Showing 935 results

Alfred Birch contracted the building of his residence in Burquitlam by Sloan & Harrison of New Westminster. The house was designed by Joseph F. Watson of New Westminster.

The McGibbon family were the ancestors in New Brunswick of Mrs. Alex Black.

Francis Mollison Black was born in Scotland in 1871. In 1891 he was appointed to the Vancouver branch of the Bank of B.C. He subsequently moved to Calgary, where he was appointed a public utilities commissioner for Alberta. In 1918 he became treasurer of the United Grain Growers, with headquarters in Winnipeg, and from 1922 to 1935 he was treasurer of the Manitoba Government. From 1927 to 1932 he was chair of the fruit and vegetable commission set up under B.C.'s Produce Marketing Act. In 1932 he took over the management of Kootenay Belle Gold Mines.

John V. Black was a commercial photographer operating in Vancouver in the mid-1900s at 544 Granville Street. In 1907, he operated out of Marsden's Photo Studio (George Marsden).

Sam Black was born in Scotland and attended the Glasgow School of Arts in 1936. He started teaching art at the University of British Columbia in 1957 and retired in 1978.

Black was a BC MLA for Nelson-Creston from 1952 to 1972, when he was defeated. He served in cabinet as Provincial Secretary, Minister of Municipal Affairs, Minister of Social Welfare, Minister of Highways[2] and Minister of Health.

Andrew Blackley was born in 1890 and worked as a building contractor with Blackley, Turner and McPhalen, contractors and builders. In 1923 Blackley and Turner moved their business to Yucca, California. Due to an illness in his family Blackley returned to Vancouver and worked on his own, first as a building contractor, then in Vancouver shipyards and finally with the Vancouver School Board until he retired. He died in 1976.

James Blomfield, born James Alfred Bloomfield, was born in 1872 in Maidenhead, England. He studied architecture and worked as a junior draftsman before emigrating to Canada with his family in 1887 where they owned and operated the first stained glass business in British Columbia. Around 1900, James changed his surname from Bloomfield to Blomfield. He married Mary Diamond in 1902. They moved to Toronto in 1920 where he sketched and painted local scenes. James dies in 1951 at the age of 79.

Edgar Bloomfield was a barrister in Vancouver at Wilson, Senkler and Bloomfield. In 1896, he married Maria Melrose Dockrill. They had two daughters, Marjorie Wilhelmina and Joan. Edgar was also an artist. He died in 1937 at the age of 69.

C.B. Boardman was a member of the Vancouver Vagabonds Club which flourished in Vancouver from 1915 until 1927. He owned and managed Western Advertising Service Ltd., an advertising agency in Vancouver.

Forwin Bogdan was born in 1900 in the Ukraine. In 1924 he came to Canada from Hamburg, Germany. From 1927 to 1962 he ran his own painting and decorating business in Vancouver. As a prominent member of the Ukrainian community he documented Ukrainian cultural, religious and educational events for over six decades. He died in 1990.

Harry D. Bohart was a long-time employee at Palm Dairies, starting as a mechanic and retiring as a fleet supervisor.

James Alexander Bonson was born in New Westminster, the son of Royal Engineer Lewis Francis Bonson. James Alexander was chiefly a bridge builder and was involved with the construction of many wooden bridges throughout the Lower Mainland. Later, he was an engineer with B.C. Packers, involved in buildings and equipment maintenance and physical plant operations in canneries around the province.

John William D. (Jack) Boothe (1910-1973) was a cartoonist and writer for various Canadian newspapers. He was born in Winnipeg, and began drawing cartoons at the age of six. From 1930 to 1943 he worked as a cartoonist for The Province newspaper. He later worked for the Toronto Globe and Mail and the Hamilton Spectator, and then returned to The Province to do freelance work. While working for the Province, he illustrated local and provincial political events, and was the co-writer of the column "There and back with Monty and Jack." He received the national newspaper award in 1949, and received it again in 1953 for his coverage of the Korean War. During the Second World War, a booklet of his cartoons was published as a fundraiser for British relief.

Born in the United States May 15, 1905, Borden was a professor of archaeology at the University of British Columbia. He excavated material from the Marpole Midden. Borden died December 25, 1978.

Works as a photographer for the Vancouver Sun.

Born in Toronto July 7, 1922, Bowsfield was the Provincial Archivist of Manitoba 1952-1967. He died August 10, 2008.

