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Thomas Peter Young was born in the 1930s and began working in the film industry as a set dresser in the 1950s. Young’s father Thomas Edward (Tom) Young (d. 1981) was a director of Panorama Productions Ltd., a film production company based at Panorama Studios, a facility established in West Vancouver in the early 1960s. Peter Young worked in the Property Department on numerous productions at Panorama, including The Trap (1965), one of the first major motion pictures produced in British Columbia, and That Cold Day in the Park (1969), directed by Robert Altman and shot in Vancouver. Young also worked on the original Littlest Hobo television series, which was produced at Panorama from 1963-1965.

In the 1970s, Young continued to work as a set decorator on productions at Panorama and elsewhere, and pursued independent film projects. He also became an active advocate for the British Columbia and Canadian film industries through involvement with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 891 and with the British Columbia Film Industry Association.

Panorama Productions Ltd. and Panorama Studios' holding company Panorama Estates Ltd. faced financial and legal challenges throughout the 1970s, and ceased operations circa 1980. Peter Young continued to work in the film industry, and won two Academy Awards for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration for his work on Batman (1989) and Sleepy Hollow (1999).

Ernest Young was born in Florence, Italy. Educated at Highbury House School, St. Leonards-on-Sea, England and King's College School, London, he trained in engineering. Following graduation, he became involved in amateur dramatic work at London's St. James' Theatre. Following his marriage in 1909, Young temporarily abandoned the theatre and England to resume his engineering career. Young and his wife came to Vancouver in 1911 to assume management of a North Shore iron foundry which produced munitions during World War I. During the war years, he sparked formation of the Vancouver Little Theatre Association, for which he produced and acted for 10 years. In 1936, Young produced Vancouver's first outdoor theatre production, which led to the establishment of Theatre Under the Stars in 1940. Young was artistic director, stage manager, and actor for TUTS for 15 years. Young also contributed to the UBC Musical Society's annual productions and advised the University's Player's Club.

Bruce Yorke was born in Vancouver on December 10 1924, into a Point Grey family. He married Mary Bewick in 1944 and together had three sons: David, Paul, and Michael. In 1945 he graduated from the University of British Columbia with a B.A in economics. Graduate studies continued first at the University of Washington, and then a doctoral scholarship to MIT. During this time he became a lifelong member of the Communist Party. Pressure from the FBI brought an end to his studies in America and he returned to Canada in 1948.

From 1956-1962 he worked as office manager for the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union; serving as the accountant, hall manager, and organized fish sales during strikes.

In 1961 he separated from Mary Bewick. From 1962-1965 he was secretary of the Columbia River for Canada Committee opposing the hydro treaty and supporting the alternative McNaughton Plan and testified before the External Affairs Committee.

In 1966 he moved back to Vancouver and met long term life partner, Helen O’ Shaughnessy. The following year Yorke became a founding a member of COPE (originally Committee of Progressive Electors) later Coalition of Progressive Electors. He also founded the Vancouver Tenants’ Council at this time.

Yorke ran unsuccessfully for council four times and Mayor twice before being elected in 1980. As a COPE City Councillor he fought for affordable housing, good public transit, and supported the City’s involvement in peace marches throughout the 1980’s. In 1984 he ran successfully for re-election coming in 10th. However, the 11th place finisher, Philip Owen, successfully had the result declared invalid. A rare tiebreaker competition ensued with Yorke emerging as winner and tipping the balance of Council towards COPE’s favour. In 1990 he was elected to Council for the fifth and final time. In 1992 Yorke retired from Vancouver City Council due to ill health. Bruce Yorke died 5 days short of the 91st birthday, December 5 2015.

Paul Yee, a Canadian writer and historian, was born in Spalding, Saskatchewan, in 1956. His father, Gordon Yee (1905-1957), emigrated from China to Canada in 1922. In 1951, four years after the Government of Canada repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act, Yee’s mother, Gum May Yee (1914-1958), immigrated to Canada to join Gordon Yee in Naicam, Saskatchewan, where he ran a café.

Following the deaths of Paul Yee’s parents, Yee’s mother’s brother Foon Wong (1894-1969) and Wong’s wife Lillian Ho Wong (1895-1985) adopted Yee and his elder brother Vernon and brought them up in Vancouver, British Columbia.

