The Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address Memorial is in the background.

  

More info on the Gettysburg National Cemetery can be found here.

www.nps.gov/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/pennsylvania/ge...

The address is put on the lower panels.

The Address hotel shines like a silver beacon as the sun begins to set in Dubai.

Cleaning up 2 cubic meters of mulch that was dumped on my driveway by mistake. A bit of on-line sleuthing and fuzzy images from my neighbor's security camera helped me track down the garden center that screwed up. Once I contacted them they showed up in 15 minutes to clean up the mess. They brought me a 25 kilo bag of lawn fertilizer as a gift and offered me the mulch at no charge, if I wanted it. Class act!! Lucky they weren't a wrecking crew!

Well, you've gotta have one of these to properly address shiny, speedy riddles. I've called it "The Rat" because I think it actually looks like a rat sniffing the trail... which kinda fits the whole idea.

–

The Bionicle windscreen provides a generous cockpit which is quickly and easily accessible and fits Batman in normal driving position (I didn't try it, but I think he can even wear the cape without trashing it). I've built most of this one a while back, even before the rat rods I've posted lately, and the "nose" solution (please note, I'm not the first to use it) also provided me with the idea for the prongs of my Falke.

I absolutely love how the canopy turned out - combined with the armored wheels, I think it gives an almost aircraft feel to the whole. Having this developed and work on the Falke makes me think now of a classic shaped Batwing :)

–

As always, the awesome copper and silver chromed parts come from Auri's store.

(from - Wrigley's 1918 British Columbia directory) - McMURDO - a post office, farming and mining district in the Columbia Valley, reached by Kootenay Central branch of the C. P. R. to Mons, and south of Golden, in Columbia Provincial Electoral District. Has Methodist church. Local resources: Mixed farming and mining.

 

McMurdo was named after Archie McMurdo, prospector and first white settler in the district.

 

The McMurdo Post Office was established - 1 September 1904 and closed - 2 November 1953.

Distributing point - Cranbrook and Golden

Mail route - McMurdo and Railway Station

 

LINK to a list of the Postmasters who served at the McMURDO Post Office - recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record...

 

Clipped from - The Golden Star newspaper - Golden, British Columbia, Canada - 23 May 1979 - The McMurdo Post Office was situated then at the site of the Old Proffit house and Edith would walk the five miles to it twice a week. She remembers that if there was a letter to be mailed they would place it in a forked branch on the road and anyone going by would pick it up and mail it at McMurdo.

 

James Croft served as Postmaster at McMurdo from - 1 July 1906 to - 24 November 1911 and from - 12 February 1913 to - 1920.

 

James Croft - (had a well-developed ranch at McMurdo)

(b. )

 

Note - this was not James Whitman Croft (1863 - 1923).

 

Robert Edgar (Ed) Weston served as Postmaster at McMurdo from - 24 November 1920 to - 15 October 1953.

 

Robert Edgar (Ed) Weston

(b. 1 July 1888 in England - d. 28 August 1981 at age 93 in Vernon, British Columbia)

 

LINK to a newspaper article on Robert Edgar Weston - www.newspapers.com/clip/118645367/robert-edgar-ed-weston/

 

- sent from - Chicago - very weak strike...

 

- arrived at - / McMURDO / DE 23 / 11 / B.C. / - split ring arrival backstamp - this split ring hammer (A1-1) was not listed in the Proof Book - it was most likely proofed c. 1904 - (RF C) - a tougher / uncommon RF C...

 

Addressed to: Mrs. H. Wellstead / McMurdo / B.C. / Canada

 

Harry W. Wellstead

(b. 1873 in London, England - d. 27 May 1942 at age 69 in Parson, British Columbia) - owned a farm in McMurdo - LINK to his newspaper obituary - www.newspapers.com/clip/118664660/harry-wellstead-obituary/

 

His first wife - ?