Helen Demetra Boyce was born February 2, 1928 in Spokane, Washington, and received her education at Kitsilano Secondary, and Duffus Business College. She began her political career as a Park Board Commissioner, winning the 1968 election as a candidate for The Elector's Action Movement (T.E.A.M.). She left T.E.A.M. in 1970, but succeeded in winning a second Park Board term. In 1974 she won a seat on the School Board, and in the civic election of 1974, successfully stood as an aldermanic candidate. She served the 1975-76 term, and subsequently from 1979 to 1982. In 1985-86, Boyce served once more on Park Board, as its Vice Chairman. She stood as an aldermanic candidate for the Non-Partisans Association (N.P.A.) in 1986, as well as seeking - unsuccessfully - the Social Credit Party nomination for Point Grey. Helen Boyce has the distinction to be the first person to have served on all three of Vancouver's elected bodies - City Council, Parks & Public Recreation Board and the School Board.

Term of office:
1975-1976
1979-1982

Robert Boyd was a chemist who for many years worked for BC Sugar. He was the company's Chief Chemist and Chief Superintendent of the Vancouver refinery.

Originally from Scotland, Boyd taught chemistry at the University of Toronto before being hired by B.T. Rogers in 1913. Shortly after this, Boyd developed Rogers' Golden Syrup, a significant product for the company. Boyd worked for BC Sugar until his death in 1950.

Born in Northampton, England, Charles Bradbury immigrated to Canada in 1915. He worked as a photographer in Vancouver. He was married to Dorothy Allison in 1907.

Dr. Joseph Sterling Bricker was a member of the Vancouver Photographic Society and a dentist by trade.

Sam Brighouse was a native of Huddersfield, Yorkshire, who arrived in New Westminster in June 1862. He purchased the first landholdings within what is now the west end of Vancouver together with John Morton and William Hailstone. He later followed a career of farming in Richmond. Brighouse returned to Vancouver in 1881 and stood for alderman in the civic election of 1887, after having been one of the principal persons involved in obtaining the City Charter. In 1911 he returned to England; he died in England in 1913.

Born in 1947, Constance Brissenden is a freelance writer and editor, the author of a dozen books of history and travel, as well as co-author of books with Larry Loyie. In addition, she is a co-founder of Living Traditions Writers Group.

Charles Broadbridge was born in Vancouver July 11, 1912. He was the son of Richard Broadbridge, a pioneer Vancouver photographer, and he had an avid interest in Vancouver history. He worked in machinery sales. He died April 2, 1981.

Alisen Brown was a Vancouver photographer. Their business was located at 2486 W. 3rd Avenue, Vancouver.

Lorne Ellis Brown was born in Belleville, Ontario. He obtained his junior matriculation from John Oliver High School in Vancouver and graduated from the Provincial Normal School in 1928. Brown taught school from 1928 to 1940 at Lord Selkirk Elementary School and Kitsilano Junior and Senior High Schools. During the war, he worked for the YMCA War Services in Victoria, and for the Navy League. From 1944 to 1946, he was Provincial Superintendent of Physical Education for the Department of Education. He obtained a B.P.E. (1952) and M.A. (1954) in Physical Education from the University of Oregon. He served as Director of Health and Physical Education at the Provincial Normal School (1946-1955). He later became an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia, a position he held until his retirement in 1973. Brown served on Vancouver's Parks and Recreation Board from 1967 to 1968. A camping enthusiast, he and his wife, May Brown, ran a private boys' camp (Camp Deka) in the Cariboo from 1961 until his death in 1976.

Annie May Brown (nee Adams) was born on December 9, 1919, in Hardisty, Alberta. Her family moved to British Columbia when Brown was seven and they settled in Surrey. After graduating from Surrey High School in 1937, Brown studied physical education at the Provincial Normal School, where she graduated in 1940. During the next several years, Brown taught physical education in New Westminster, Surrey and Fernie. In 1945, Brown attended McGill University and earned a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education graduating in 1947. Brown returned to Vancouver in the same year and became a faculty member at UBC's newly formed School of Physical Education and Recreation (now Kinesiology) where she taught until 1955. She also served as head coach of the UBC women's field hockey team. In 1961, Brown obtained her Master’s degree in Physical Education from UBC.

May Brown made her entry into Vancouver politics in the election of November 1972, when she successfully ran for a position on the Park Board, as part of The Elector's Action Movement (T.E.A.M.) slate of Art Phillips. Brown served four years as a Park Board Commissioner, the latter two as Chairman. In 1976, again as a T.E.A.M. candidate, May Brown achieved a second place finish (behind H. Rankin) in the aldermanic race, a position she maintained in every aldermanic election she contested until 1984. (Bill Yee bumped her to third place in that election.) In 1978, with Jack Volrich's decision to run for Mayor independently of T.E.A.M., Brown was persuaded to stand as the T.E.A.M. mayoral candidate. Her mayoral bid failed, but she returned as alderman in 1980, serving three terms thereafter. In 1986 she decided not to seek re-election.

