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Authority record

Youson, Mary Elizabeth

  • Person
  • 1914-2011

Mary Youson, born in 1914, was one of four children of Reverend Harold and Stella Armitage. The Armitage family moved to Saanich from the Interior of B.C.; Reverend Armitage became the minister of St. Aidan's Church in the 1930s and the family lived in the Manse there. Mary attended Mount Douglas High School. At St. Aidan's, Mary came to know Nellie McClung, who was a parishioner. Irvine family descendant Barbara Dawson Brown was Mary's best friend. Mary's sister Jara married Geoffrey Smith, a United Church minister; they went to China and Africa as Missionaries. Brother David, a pilot instructor, was killed in WWII. A second brother, John, survived the war and moved to Creston, B.C. Mary Youson died in September 2011 and is buried in Ross Bay Cemetery, Victoria.

Yates and Jay, Burns and Goult

Burns & Goult was a law firm serving Victoria, Esquimalt, Saanich, the Western Communities, Oak Bay, and other areas on southern Vancouver Island. Arthur J. Burns was one of the principal partners of the firm. The material in this records group includes documents from Burns & Goult, and incorporates papers of the earlier law offices of Yates and Jay, J.S. Yates, Yates and Yates, Yates and Burns, and Arthur J. Burns.

Wootten, Roy

Roy Wootten was born in Brandon Manitoba in 1913. His family moved to the Victoria area in 1925, where he attended Royal Oak School. He worked at various jobs around Victoria until opening his own retail dairy, which he sold in 1939. In 1940, Roy Wootten first joined the Saanich Fire Department, and later the Licence Department and the Building, Plumbing and Wiring Department. In 1950 he left Saanich to become a business agent for the Civic and School Board Employees on Vancouver Island. Roy Wootten ran for Saanich Council in 1951 and served until 1954, then returned to work for Saanich as Licence Inspector and Tax Collector. He was also Special Events Coordinator, with the Saanich Strawberry Festival being one of his well-known projects. He was Vice President of CUPE for all of Canada, President of the Greater Victoria Civic Employees Scholarship Benevolent Society, President of Saanich Municipal Employee's Association and the Firefighters Union President. He retired in 1974, at which time he became an Alderman and served on Council until 1976. Roy Wootten died in 1993.

Woodward, Beatrice

During the First World War, Beatrice Woodward and her dog Muggins lived at 590 Gorge Road West. Muggins became famous for his Red Cross fund-raising efforts. During his fund-raising years, he was credited with raising thousands of dollars for the Red Cross and other causes. He was photographed with important people of the time, and was honoured with medals for his efforts. Muggins died in 1920.

Woods, John Harold

John H. Woods was born on May 8, 1904 in Derbyshire, England. His father, Harold Woods, settled in Gordon Head just prior to World War I; John, along with his mother and sister, arrived in 1913 aboard the ship “Olympic”. John Woods lived at 1635 Ash Road for 70 years, where he grew flowers and vegetables, and raised chickens. In 1935, Mr. Woods worked at the Fairbridge Agricultural College near Duncan; he also belonged to the Pacific Coast Rangers during World War II, and later spent a number of years with the Victoria Machinery Depot, (his father had also worked for a time at the ship building company). He died in Victoria in 1995.

Wooded Wonderland

In 1961, Alfred Pettersen negotiated a 2 year lease with the Victoria Parks Committee for an approximately 5 acre parcel of land in Beaver Lake Park. Mr. Pettersen proposed to build and operate a tourist attraction featuring a series of nursery rhyme scenes in a wooded area of the park. The attraction opened in 1962 and operated for a number of years.

Williamson family

  • Family

William J. Williamson and his wife Wilhelmina (nee Clarke) came to Gordon Head in 1897, and built a house on Tyndall Avenue. W.J. Williamson operated Gordon Head’s first grocery store from 1909 to 1918. He also contracted the first rural mail route in the neighbourhood which in 1913 was taken over by his eldest son Jack. Jack Williamson served overseas during WW1. When he returned, he took over the Gordon Head bus service in 1921 and ran the business until it was bought by the Matson Coach Lines Company in the late 1920s. In addition to operating Gordon Head’s first grocery store and mail route, in 1913 the Williamson home was also the site of Gordon Head’s first telephone office, with 1 switchboard and ten lines. In 1924, a new telephone office opened with at the corner of Feltham Road and Tyndall Avenue with 97 telephones. The Williamsons’ daughters, Alixena and Agnes, were both employed at the new telephone office.

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