 

His second wife - Mary Anne (nee West) Wellstead

(b. 31 December 1884 in Chicago, Illinois - d. 29 December 1967 at age 82 in Invermere, British Columbia) - occupation - nurse - they were married - 28 April 1914 in Golden, B.C. - LINK to their marriage certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/1c... LINK to her newspaper obituary - www.newspapers.com/clip/118647181/obituary-for-mary-wells... LINK to her death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/1a...

 

Message on postcard reads: Why don't you write or are you to busy - we are all well and hope you are in the best of health - to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hope to hear from you soon. From your friend - Mrs. Schill

In 2016 they erected this statue . Abe Lincoln let an American read the Gettysburg Address."We've had a very vigorously election this year and thought bringing Honest Abe back in the final days of this dialogue we might remind people that one of the most fundamental things we should be striving for is honesty in our political dialogue,

I think nowadays they need Abe more than ever.

افكارنا هي التي تنتج احاسيسنا واحاسيسنا هي التي تنتج سلوكياتنا وسلوكياتنا هي التي تحدد انجازاتنا عظيمة او تافهه ............فلو اردت ان تحدث تغيير جذري في نفسك عليك الانتباه لما يدور في عقلك من افكار واحذر لما تقوله لنفس وما تقوله للاخرين وما يقوله الاخرين لك واستمر في تخيل نفسك وانت على قمة المجد........^_^

  

دبي ..1431 هـ

- ex - Melvin 1973...

 

ARROWHEAD is a former steamboat port and town at the head of Upper Arrow Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Though the initial site has been submerged beneath the waters of the lake, which is now part of the reservoir formed by Hugh Keenleyside Dam at Castlegar, the name continues in use as a reference for the locality, and is sometimes used to refer to the local region. Although the most obvious origin of the name is that Arrowhead is at the head of the Arrow Lakes, another version claims that it relates to the finding of arrowheads in the ground during construction of buildings in the area, left from an ancient battle between First Nations peoples. Another version says that it is because of the arrowhead-shaped appearance of the lake from high ground in the vicinity. The name of the Arrow Lakes is credit to "Arrow Rock", a large cliffside pictograph shot through with clusters of arrows, again relating to an ancient battle (in this case known to be between the Sinixt and the Ktunaxa), which stood above "the Narrows", a stretch of fast-flowing channel connecting Upper Arrow to Lower Arrow Lake.

 

LINK to postcard views of Arrowhead, B.C. - www.prairie-towns.com/arrowhead-images.html

 

- from 1908 "Lovell's Gazetteer of the Dominion of Canada" - ARROWHEAD, a post village in the district of Yale and Cariboo, B.C., on the Columbia River, and a station on the C.P.R., it is also port of landing for C.P.R. boats. It contains 2 churches (Episcopal and Presbyterian), 4 stores (2 Chinese), 3 hotels, 2 lumber mills capable of turning out 2,500 feet per diem, and a branch of Imperial Bank. The population in 1908 was 400.

 

(from - Wrigley's 1918 British Columbia directory) - ARROWHEAD - a post office and farming town at mouth of Columbia River, where it empties into the Upper Arrow Lake, in Revelstoke Provincial Electoral District, connected with Revelstoke by C. P. R. and with West Robson, at south end of Arrow Lakes, by C. P. R. lake steamers, distant 106 miles. Has Anglican and Presbyterian church services. The population in 1918 was 100. Local resources: Farming.

 

The ARROWHEAD Post Office was established - 1 July 1896 and closed - 28 September 1968 due to the resignation of the PM and limited usefulness.

 

LINK to the list of Postmasters who served at the ARROWHEAD Post Office - recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record...

 

When this letter entered the postal system at ARROWHEAD, B.C. the Postmaster was George T. Newman - he was the first Postmaster at ARROWHEAD and served from - 1 July 1896 to - 17 March 1903.