As a child and young adult, Yee attended Lord Strathcona Elementary School and Britannia Secondary School, from which he graduated in 1974. Yee also attend Mon Keang Chinese School, where he studied Cantonese. In 1974, Yee matriculated at the University of British Columbia (UBC), where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history (1978) followed by a Master of Arts degree in Canadian history (1983). While at UBC, Yee took courses in Mandarin and Japanese. In the early 1980s, Yee completed coursework in archival administration from the University of Alberta. In 1983, he completed the archives course offered by the Public Archives of Canada (now Library and Archives Canada).

Yee’s work as a cultural and social activist began when one of his teachers at Britannia Secondary School encouraged him to join the organizing committee for a conference on identity and awareness for Chinese Canadian youth. Yee worked on two more such conferences while an undergraduate at UBC.

In 1976, inspired by a suggestion made at one of these conferences, Yee and several other young Chinese Canadians established the Pender Guy Radio Collective, which produced a weekly program on Vancouver Co-operative Radio until 1981.

From 1974 to 1988, Yee was active with several other Vancouver-based cultural organizations, including the Chinese Cultural Centre of Vancouver, Katari Taiko, and the Asian Canadian Writers Workshop. As a member of the latter group, Yee co-edited and published essays, poetry, and short stories in the Inalienable Rice anthology (1979) and the Vancouver edition of Asianadian magazine (1980).

Yee worked for the City of Vancouver Archives beginning in 1979, first as a summer student and later as a full-time archivist, writing poetry and prose in his spare time.

In 1981, publisher James Lorimer & Company asked Yee to write a book of stories about children living in Vancouver Chinatown. These stories were published as the book Teach Me to Fly, Skyfighter and Other Stories. In 1986, Lorimer published Yee’s second book, a historical novel for children titled The Curses of Third Uncle. Yee has gone on to publish many more works of fiction for children, including short story collections such as Tales from Gold Mountain (1989) and What Happened This Summer (2006); novels such as Breakaway (1994); and picture books such as Ghost Train (1996). ) Ghost Train won the Governor General’s Award for English-language children’s literature (text) in 1996 and was produced as a play by Toronto-based Young People’s Theatre in 2001. In addition, two of Yee’s stories have been into animated films by the National Film Board of Canada.

From 1985 to 1987, Yee served as chair of the committee that mounted a major exhibit at the Chinese Cultural Centre in celebration of Vancouver’s centennial. Titled Saltwater City, the exhibit was the first to assemble and display artifacts, photographs, oral histories, and written records of immigrant and native-born Chinese Canadians living in Vancouver in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Yee’s book based on the exhibit, Saltwater City: an Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver, was published in 1988, winning the Vancouver Book Award in 1989. Yee's updated version of the book was published in 2006. He has written two more history books, Struggle and Hope (1996), about the Chinese living across Canada, and Chinatown (2005), about Chinese communities in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax.

Yee moved to Toronto in 1988 to work as the multicultural coordinator for the Archives of Ontario. In 1992, he joined Ontario’s Ministry of Citizenship as a policy analyst, and in 1997 he left public service to write full-time. He continues to live and work in Toronto.

Annie Yates came to Vancouver from London, England, with her parents in 1887. All the family were members of St. James' Church and her mother was housekeeper at St. Luke's home. Her husband, a railroad man, died in 1936. They had no children.

James Murray Yale (ca. 1798-1871) was a chief trader of the Hudson's Bay Company from 1833 to 1859. He entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1815 and was stationed at Fort Wedderburn on Lake Athabasca, a site of conflict between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company. As a result of this conflict, in 1817, he was seized and detained by North West Company officials at Great Slave Lake for several months. In 1821, he was put in charge of Fort George, and later served at Fort Alexandria and Fort St. James. He then moved to Fort Langley, and was put in charge of the post in 1833. During his time at Fort Langley, Yale oversaw the construction of new buildings and supervised the diversification of the post's activities away from fur trading to include salt fish packing and farming. He also ran the post through the activity surrounding the gold rush in 1858. In 1859, he retired to Stromness Farm in Saanich.

