent editorial, 147 years later treasure hunters think they’ve found the wreckage of the SS. Pacific which foundered off Cape Flattery in 1875.
Read MoreWe’ve seen how, just after midnight of Christmas Day, 1890, David Fee Jr. was gunned down on a city street as he and friend Frank Partridge were returning to a Christmas celebration after attending midnight mass.
Read MoreIt all began innocently earlier that evening with a masquerade party in the Philharmonic Hall on Fort Street. Among the celebrants were David Fee and Frank Partridge. Resplendent in their white costumes with red braid, they’d slipped away from the party to attend midnight mass in St. Andrew’s Cathedral.
Read MoreThere are 350,000 place names on Canadian maps, 50,000 of them in British Columbia. Of the 1000’s that identify our Pacific Coastline, most—indeed, almost all—were coined by officers of the Royal Navy.
Read MoreIt was said of the Eliza Anderson that “no steamboat ever went slower and made money faster”.
Read MoreI’ve always been a tree-hugger and have long been critical of the way forestry has been and is practised in British Columbia. But I’m also fascinated by logging history, and I make no apology for that, either.
Read MoreThe story of Doris Gravlin has travelled world-wide over the years, mostly thanks to the internet and an almost insatiable interest in the supernatural.
Read MoreIn my day, I doubt there was a teenager growing up in Victoria who hadn’t heard of Doris Gravlin.
Read MoreHuman error. It has always been with us, always will be. For the 19 miners of the Pacific Coast Coal Mine on the morning of Feb. 9, 1915, someone’s carelessness cost them their lives.
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