 

George Thomas Newman

(b. 14 July 1868 in London, England - d. 11 June 1929 at age 60 in Vancouver, British Columbia) - occupations - road master for the CPR / Postmaster at Arrowhead, B.C. - LINK to his newspaper obituary - www.newspapers.com/article/the-province-obituary-for-geor...

 

His wife - Florence (nee Pinder) Newman

(b. 20 February 1871 in Ropsley, Lincolnshire, England – d. 2 May 1964 at age 93 in Vancouver, British Columbia) - they were married - 24 November 1891 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom - LINK to her death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/25... LINK to her newspaper obituary - www.newspapers.com/article/the-province-obituary-for-flor...

 

sent from - / ARROWHEAD / AP 22 / 01 / B.C. / - split ring cancel - this split ring hammer (A1-1) was not listed in the Proof Book - it was most likely proofed c. 1896 - (RF C).

 

- via - / REVELSTOKE STATION / AP 22 / 01 / B.C. / - cds transit backstamp - (RF D).

 

- arrived at - / 13 / TORONTO / AP 27 / 01 / - arrival - Toronto letter carrier mark - LINK to article reference carrier marks - (page 43) - bnaps.org/hhl/Topics/BNA%20Topics,%20Vol.%2023,%20No.%202...

 

Addressed to - Wm. Rennie / Toronto, Ont. / Canada

 

WILLIAM RENNIE agriculturist, seed merchant, farm superintendent, and author; b. 15 March 1835 in Scarborough Township, Upper Canada, son of Robert Rennie and Elizabeth Fife; m. 13 March 1862 Sarah Glendinning of Scarborough, and they had four sons; d. 24 July 1910 in Swansea (Toronto).

 

Link to a biographical article on William Rennie - www.biographi.ca/en/bio/rennie_william_13E.html

The former Bank of New South Wales was built in Gill Street, Charters Towers in 1889, replacing a number of earlier timber bank buildings on other sites in both Charters Towers and nearby Millchester. This two-storey masonry building addressing Gill Street also has a number of additions to the rear which demonstrate the evolution of the banking industry in the town over time. It complements other significant bank buildings in nearby Mosman Street, including the former Australian Joint Stock Bank, now the World Theatre and the former Queensland National Bank building which now serves as the City Hall.

 

Charters Towers' gold was first discovered in December 1871, by an Aboriginal boy named Jupiter who tended the horses for prospectors Hugh Mosman, George Clarke, and John Fraser. A storm frightened the horses into a gap in the hills, and while retrieving them, Jupiter found a rich vein of gold laden quartz. Mosman travelled to Ravenswood in early January 1872 to register the claim which he named Charters Towers, honouring the Gold Commissioner for the Broughton gold fields. By March 1872, Commissioner Charters had issued 25 prospecting area permits in the vicinity of Mosman's claim, and the rush began.

 

The earliest settlement grew around diggings at the confluence of Buchanan's Gully and Gladstone Creek and was known as Millchester. A few miles west of Millchester, another settlement evolved which became Charters Towers. It included a number of stores, hotels, and a butcher shop along a track that was to become Mosman Street. The population of Charters Towers was reputedly 3000 by August 1872. There was rivalry between the two settlements, particularly after the courthouse was erected at Millchester in 1873.

 

In the meantime, it had become evident that the procurement of gold from the deep seams of Charter Towers required substantial machinery to crush quartz and sink shafts. This required working capital to finance machinery and to pay the wages of workers employed on these time consuming processes. The Queensland Gold Fields Act 1874 and Gold Mining Companies Act 1875 allowed for combinations of leases, claims, and syndicates in order to work their leases at great depths. The legislation also underpinned the establishment of permanent settlement which would attract capital investment to the field. The influx of money and the resultant yield of gold were reflected in the growth of the township and the establishment of banks, mining companies, and mining agencies and exchanges. Two banking companies, the Australian Joint Stock Bank and the Bank of New Soute Wales (NSW) established offices on the goldfields by July 1872, only six months after the registration of the first claims.

