South African War, 1899-1902--Personal narratives

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South African War, 1899-1902--Personal narratives

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South African War, 1899-1902--Personal narratives

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South African War, 1899-1902--Personal narratives

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Arthur Mayse interview

CALL NUMBER: T4133:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1984-03-28 & 30 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Birth at Peguis Reserve, Manitoba; early memories of Swampy Cree people at Peguis Reserve; memories of father, Reverend A.W. [Amos William] Mayse; father's tales of the Boer War; fraternizing with the enemy; father emigrated to Canada; worked as a carpenter, became minister; father was in WWI; war wounds; was in Boer prison camp; earlier release by Jan Smuts; YMCA rep in WWI; back to Winnipeg; refused commission in Black and Tans; rural ministry in Manitoba; took salary partly in trade and had first pick of charity clothes; Mr. Mayse hated school; his father was self-taught and had a good library; read everything, including religious material; moved to British Columbia. [TRACK 2: blank.]

CALL NUMBER: T4133:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1984-03-28 & 30 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Living in [Port] Hammond BC; first work experience; father's church in Nanaimo; primitive conditions in the coal mines; clothing and equipment of miners; many beer parlours in Nanaimo; father's popularity; favorite fishing spots; anecdote of hazardous fishing trip; Turner rowboats prized; commercial fishing; early commercial fishing methods and boats; memories of Sointula fishermen; Sointula pukka fighting; Nanaimo miners fished for trout, not salmon; early trout fishing equipment; social consciousness; father never was a union miner; lied to get into army; South Africa; Reverend Mayse went underground in Nanaimo mine accidents; panic in town; miners invited Reverend Mayse underground, managers didn't argue; dynamite misadventure. TRACK 2: Continuation of dynamite misadventure with Rev. Mayse; vegetable garden; powder bosses; Reverend Mayse destroyed cars; pit ponies on islands; Italian miners; soccer important in Nanaimo; library; Millstream Park; rugby versus soccer; holidays with father; Chinese persecuted in Nanaimo; Chinese accused of taking jobs; few Chinese women or children; fight between Chinese and Haida boys; Chinese cooks; idyllic but racist town; Mr. Mayse and friends made a water cannon to frighten Chinese; backfire; collecting cascara bark for money; cruel pranks; fights with air guns and crossbows made from umbrellas; good shot with slingshot; gangs racially mixed; miners lived in southern Nanaimo; some of the cottages still there [as of 1984].

CALL NUMBER: T4133:0003 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1984-03-28 & 30 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Nanaimo childhood; Guy Fawkes day was celebrated as Bonfire night; Hallowe'en destructive; Nanaimo's tamale wagon; miners' children; fishing and writing at Cowichan Bay; Reverend Mayse sided with the workers; holidays at Cowichan Bay; acquiring a dugout canoe; shaman procured canoe by threats; Indian fishing methods; most gear was cedar; old style Cowichan sweaters described; Padre Cook of Cowichan; Queen Victoria medal; John Page and the medal; shaman had grape arbor and soul box; healing and hurting with soul box; rite of boys purification among Cowichans; Wolf Song was stolen from the Haida after the Battle of Sansum Narrows circa 1820 to 1840. Haida blamed for other raids; Haida slaughters and weapons used. Reverend Mayse left Mr. Mayse to his own way on holidays. TRACK 2: 38; pound salmon won prize; Bruce McKelvie; first sale of fiction; principal angry but kept on; Oyster River with Reverend Mayse; memories of old-timer James McIvor; washed ashore from sloop; McIvor ran cattle; threatened loggers; tea with McIvor; McIvor's customs; McIvor angry when offered help; McIvor's nephew visited briefly; tried to buy wife; McIvor fishing with haywire; hated cities; died in Comox in 1940's. Walter Woodiss, Oyster River old-timer, storyteller; tall tale of salmon; Woodiss's feud with a black bear and accidental killing of same; Woodiss's Inn; Percy Elsie "mayor of Oyster River"; fried chicken known as fried seagull; ghost at Comox; WWII airman at Comox rode his bicycle through "Dancing Annie".

CALL NUMBER: T4133:0004 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1984-03-28 & 30 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Indian rancherees; shaman Cultus Tommy; Chinook trade jargon terms; Padre Cook well loved; friend at Cumberland; stories of Ginger Goodwin; Cumberland memories of Ginger Goodwin and hostility to trial and government; Dominion police were hated, man hunters; no shame in evading the draft; met Cougar (Cecil) Smith; Mr. Mayse now lives in Cougar Smith's house; Cougar Smith's peculiarities; Roderick Haig-Brown, great Canadian writer; friendship with Haig-Brown; dam on the Campbell River broke his heart; last meeting with Haig-Brown; last impressions; better known outside Canada; Haig-Brown a fine and pioneering fisherman; fished steelhead. Mr. Mayse disliked high school; paid for clothing with poetry prize won at UBC three years in a row. TRACK 2: Mr. Mayse paid UBC tuition by logging in the summer under a false name; BC loggers and equipment; railroad logging; unions; woods accidents; logged Upper Vancouver Island; logging camp cooks; anecdote of 'foul feeder'; fight between logger and foul feeder; logging camp cook; flunkies, bed makers, logging camp pump tenders; eccentric and proud train men; high riggers; Harold Larson would post on a spar; woods near-misses; spark catchers jobs; bunkhouse moving accident; Paddy the straw boss; Paddy nearly caught in a blast; lemon extract mad man incident; bringing out man lost in the woods; gone mad, tried to escape his friends; wild Great Dane dogs abandoned in woods; harassed spark catchers; Mayse had to shoot one.

