A Misnamed Islet off Cadboro Bay? There is a small islet off the north-east shore of Cadboro Bay in my hometown, Victoria, British Columbia, called Ellen Staines Isle. The story behind it is an interesting piece of historical trivia. For some unknown reason the small island was mis-named, because Ellen Staines Isle was named to […]
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The Birth of a Book Series! When I was about nine years old and still lived in England, an uncle gave me a very special book which I have treasured for years. It was called The Abridged Bible Catechism and was given to small children in Sunday school back in the 1840s. But it was
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The Year It All Began – 1858! “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
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When a Princess Came to Town Although Queen Victoria herself never visited British Columbia’s capital city named for her, one of her four daughters, Princess Louise, (her sixth child,) came to Victoria in September 1882, with her husband, the Marquis of Lorne. She loved the city so much that she urged her husband to prolong
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A Scandalous Love Affair Today we are accustomed to scandals in the news, but this was not case in early Victoria. Rumours surrounding one young woman during the 1890s, for instance, were therefore thought to be quite shocking. The lady in question was Bertha de Miranda Genn who led a very unorthodox life. Born in
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The Lady who knew “next to nothing” about Gardening. Jeanette Foster Kennedy was born in Toronto, Ontario, on February 26th, 1868, one hundred and fifty-five years ago, but her presence on Vancouver Island is still very much alive. Although her ancestry was both Canadian and Irish, she was destined to become famous on the Saanich
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CRAIGFLOWER SCHOOL The Oldest School Building in Western Canada Craigflower School in the City of Victoria, British Columbia, opened its doors in March of 1855 to twenty-six students. The first teacher was Charles Clark, who lived in the accommodation upstairs with his family and a few boarders from outlying areas. This little school, alongside the
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(This post was originally published on 2022 – we think you will enjoy it again!) Today Broadmead is an upper-class treed neighbourhood of fine homes and manicured lawns – but of course it wasn’t always that way. Broadmead’s history comprises a varied mix of hard work, horses, religion, burial grounds, famous battles, brewers, and war
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From Small Hamlet to Provincial Capital Today I would like to talk about the history of Victoria, British Columbia, my home town, which is featured in my novel Providence (Book One in the McBride Chronicles), recently released by Hancock House Publishers in Vancouver. On March 13, 1843, James Douglas (a Chief Factor with the Hudson’s
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Today Broadmead is an upper-class treed neighbourhood of fine homes and manicured lawns – but of course it wasn’t always that way. Broadmead’s history comprises a varied mix of hard work, horses, religion, burial grounds, famous battles, brewers, and war veterans, with an Emily Carr vision thrown in for good measure. Back in the 1880s
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