 

The Bank of New South Wales was the first bank established in Australia (February 1817) but it was restricted to trading in Sydney until 1850. After restructuring, it opened its first branch outside Sydney, in Brisbane, on the 14th of November 1850, also being the first bank established in Queensland. It continued to expand rapidly with the rush of gold discoveries in New South Wales and Victoria. The bank set up agencies and gold-buying agents at every new mining venture in order to spread its network and consolidate its position. Bank officers were urged on by their superiors to be the first to a new location to set up a gold-buying agency. By 1861 the Bank of New South Wales had grown from a single Sydney office to a network of 37 branches in Australia and New Zealand.

 

The expansion of the Bank of New South Wales into North Queensland was driven by Robert Towns, one of its directors. Bank establishment followed both pastoral development and mineral discoveries. Port Denison, established to serve pastoralists, became the municipality of Bowen in 1863. By 1864 there was Bowen branch of the Bank of NSW, followed by one in Townsville in March 1866, where Towns and his partner John Melton Black had established a boiling down works. Another branch opened on the Ravenswood goldfields in 1870, one at Cardwell, (the terminus for the gold escort) in 1871 and in Charters Towers and Georgetown in 1872. The Cooktown branch, servicing the Palmer River fields opened in 1876, then Thornborough in 1877 on the Hodgkinson goldfields, followed by Cairns and Port Douglas. The Charters Towers Bank of New South Wales had opened only two days after the Australian Joint Stock Bank, which had opened on the 2nd of July 1872. Then in October 1872, both banks relocated to nearby Millchester.

 

In Millchester, land on the northern corner of Jardine and Macdonald Streets was formally transferred to the Bank of New South Wales in April 1875, but the actual sale is likely to have occurred prior to the title documentation. The Joint Stock Bank owned land opposite in Macdonald Street, and the Queensland National Bank opened in 1873 adjacent. Then in July 1874, a cottage was reported to have been relocated to Mosman Street, Charters Towers, to be used as an agency of the Bank of New South Wales. Presumably, the main branch remained in Millchester. At the time Charters Towers was described as: ‘solidifying rapidly and is giving undeniable proof that it means to stand. New shops and stores are going up. Buildings are being renovated and painted...'

 

Charters Towers soon dominated. A town survey was undertaken in November 1874, and marked out allotments in a ‘T' formation, with the mines and provision stores of Mosman Street on one axis, and the road to Millchester marked by Gill Street on the other. In January 1876, the Bank of New South Wales was relocated to Charters Towers, with Millchester becoming the agency office. This relocation was touted by the Northern Miner newspaper, as ‘the beginning of the end' for Millchester. Charters Towers was declared a municipality in 1877 encompassing one square mile centred on Mosman Street. It included new churches, the Oddfellows and Good Templar Lodges, and 21 hotels and 57 shops. The Bank of New South Wales moved into new premises in March 1877, described as a five roomed banking house, bringing solidarity to the top end of Mosman Street.

 

The wealth of the Charters Towers goldfields grew in the following years, particularly following the 1886 Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London where specimens of Charters Towers Gold were featured. Almost immediately English investors seized the opportunity to be part of the Charters Towers gold riches. Mining companies were formed, managed by Charters Towers' mining agents and share-brokers, and while some shares were held by English interests, many local people prospered through their investments, which then led to an expansion of banking facilities and mining exchanges. Banks and gold buyers purchased the gold, minted it into sovereigns in Australia and England, which were held in the vaults of banks in Melbourne, London, Berlin, and New York and then shipped to pay international debt. According to the Northern Miner newspaper, there were five banks in Gill Street in mid 1887: the Bank of New South Wales, the Bank of Australasia, the London Chartered Bank, and the Union and Royal Banks. The Queensland National and the Australian Joint Stock Bank remained in Mosman Street.