Josephus Wyatt Vaughan was born in Noyan, Quebec, Oct. 20, 1845, son of Amos Hawley Vaughan, one of Manitoba's first surveyors. He moved to the Red River Settlement, Manitoba, in 1870. As of 1882, he was partner in the Winnipeg surveying firm of Vaughan, Dennis and Company. Vaughan Street in Winnipeg is named after him. He also worked as a surveyor and Civic Engineer in Vancouver in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. He died in Essondale Aug. 15, 1914.

Allen Wootton was a member of the Vancouver Natural History Society and was married to Edith (neé Unsworth) Wootton.

Frank Everett Woodside was born in Prince Edward Island in 1875 and moved as a youth to the silver mines of Colorado in 1894. Two years later, he followed the trek to the boomtown of Rossland, B.C., where he mined for seven years. As secretary of the Western Federation of Miners, he was instrumental in influencing the eight-hour work day in B.C. mines. He came to Vancouver in 1903, where he was one of the principal advocates of the annexation of the Hastings Townsite. In 1911, Woodside was elected an alderman for the City of Vancouver, representing the ward of Hastings Townsite, following the merger of Hastings with Vancouver. Woodside's successful lobbying for amalgamation resulted in the first election in B.C. which gave women the right to vote. He held his aldermanic seat from 1911 to 1928, excepting the years 1920 and 1923. As alderman, Woodside was very active in labour and transportation issues. On the founding of the B.C. Chamber of Mines in 1912, Woodside became a charter member and was elected President in 1920. In 1928, he became the Chamber's first paid manager and held that post until retirement in 1955. Woodside died in Vancouver on October 15, 1964, after a prominent career as a miner, public servant and community figure.

Term of office:
1911-1919
1924-1929

Possibly Frank W. Woodfield, an early 20th century photographer known for his photo postcards of the Oregon Coast.

Larry Wong was born in 1938. He grew up in Chinatown with a tailor father who emigrated from China in 1911. After studying at the University of British Columbia for 2 years, Wong began working for Canada Post. He later left Canada Post and Vancouver and began working with Employment and Immigration Canada in [insert location here]. In 1994, Wong retired and returned to Vancouver and began to devoting time to documenting the history of Vancouver’s Chinatown. He became involved with the Chinese Canadian Military Museum as a curator and secretary. Larry also co-founded the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia (CCHSBC) in 2004 and served as president. His latest book, Dim Sum Stories: A Chinatown Childhood was launched in 2011. As one of Chinatown’s local historians, he has served on a number of heritage committees, and has been a mentor, consultant and resource person for a number of writers and scholars.

Chow Wong worked as a photographer from 2607 William Street, Vancouver.

