ACC Strathcona Camp 1912
Since its inception in the winter of 1911/12, the Vancouver Island section of the Alpine Club of Canada has been holding regular meetings, electing officers, offering day, overnight and multi-day trips and camps into the mountains, and alpine skills workshops. It has been instrumental in encouraging thousands of both young and old people into the mountains and alpine environments, as well as taking on contentious issues to ensure the wilderness of the island doesn’t disappear and is protected for future generations. Unfortunately, for many decades there was no documentation of its meetings, activities or trips the way we are used to today. However, we now know that much of its history was written and printed in the newspapers – although not everything. The newspapers have revealed how the section evolved and grew. As I sifted through the early Victoria Daily Colonist, I found some interesting stories and a wealth of previously unknown information. I learned that initially interest of the Vancouver Island members was in the mountains around Victoria, Sooke and Saanich because of the limited road system and transportation issues, but as road and rail was pushed further north up the island access to the mountains on the mid and north island became more feasible. I found stories in the Comox Argus newspaper from the mid 1920’s which published stories about the ACCVI but also the Comox District Mountaineering Club, a club whose beginnings date back to 1927/28 and was linked with its Victoria counterpart. I came to the conclusion that these articles and reports were today’s equivalent of the Island Bushwhacker Annual – a synopsis of the clubs’ activities, its role in society and the island mountaineering history. They are a fascinating insight into the people of the era and how they viewed their island home and the mountains. I therefore have included the CDMC stories, actually the Forbidden Plateau stories which the CDMC promoted, in these yearly accounts. One of the contributing factors that led to the formation of the Vancouver Island section was the creation of Strathcona as the first provincial park in British Columbia on 1 March 1911. During the course of the 1911/12 winter meetings the possibility of a party going in to explore and report on the alpine attractions of the park was discussed, but this was a wild and inaccessible district. The cost of transportation proved to be the chief obstacle Eventually, through negotiations with the Ministry of Public Works, the government agreed that funds would be provided for a party limited to twenty. In August 1912, the first party from the Alpine Club of Canada visited Strathcona Park and wrote a glowing report on what they encountered. Since then, the park has had a checkered history, but it is because of clubs like the ACCVI and the CDMC who have fought to protect and promote Strathcona and other island mountain environments, that they have not been completely plundered by successive governments influenced by big corporations such as forestry and mining – David versus Goliath stories. Some of the stories of Strathcona Park are also found in herein.
Below are the names of some of the people mentioned in the transcribed articles for whom I have written short biographies. Many of them were members of the Vancouver Island section of the Alpine Club of Canada, while others were well-known names amongst Island mountaineers. Our early membership was made up of a many distinguished people from various backgrounds, and the executive committee, the driving-force of the section, was comprised of both males and females. We see that class and gender played no role in the Alpine Club of Canada back in its early days in just the same way as it doesn’t nowadays. It’s all about sharing a common passion and enjoying the camaraderie found in the outdoors.
1910 William McCurdy, George Rawlinson, William Holmes, Hugh Bacon, Price Ellison, Myra Ellison, Harry McClure Johnson
1911 Arthur Wheeler, William Foster, George Kinney, Fred Helm, John Forde
1912 Frederick Elworthy, Thomas Taylor, James Macoun, Reginald Thomson, Lewis Hall, Joshua Umbach, Dora Tyas, Alan Morkill, John Chapman, William Dougan, Frederick Longstaff, Horace Westmorland, William Drewry, George Dawson, Ethelbert Scholefield, Jean Bruce, Jennie McCulloch, Edward Mohun, John Cory Wood, Herbert Frind, Edward Wheeler, Albert MacCarthy, James Robertson, Francis Robertson, Lionel Wilson, David Gillies
1913 Julia Henshaw, William DeVoe, Herbert Latilla, Frank Johnson, Rudolph Feilding, Marjorie Feilding, James Sivewright
1915 Robert McCaw, Gordon Cameron, Sara Spencer
1917 – Arthur Wedgewood, Adeline Baxter
1919 – Frederick Godsal
1920 Arthur Hodgins, Herbert Shade, William Alldritt
1921 Alan Campbell, Arthur Sovereign, George Winkler
1922 Lindley Crease, Jean Mollison, Henry Gale, Victor Best, Richard Greer,
Joseph Bridgman, Henry Muskett, Francis Kermode, Robert DeBeaux, Selim Franklin
1923 William Dougan
1925 Geoffrey Capes, Adrian Paul, Clinton Wood, Dorothy Pilley, Robert Connell
1926 Cougar Smith
1927 Harry Rees, John Brown, Theed Pearse, Claude Harrison,
George Taylor, James Fletcher, James Anderson
1928 Ben Hughes, John Davidson, Kenneth Chadwick, Annie Sutherland, Sid Williams, Eugene Croteau, Cyril Berkeley, Jimmy Aston
1929 Jack Gregson, Leonard Rossiter, Charlotte Hadow, Reginald Chave, William Everall, Fred Rollins, Emily McConnan, Adele Bucklin, George Sisman, Harlan Smith, Marjorie Leedam
1930 Arthur Haynes, Mark Mitchell
1931 Thomas Goodlake, Hewitt Bostock, Harry Beadnell, John Nairn, Bill Bell, Sylvia Holland
1932 Kathleen Martin-Tuckey, Charles Whitney-Griffith, Dorothea Hay, Edmund Lohbrunner, Robert Connell
1933 Ethne Gale, Francis Goilma, Francis Tuckey, Henry Laws, Jock Sutherland
1934 William Moffat, Norman Stewart
1935 Rex Gibson, Andy Morod, Hamilton Mack Laing, Dick Idiens, Stephanie Jones, Eleanor Piggott
1936 Alfred Slocomb, Leroy Cokely, George Ash, George Colwell
1937 Anne Norrington, Brenda Stonham, Alex Gunning, Muriel Aylard, Aileen Aylard, Roger Schjelderup, Preston Tait, Cecil Frampton, Brian Tobin
1938 Gertrude Wepsala, Ruth Masters
1939 Peter Vajda, J.J. Plommer, Ernest Schwantje, Herbert Chandler
1940 Aretas DesBrisay
1941 Elaine Beeston, Karl Baadsvik
1943 John Gibson
1947 Ralph Rosseau, Mabel Duggan
1948 Edward Goodall, Frank Stapley, Jimmy Aston
1949 Charles Nash, Bill Lash, Mallory Lash, Ted Greig
1950 Connie Bonner
1951 Gerald Andrews, Gertrude Snider
1952 Cyril Jones, Connie Bonner, Ray Pillman
1953 Jean McDonald, Noel Lax, Patrick Guilbride, Syd Watts, Roger Stanier, Nigel Scott-Moncrieff
1954 Ulf Bitterlich, Adolf Bitterlich, Paddy Sherman
1955 Miles Smeeton, Ken Stoker
1957 Karl Ricker, Ferris Neave
1958
1959 Harry Winstone, Tom Hyslop, Fred Crickard, George Lepore
1960 John Cowlin
1961
1962
1963
1964 Ron Facer, Robert Lyon
1965
1966 Mike Walsh, Bob Tustin, Ray Paine
1967
1968
1969
1970 Bill Perry
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975 Joe Bajan
The biographies and the history are a work in progress and both will be continuously updated with stories periodically.
ACCVI History is a work in progress.
Lindsay Elms