 

The Bank of New South Wales gradually improved banking facilities during the 1880s when many new branches opened in Queensland. Most directors were keen for bank premises in country towns to emphasise dignity, size, and solidity in the design of their buildings demonstrating the bank's capacity to survive and consolidate. Consequently, well known architects were employed to design bank buildings in New South Wales, and throughout Australia and New Zealand.

 

This was the case in Charters Towers. The Bank of New South Wales purchased an allotment in February 1887, diagonally opposite the post office in Gill Street, on which to erect a new substantial brick building. Architects Eyre and Munro called for tenders in the local newspaper in April 1888. The firm had offices in Townsville and Charters Towers. The Charters Towers office was run by William Henry Allan Munro, who had been previously employed in Townsville by architects and builders Rooney Brothers. After winning a competition for the design of the Queensland Hotel, he was taken into partnership with Walter Morris Eyre. In 1887 he became the junior partner, managing the Charters Towers office. Eyre, brother-in-law of architect FDG Stanley, had managed Stanley's Maryborough office between 1882 and 1885 before relocating to Townsville, where he supervised the construction of the Bank of New South Wales in Flinders Street. The Eyre and Munro partnership designed many north Queensland buildings including the 1889 Holy Trinity Church of England in Herberton, the 1890 Bank of North Queensland in Cooktown, the 1890 - 1891 Townsville School of Arts, and the 1892 Burns Philp Building, now part of Bartlam's Store in Charters Towers. They also designed the building on the corner of Deane and Gill Streets for auctioneers Ackers, Wilson, Ayton and Ryan, built in 1888 which later housed the Royal Bank of Queensland.

 

Construction of the new bank was by contractor Mr Kelleher under the supervision of Eyre and Munro. It opened for business on Monday the 13th of May 1889, and was described as ‘handsome and very pleasing, an imposing structure, superior to anything north of Brisbane' and overshadowing the adjacent Bank of Australasia (no longer extant). While the Northern Miner newspaper reported the cost at £9,000, the bank's archives indicated £6,040. The new building was seen as the way forward in both structure and location. The inclusion of a commodious manager's private apartment was usual for regional banks.

 

On the ground floor the building comprised banking chamber, fitted handsomely in polished cedar, the upper part of the various partitions being in ornamental ground glass...ample room for the public in front of the counter for the transaction of business, and a table... placed there for the accommodation of those who may desire to fill in deposit slips, requisitions for drafts, &c; a counter...14 ft long by 4ft 6 in [4.2 x 1.4m] wide, with the bill department on the right, and the exchange clerks' office on the left; ledger desks...placed at the back of the counter. To the left of the main entrance to the public hall is the manager's room, ...and opening out of that is the accountant's office... which has a raised floor, so that the official, by simply standing up, can get a good view of all that is going on. There is a passage leading from the manager's room to the dining-room, which, with the exception of the kitchen and servants' offices is the only one of the private apartments on the ground floor. At the rear of the ledger-desks are the strong room (fireproof), a lavatory and a stationery-room. Leaving the dining-room, we come to the private hall, which is approached from the passage to the left of the building. The upper floor is reached by a staircase from this hall...and contains a handsome drawing room...communicating by folding doors with another large room...which will be used by Mr Beattie for his own bedroom. There are three other bedrooms and a dressing room, all of large dimensions, with linen closet and a bathroom. The upper part of the building has a balcony running around three sides...and the internal passages are all proportionately spacious. The servants' quarters on the ground floor comprise kitchen, pantry, wash-house and sleeping apartment, and are furnished with the usual appurtenances for cooking and washing. Stabling has yet to be erected. Gas is laid on in every room and provision is made: for the Burdekin water supply when that scheme is complete. In the meantime there are three 1000 gallon [45 litres] tanks all full. The chimney-pieces and other fittings are in cedar, and are in excellent taste. All the rooms are ceiled, with mouldings, &c., of elegant design, and ventilation and drainage have been specially attended to.'