CALL NUMBER: T4133:0005 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1984-03-28 & 30 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Great Danes hunted in Pike's Peak area; shot one; partner Paddy Gorman; Paddy attacked by a cougar while snoozing; scraps of loggers songs; never wrote them down, always regretted it; logging; company owners were remote; unions starting camps; decision logging versus writing; went to the Vancouver Province; space writing for Province; offered staff job; clannish and proud reporters; story of ascent of Mount Waddington; two expeditions at once; Mr. Mayse carried homing pigeons in a basket to file the story; rough country; beauty and tragedy of the pigeons; walking out to tidewater hungry; a ghost story at Leefall Point, Mount Waddington, where a climber had fallen to his death. TRACK 2: Worked at the Vancouver Province as Torchy Anderson's junior man; they covered a huge forest fire that threatened Campbell River and Courtenay on Vancouver Island [Sayward fire, 1938]; Torchy was Mr. Mayse's mentor and friend; longshoremen riots; Torchy was fearless; Torchy squealed when angry; his grandfather saw a Sasquatch; the Rum Tum Club and the Sonofabitch Club; creating a story on injured trapper at Mission. Mr. Mayse wrote police constable's report while drunk; cop demoted; Torchy and his wife Marion; moved to Saltspring Island; memories of Province newspaper women in 1930's Vancouver; wild party on Grouse Mountain; Christmas cheer and story of upside down reindeer; camps for single unemployed men; joining the American Newspaper Guild; had BC union card number 3; union's failure; left holding the bag; not fired but put behind the eight ball; refused marrying raise.

CALL NUMBER: T4133:0006 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1984-03-28 & 30 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Mayse quit the Vancouver Province and joined the Vancouver Sun. The Sun was tougher and wilder; front page exclusives as revenge; union succeeded later; hostility to union. Mr. Mayse drafted and discharged for TB scars; army lost files; returned to the Sun as military writer; Mr. Gallagher, an alleged spy; moved to Toronto with no job, $100, a wife and a dog. Selective service twits said there were no jobs; walked into a job at Maclean's. Toronto run of luck; sold short stories to the Saturday Evening Post; break fiction editor of Maclean's; a few good Canadian writers; editor bought fiction; Calvinist, liked gloomy tales, had to trick him; Canadian writers were "cry-babies"; Americans were pros. TRACK 2: Canadian writers resented criticism; Mayse emulated American writers; today's market poor for short stories; in the 1940s and 1950s the stories were not literary but a good product; wrote serials for Saturday Evening Post; later published as novels; approached by an agent; returned to the coast; end of fiction markets; never seen as a serious writer; writing is lonely work; Jack Scott criticized Mr. Mayse's success in the U.S.; considered a move to the U.S.; writer's; work should speak for itself; but book tours are necessary; dislikes writer's grants except for poets; many writers are poseurs; major literary figures in Canada; dislikes commercial versus literary distinction; Mr. Mayse now writes a newspaper column; wrote for "The Beachcombers"; column is a good platform; a lucky and happy man; importance of luck.

Harry Winkley interview

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Harry Winkley : Boer War, Canadian experience RECORDED: [location unknown], 1972-04-26 SUMMARY: Harry Winkley was born in 1881 and speaks of his childhood in Langho, an English village. He became a labourer at age 10, working in a cotton mill. He discusses the "chase and be chased" movements of the Boer War, the long marches, the sieges. In Canada he worked in logging and in a mental institution as a male nurse. After retiring he earned money by gardening.

H.V. "Paddy" Acland interview

CALL NUMBER: T1085:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-11-12 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Paddy Acland remembers a few anecdotes about hunting and hiking in the BC interior. He explains how he came out to British Columbia from England after serving with the British Army duri;ng the Boer War. He describes expectations of life in BC and offers comments on the background of his father, John Acland. He arrived in BC in 1908; he describes the appearance of Summerland. He discusses his first jobs in the Okanagan; building his first log cabin; an anecdote about digging a basement for "Old Johnson"; buying and pre empting land in the Okanagan. TRACK 2: Paddy Acland describes the development of his own property near Eneas Lake between Peachland and Summerland. He discusses his first impressions of the Okanagan Valley, coming into it via train and boat. He describes ;the sternwheeler "Aberdeen"; labouring for a tobacco farmer in Kelowna; working for a dairy farmer, the meanest man Mr. Acland had ever met; comments on another employer, named "Fluffy" Williston. Mr. Acland offers further comments on British immigrants who came to the Okanagan during this era.