Jane Wolsak is a Vancouver based artist and illustrator. Wolsak was born in England in 1942. She attended St. Martin's School of Art where she studied painting, and the London University Institute of Education, where she received her teaching diploma.
Wolsak moved to Canada in the 1960s, and worked as a high school art teacher until December 1969. She married and had two daughters. During this period she also spent time living in Portland Oregon, and England.
By the late 1980s, personal and financial challenges led Wolsak to focus more on her art work. Her work includes illustration projects, art work for hotels, murals, community projects, and set painting. In 1998 she began working as a courtroom illustrator; her first job was a civil copyright case involving BC artist Sarah McLachlan. She has since gone on to cover many famous and infamous cases in the greater Vancouver region.
Most of her time is spent doing acrylic painting or drawing in her studio, a shared space in East Vancouver. She self-describes her area of interest as still-life, working from subjects set up in her studio rather than from photographs, which according to Wolsak, don’t provide sufficient information. She has had shows of her work, beginning in 1989, in Vancouver and the surrounding region, Victoria, Ottawa and Toronto, including a show of her courtroom drawings at Richmond Art Gallery in 2006.
Wolsak offers the following commentary on her work as a courtroom illustrator:
“When doing my own painting and drawing I can do just as I want, whereas on some illustration jobs I'm told exactly what to do. Courtroom drawing falls in between these extremes, there are requirements, but I have some choices in the creative process. I may be constrained in court by time (brief appearances, changes in procedures), and by space (crowded courtrooms, view-line obstructions). Outside court, deadlines and camera requirements have influence. I portray the court scene as accurately as possible, I'm there in place of the, so far, still forbidden-in-court camera.
“My perhaps old fashioned classical training at art school, with much life drawing and outside sketching, provided me with skills that are useful in courtroom drawing. Now, almost intuitively, I know perspective, how clothing folds, human details, hands, ears… If I have the time I like to watch my subject for a while, in order to catch a repeated gesture, an expression.
“I had a false start in courtroom illustration with Sarah McLachlan, in 1998, a copyright claim, when the newspaper collaged a photo of her head on my drawing of her body – not good for confidence building in a new job! Later, in 1999, I met a friend of a friend, Heather Spears, who was drawing at a trial in Victoria where I was visiting. She suggested I draw at another case in session that day. I did, and managed to sell it to the Times Colonist. Confidence restored, I took my sample drawings in to CBC in Vancouver, and have been working with them, and many other media outlets, ever since.
“I'm often asked if hearing grizzly details in a court case - Pickton for instance - affects me. Luckily it doesn't. I'm concentrating very hard on the visuals (things can change very quickly), so I don't listen well. I'm not there with any continuity, and often court evidence is quite dry. The journalists pull it all together for their sometimes dramatic report.
“Courtroom illustration, as a job, is very irregular. Sometimes I've been in court a couple of times a week, then there can be no work for a couple of months, yet I need to be ready to go with an 8.00 am phone call. Since courtroom drawing has been one of my better income earners, other projects have to work around a sudden day in court.”

Born in New Brunswick, Withrow was established in New Westminster in November 1868. He opened a branch studio at Moodyville the following March. He left photography in the early 1870s to do business as a cabinet and furniture maker in New Westminster. He operated the Brighton Hotel at Hastings on Burrard Inlet in 1882. Withrow took portraits in the carte-de-visite format as well as landscape views, and was a friend of F.G. Claudet. A year before his death Withrow worked at the Provincial Museum as a curator or caretaker.He died in Victoria June 12, 1905.

Anne (also known as Annie) Winkelmans, her husband Leopold, and their four children were long-time residents of B.C.'s lower mainland area. After W.W.II the family moved from West Vancouver to Richmond and, after spending a year in Europe in 1958, they purchased and ran a store in Lynn Valley Canyon, North Vancouver. The Winkelmans' youngest daughter, Dadye, eventually became a professional ballet dancer. Mrs. Winkelmans corresponded regularly with her daughter as she studied at the Royal Ballet School in London, and then went on to tour in Europe and the States.
In July 1961, during a visit with her parents, Dadye was killed in a hiking accident in Lynn Canyon. The Winkelmans sold the store and moved into an apartment in Vancouver. In 1981, after the death of her husband, Anne Winkelmans completed her B.A. at the University of British Columbia. In 1989, after taking a course in creative writing, she wrote her daughter's biography.

Born in Vancouver Nov. 7, 1904, Wilson was educated in Vancouver and initially worked as a bank clerk and then an insurance agent. In 1934, he was elected to the Vancouver City Council. During the pre-war and early-war years, Wilson was an advocate of stringent controls on Japanese in British Columbia. In 1940, Wilson joined the Canadian Army; however, he continued on City Council until 1942, when he was sent to Britain. Returning to Vancouver after the war, Wilson was defeated in his bid for Mayor in 1946, but was re-elected to council in 1947; he served until 1953. Wilson was re-elected in 1955 and remained until 1972.
Wilson ran his own businesses, and was active in the British Columbia Automobile Association and the Royal Canadian Legion.
He died April 23, 1988.

George Halford Wilson became Rector of St. Michael's Anglican Church in 1903 after being ordained in Calgary, Alberta and having worked in Banff as a Missioner. He was the father of David Halford Wilson.

Fraser Wilson was born in Vancouver. He contributed cartoons to The Commonwealth and from 1937 to 1947 he was the regular cartoonist for The Sun. His cartoons appeared across eight columns of the front page every Saturday and featured an affable old fellow, "The Man-In-Vancouver's Streets".