 

An economic downturn occurred in 1888, during the construction of the bank, due to a decrease in overseas investment and a continuing drought which led to the closure of crushing machines due to lack of water. The slump was short-lived after the development of the Brilliant Reef, which when mined to a depth of 3000 feet (914 m), became the biggest producer in the field.

 

Charters Towers was at its economic peak in the late 19th century. According to Government Geologist Robert Logan Jack, Charters Towers was the third largest gold producing area in Australia, after Ballarat and Sandhurst (Bendigo). Many new buildings were completed in this period in Charters Towers. The ‘T' junction of Mosman and Gill Streets became the financial district of Charters Towers. For one block to the east, north, and south were eight banks, the post and telegraph office, two assaying offices, and four solicitor's offices. Share-brokers occupied the Royal Arcade, and other offices were located in Mosman and Bow Streets. The Royal Arcade was built in 1888 for Alexander Malcolm and by 1890 the Stock Exchange operated from the building. Other significant buildings of this era include the 1887 - 1892 Masonic Lodge and the 1892 Post Office. Banks of this era include the 1881 (lowset timber) Bank of Australasia, the London Chartered Bank (which purchased the two-storey masonry building from local builder Hugh Ross in 1887), the former Australian Joint Stock Bank and the Queensland National (QN) Bank, both designed by FDG Stanley and both built in 1891. The Union Bank then occupied the former QN Bank premises in Mosman Street. All of these buildings remain, apart from the Bank of Australasia. The Bank of New South Wales was considered the first financial institution to erect premises worthy of the town and the business conducted there. The North Queensland Register claimed it was the largest banking institution in Australasia in the 1890s.

 

The banking crisis of 1893, when the Queensland National Bank and the Australian Joint Stock Bank, both suspended trading, led to an increase in business for the Bank of New South Wales in Charters Towers, when successful mining companies transferred their accounts. At that time there were eight banking businesses operating in Charters Towers; the Australian Joint Stock Bank, Bank of Australasia, Bank of NSW, Bank of North Queensland, London Chartered Bank, Queensland National Bank, the Royal Bank and the Union Bank, and all were still operating after the crisis had passed.

 

In 1899, Charters Towers was the second most important city in Queensland with a population of over 26,000, and an internationally noted goldfield. The gold yield for the state rose dramatically following the development of the Brilliant Reef, and in 1891, rose from 123, 000 ounces (3487 kg) to 218 000 ounces (6181 kg). It reached its all time peak of 319, 572 ounces (9059.7 kg), yielding over £2, 000, 000 by 1899. Gold production contributed between 21.61 and 35.53 percent of Queensland's export income during the 1880s and 1890s. These enormous amounts of gold were purchased by banks, which played a vital role in this process of wealth creation and distribution.

 

Gold production had been the mainstay of the Queensland mining sector in the 1890s, amounting to 85 per cent to 92.8 per cent of mining production during the decade. Apart from a brief spike in production at Mount Morgan in 1888 - 1889, Charters Towers consistently out-produced the other major gold mining areas of Ravenswood, Gympie, and Mount Morgan between 1880 and 1913. While Gympie peaked between 1901 and 1906, generally figures for all centres declined in the early 20th century. Charters Towers' production of 96, 046 oz (2723 kg) in 1912, fell to 42, 777 oz (1213 kg) in 1916 and was reduced to 8095 oz (22.9 kg) by 1919.

 

Despite Charters Towers being declared a city in 1909, the downturn in mining from 1914 and its virtual cessation by 1917 contributed to a steady decrease in population during this time. A town that had boasted a population of 25, 000 in 1900, when it was the second largest in Queensland, was reduced to just 13, 000 by the end of World War I (WWI). Between 1914 and 1918 more than 900 homes and business premises were removed from Charters Towers. Many were dismantled and transported by train to Townsville or Ayr where they were re-erected. Others were relocated to various places in Western Queensland. Nevertheless, banking institutions remained in town to service the regional rural economy and included the Bank of New South Wales, the Bank of Australasia, the London Chartered Bank, the Queensland National Bank, the Union Bank and the Bank of Commerce in the early 1920s. The Bank of New South Wales took over the Western Australian Bank in 1927, and then absorbed the Australian Bank of Commerce in 1931.