While on Council, Brown was Chairman of the Finance and Administration Committee, Chairman of the Council Committee on the Arts, and the Chairman of the Task Force on Day Care. On the Greater Vancouver Regional District, she was a member of the executive Committee and Chairman of the Planning Committee. Brown was a director of the Pacific National Exhibition, Chairman of the Vancouver Regional Transit Commission, and a director of BC Transit. May Brown was also an active Liberal Party member. She served as a delegate for Vancouver Quadra to the National Liberal Leadership Convention in 1984, and was a committed John Turner supporter there.

Besides civic politics, Brown involved in and contributed to sport and recreational activities. In the 1950s, she was a pioneer in the promotion and organization of women’s field hockey and synchronized swimming in B.C. From 1961-1976, Brown and her husband, Lorne, founded and directed the Camp Deka, a private camp for boys, in the Kootenays. Brown also volunteered in various recreational organizations. These included the Board of Directors of the Y.W.C.A., Board of Directors of Sport BC and the Board of Directors of the Vancouver Community Arts Council, serving as President of the Canadian Camping Association, and serving as a member of the National Advisory Council of Fitness and Amateur Sport, the BC Advisory Council for Sport and Recreation, the 1994 Commonwealth Game Society. She was a 2010 Olympic ambassador, a volunteer position appointed by VANOC to promote the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games bid.

May Brown’s contribution to the community has been acknowledged by various organizations and all levels of government. Her honours include the Order of Canada (1986), Order of BC (1993), Freedom of the City of Vancouver (1992), UBC Honourary Degree Doctor of Laws (1987), and the UBC Sports Hall of Fame (2007). In 1999, the Park Board named a park at the south end of Vancouver's Hornby Street the Lorne and May Brown Park.

May Brown passed away on March 1, 2019.

Stephen Gordon "Pete" Brown came to Vancouver in 1920 to establish another bakery in a line of Brown Brothers Bakeries which his family had started in Winnipeg. He retired in 1948. He was active in numerous civic groups.

Robert Bruce was born in Vancouver. Trained as a carpenter, he also worked as a bookkeeper. He also owned a small boatbuilding workshop on Dollarton Highway.

Cornelius Bryant was born in Netherton, Worcestershire and worked as a clerk for the Thorold Railway Company at Station Round Oak, Brierly Hill. He came to Nanaimo in 1857 and was a schoolmaster there for several years. He became interested in church work and was eventually ordained in the Canadian Methodist Church ca.1875. He preached first at Nanaimo, then was transferred to Granville on Burrard Inlet in 1878. He returned to Nanaimo in 1881and retired in Vancouver.

Photographer

Born in Scotland, Anna Buchan was the younger sister of John Buchan, Governor General of Canada 1935-1940. As an author, she wrote both fiction and non-fiction.

David Buchan was newspaper photographer in Vancouver, B.C. He was born in Vancouver March 18, 1916, and died in North Vancouver Feb. 3, 1979.

Born in London Nov. 25, 1911, Buchan was the son of John Buchan, the first Baron of Tweedsmuir. His mother was Susan Charlotte Grosvenor Buchan, Baroness of Tweedsmuir. He spent years living in Canada because his father was Governor General. He died June 20, 1996.

Percy Buchan was born Oct. 8, 1886. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1909 with a Civil Engineering degree and worked in Vancouver for the B.C. Electric Railway. He was the son of Ewing Buchan, who wrote alternate lyrics to O Canada. he died in Victoria May 21, 1974.

Born in England, she was the wife of John Buchan, author and first Baron of Tweedsmuir. She lived in Canada 1935-1940 when her husband was Governor General.

Henry Alan Bulwer settled in Hatzic in 1887, after having lived in Ireland, England, and the West Indies, and lived there until ca. 1905, when he moved to Victoria. He later settled in Vancouver. He built a 17-room house on the Hatzic property to accommodate his collection of furniture, paintings and books. He was a co-founder of the Vancouver Art Gallery, to which he gave many of his paintings. He also presented paintings to the National Gallery in Ottawa. His library was presented to the University of British Columbia.

Baron Lytton was Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1858-1859, and was also a well-known novelist whose works include The Last Days of Pompeii and Richelieu.