CALL NUMBER: T1085:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-11-12 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Paddy Acland mentions his first jobs in the Okanagan, including lumber sorting and surveying. Mr. Acland returned to England for two months, and then returned to the Okanagan. He offers an; anecdote about a man being thrown into Lake Okanagan with all of his belongings, for making a pass at a local girl, and the "rough" justice of the era. More anecdotes about promiscuity between wives; of landed settlers and hired working men. Mr. Acland discusses his marriage to a girl from Summerland, and a digression on the different types of English immigrants, including the class that settled; in Vernon during the early decades of the century, which he found snobbish and pretentious. He describes the mixture of settlers in Kelowna during this era. TRACK 2: Mr. Acland offers comments about the Edgelow family of Kelowna, particularly Mrs. Edgelow, who delighted in shocking Kelowna residents prior to World War I. He comments on the background of the Acland family and offers anecdotes ;about his mother-in-law, Mrs. Hutton of Kelowna, an ardent Catholic convert who often entertained in her large home. He tells a story about an English orchardist who planted his trees upside down, an;d describes dances and social activities in the Okanagan Valley during this era. He describes the growth and development of Summerland during its early years and reflects upon the different currents ;of immigrants and settlers which have made up the fabric of Canadian society.

CALL NUMBER: T1085:0003 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-11-12 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Paddy Acland discusses some early Okanagan Valley residents. He admits that he joined the Baptist church choir to meet young and single women. He discusses relations with the Indians in the reserve near Summerland; the story of Sam McGee; comments on how the capital of early settlers was used and misused; a recollection of J.M. Robinson; comments on the Manitoba farmers induced to come; to the Okanagan Valley by Robinson; comments on how young men made a living in the Okanagan during this era; a story about the fortunes of three young working men; and comments on the Dominion Experimental Farm at Summerland. TRACK 2: Mr. Acland recalls several characters at Cobble Hill, Duncan, and offers a comparison between Vancouver Island and the Okanagan Valley during the early years of t;he century. He discusses personalities and experiences at Thetis Island; then he tells a story about two young men who shot a policeman in the Okanagan Valley, and were hunted by posses throughout the valley. More comments on English settlers; the story of the Belleview Hotel; anecdotes about the antics at the Belleview Hotel, and a physical description of the hotel.;

CALL NUMBER: T1085:0004 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-11-12 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Paddy Acland retraces early working experiences and life in the Okanagan Valley. He describes Okanagan Falls around the time of the First World War; the town of Kaleden; a story about Tom E;llis; stories about rattlesnakes; a story about competing in the long jump against an Indian at Penticton; comments about Penticton and Naramata; a description of Peachland; comments about settlements; on the west side of Okanagan Lake; J.C. Dun-Waters and the building of Fintry; dairy farming; comments about the simple funerals of several wealthy Okanagan residents; and an anecdote about the funeral of Matt Wilson. TRACK 2: Mr. Acland recalls his service with a military regiment in the Okanagan Valley; organizational and disciplinary problems with the Okanagan military regiment; military stories and training with different military regiments in BC and eastern Canada.;

CALL NUMBER: T1085:0005 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-11-12 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Paddy Acland discusses military training and service overseas with a Canadian battalion during the First World War. He offers further recollections of aspects of military training in British Columbia. TRACK 2: Mr. Acland tells a story of bear hunting behind his homestead with a local Indian. He describes his service as a government weed inspector along Lake Okanagan, and tells a story; about entry into the military. He comments about training in the Okanagan and he traces his military career.

CALL NUMBER: T1085:0006 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-11-12 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Paddy Acland discusses further aspects of his military experience overseas during World War I. TRACK 2: Mr. Acland offers recollections about flying aircraft and training pilots during World War I; returning to the Okanagan Valley after the war; a story about losing his land after the war, and serving as a manager at the Eldorado ranch. Finally, he discusses hard times.

James Sutcliffe Day interview

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-11-11 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Jim S. Day describes how he came from Lancashire after the South African War and landed in Halifax in January 1904; his train ride out west, and jobs he worked as he made his way westward; his arrival in Vancouver; a contract he accepted in Salmon Arm in 1906; anecdotes about his life there, including details about Jim Edmunds and about a school concert; his time opening a contracting; business, and all of the buildings he built in the first decade of the 1900s; what Salmon Arm was like when he arrived; building a road; the Columbia River Lumber Company; shipping fruit; building churches in the area and the support of the population of these churches; Scottie Mitchell, who was an architect, and a story of him on a survey crew. TRACK 2; Mr. Day continues by telling a story about the building of a wharf and building of a dam; wedding celebrations; and being elected to council in 1929.