 

The Bank of New South Wales occupied the building in Gill Street until 1970 and during this time a number of repairs and small modifications were made. Renovations were undertaken in 1910 included plastering, painting, and general repairs, with further unidentified alterations occurring in 1921 and 1940. A post-1900 photograph of the rear of the bank shows rendering to the face-brick walls of the bank core and service wing; lattice panels fixed to the western verandahs of the manager's apartment and service wing; horizontal battens on the wash house and stables and a lavatory in the far south-western corner. It is likely that the female toilets attached to the northern western corner of the bank were built during WWI when women were employed to make up for the shortfall of men. Following the 1931 merger with the Australian Bank of Commerce, the amalgamated business was carried on in the Bank of New South Wales premises in Gill Street. The former Bank of Commerce building (originally the Joint Stock Bank) was used as accommodation for bank officers. It was sold in 1937.

 

The Charters Towers Bank of New South Wales played an important role in the Pacific Campaign of World War II, as the New Guinean Bank of New South Wales branches in the towns of Wau, Samrai, Rabaul, and Port Moresby were successively evacuated in January and early February 1942, due to bombing or threat of bombing. The transportable business effects including records, cash, and bullion were taken by boat to Townsville, and a custodian branch was set up in Charters Towers, while the reconstruction of the business was undertaken in Brisbane.

 

The Charters Towers City Council acquired the Queensland National Bank building in 1949 and relocated its administrative operations there. The building was then known as the Town Hall. A library was established in the old town hall building. The Charters Towers City Council acquired the former Bank of Commerce (AJS Bank) in 1992 and converted it into the World Theatre.

 

In 1967 a property exchange was made with the Charters Towers City Council, whereby the Bank of New South Wales acquired the old town hall site owned by the council. The old timber Town Hall was demolished in August 1968. The bank continued to occupy its original building during the construction of a new building on this site, which opened on the 16th of March 1970. The Bank of New South Wales acquired the Victorian based Commercial Bank of Australia Ltd in 1982 and then changed its name to Westpac, reflecting the Western Pacific region in which it now operated.

 

From 1982, the former Bank of New South Wales building was used as the council library and child care centre. The property was formally transferred to the Council in 1984. The council erected women's toilets to the rear of the western side of the building sometime prior to 1980. During the 1980s a restaurant occupied the first floor of the building. In the 1990s it housed the offices of Skill West and Skill Share, as well as school support services provided by Education Queensland. The semi-detached building at the rear has undergone a number of renovations over time. The library was relocated in 2003 and the day care centre ceased operation. The former Bank of New South Wales building has had a number of tenants since that time including a real estate agent and a Bendigo Bank Agency. The Australian Association of Distance Education Schools utilised space on the first floor for training purposes in the 2000s. The building was renamed Wherry House in 2006 to honour a former mayor Paul Wherry and his wife Molly who served the city from 1952 to 1964. Plaques commemorating their community work were installed in the building in November 2006.

 

Source: Queensland Heritage Register.

It's changed so don't send mail here!

(from - Wrigley's 1918 British Columbia Directory) - WADHAMS - a Post Office and cannery at head of east arm of Rivers Inlet, 320 miles northwest of Vancouver, in Comox Provincial Electoral District, served by C.P.R. and Union S.S. Co.'s boats from Vancouver. The Post Office is for convenience of fishermen at the cannery during the summer months, although kept open by the watchman during winter. The residents are transient, and here only for canning season.

 

The lodge sits on the former site of the largest cannery in Rivers Inlet, Wadham’s Cannery. Founded in 1897 by E.A. Wadhams it was operated by B.C. Packers Company until 1942 when a fire caused an end to canning operations. The buildings served as a camp and net loft before finally succumbing to history. Today, only a few physical traces remain of its former glory but it lives on in the memory of those who spent their lives there. LINK - www.uniqueproperties.ca/brochures/CIM-Wadhams-Outpost-Lod...