Edward Alexander Wilson was born August 27, 1906, in Liverpool England. He came to Canada in 1931 at the age of 25, and after making short stays in Montreal, Winnipeg, Toronto, and the Yukon, eventually made his way to B.C. After travelling across Canada by train in 1935, Wilson worked at a variety of temporary labouring jobs, including fruit picking in the Okanagan, before eventually settling in Vancouver. During the 1930's, he supported himself by doing a wide variety of odd jobs and casual labour, including gardening, painting, wood cutting, hauling, etc., and secured temporary lodgings wherever he could afford. During the 1940's he did some work for Sun Directories, and starting about 1950 was employed by Canada Permanent Trust, retiring around 1972. Wilson never married, but in his later years, was active as a volunteer grandfather with the Volunteer Grandparents Association of Vancouver. Mr. Wilson died July 18, 1985.

Brian Wilson, a professor at Simon Fraser University, was elected President of the Vancouver Museums and Planetarium Association and Chairman of its Board of Trustees in the spring of 1975.

Born in Massachusetts August 21, 1895, Wills worked as an architect in Boston. He died January 10, 1962.

Beatrice Williscroft was born in Cumberland, B.C. She attended Victoria High School, and settled in Vancouver. She retired in 1959 from the Workmen's Compensation Board, after forty-two years of service. Active in Vancouver women's groups, she was president of the Vancouver Council of Women, 1967-1969, and president of the B.C. Tuberculosis-Christmas Seal Society, 1973-1975.

Williams was born in England and was active as an amateur Vancouver photographer 1888-1899.

James Barclay "Barney" Williams came to Vancouver in 1902 and worked as a newspaperman. He joined the City Government in 1911 as the Land Purchasing and Claims Agent. During this time he studied law and became City Solicitor in 1922. He was appointed head of the Legal Department in 1932. Both he and the City Clerk were dismissed in February 1935. Subsequently Williams moved to Alert Bay and was appointed a Provincial Magistrate in 1939.

Donn Williams was born Sept.20, 1920 in Lavington, B.C., just outside Vernon. His family moved to Vancouver in 1923 and he was a resident of Vancouver since then with the exception of his five years of service during World War II in the R.C.A.F. and photographic training in California. Prior to enlistment he worked with his father who manufactured furniture and had a retail store on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. In 1939 Donn served with his brother Warner with the Irish Fusiliers Reserve. They served in the R.C.A. F. as aerial photographers from 1940-1945. After the war Donn and Warner furthered their photographic training in a two year program at the Art Centre College in Los Angeles California. On their return to Vancouver in 1948 they co-established a commercial photography studio under the name of Williams Bros. Ltd. In 1950 they opened Williams Colour Photofinishing in addition to their commercial studio. Donn operated the commercial studio and Warner ran the photofinishing lab. The lab was sold in 1981 after the death of Warner in 1980. In 1955 he purchased the Steffens-Colmer Studio. After forty years as a commercial photographer Donn semi-retired in 1988. He closed his studio and continued to work from his home in a semi-active capacity for some of his long time clients until July 1999. On April 30, 1999 Donn changed the name of his company from Williams Bros. Photographers Ltd. to Williams Photography. Donn died on November 1, 1999.

Arthur Bryan Williams came to B.C. in 1888 from County Clare, Ireland. In 1905 he became a game and forest warden and was later appointed B.C.'s Game Commissioner. He published two books, "Game Trails of British Columbia" and "Rod and Creel in B.C.", and also wrote a series of articles for the Vancouver Daily Province, ca. 1926. Mr. Williams also drafted many of the province's game preservation laws. He died on 16 February, 1946.

Born in South Africa and educated in Hong Kong, Sandra Wilking came to Vancouver in 1968 to attend Simon Fraser University. She became active in a variety of international and community organizations, including multicultural training and development. Elected to City Council for 1988-1990, she served on the Neighbourhood Issues and Services Committee, Finance and Priorities Committee, Vancouver Liquor Licence Commission, Vancouver Public Library Board, Metropolitan Board of Health, Pacific National Exhibition Board, and the Race Relations Committee. She was the first Chinese-Canadian woman to be elected to City Council. Aside from civic involvement, Sandra Wilking was active with the Y.W.C.A., Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden Society and numerous other organizations.

term of office:
1988-1990