 

Edmond Abraham Wadhams

(b. 28 March 1833 in Lake Champlain, New York - d. 17 October 1900 at age 67 in Portland, Oregon) - he founded Wadhams Cannery in 1897.

 

His son - William Albert Wadhams was the Cannery Manager and Postmaster at WADHAMS and served from from - 1 June 1903 to - 17 February 1904.

 

William Albert Wadhams

(b. 6 May 1868 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada - d. 30 December 1949 at age 81 in Coquitlam, British Columbia) - LINK to his death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/85...

 

The WANBOROUGH Post Office was established - 1 June 1896 - it became the WADHAMS Post Office - 1 June 1903 - closed - 29 August 1967 due to its limited usefulness.

 

LINK to a list of the Postmasters who served at the WANBOROUGH Post Office - recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Home/Record... and the WADHAMS Post Office - recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Home/Record...

 

When this postcard was posted at the WADHAMS Post Office the Postmaster was Herber Beriah Barton (he was also the Cannery Manager) - he served as Postmaster from - 1 April 1906 to - 18 December 1911. He was the father / husband of the sender of this postcard...(her mother Eveline Barton wrote the message for their daughter Bernice)

 

Herber Beriah Barton

(b. 29 November 1871 in Queens County, New Brunswick - d. 10 February 1934 at age 62 in Vancouver, B.C.) - occupations - cannery manager and Postmaster at Wadhams, B.C. / hardware manager.

 

LINK to his newspaper obituary - H. B. BARTON DIES - Well Known Hardware Man in Marpole Area Dies - www.newspapers.com/clip/112616989/obituary-for-h-b-barton/

 

His wife - Eveline Elizabeth (nee McCleery) Barton

(b. 2 April 1881 in Vancouver, B.C. - d. 18 August 1959 at age 78 in Vancouver, B.C.) - they were married - 8 October 1904 in Eburne, British Columbia. LINK to her newspaper obituary - www.newspapers.com/clip/112676208/obituary-for-eveline-ba... LINK to her death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/1b...

 

- sent from - / WADHAMS / SP 17 / 09 / B.C. / - split ring cancel - this split ring hammer (A1-1 / first hammer) was not listed in the Proof Book - it was most likely proofed c. 1903 - (RF C) - tougher to find.

 

Message on postcard reads: (written by her mother - Eveline Elizabeth Barton as she was only four years old) - Dear Grandma, I will be very glad to get home to see you. I am not a bit frightened of whistles now. (steamship whistles) Little Bernice

 

Bernice Eveline Barton

(b. 9 July 1905 in Vancouver, British Columbia – d. 11 March 1979 at age 73 in Vancouver, British Columbia) - her occupation - school teacher - she taught grade 10 at King George High School in Vancouver, B.C. - later she taught at the Semiahmoo High School in White Rock, B.C. - she never married. LINK to her death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/43...

 

- from her 1926 U.B.C. yearbook - BERNICE EVELINE BARTON - Bernice appears to be one of the quiet members of our class; but, in her case, appearances are very deceiving. To those who know her well, she displays a keen sense of humor, as well as a ready wit. When not absorbed in French honors, Bernice finds time to attend "La Causerie." She also takes a great interest in the Women's Literary Society. Her cheerful manner and agreeable disposition have made many friends for her. Favorite expression: "Such is life.

 

Clipped from - The Vancouver Sun newspaper - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - 26 August 1926 - Miss Bernice Barton, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H. B. Barton, who will accompany Miss Sadie Boyles and will take the same course at the Sorbonne in Paris. They will sail on September 22 from New York, and en route they will visit in Winnipeg, Montreal and Toronto. LINK to Miss Sadie Boyles postcard - www.flickr.com/photos/allmycollections/52343505836/

 

Addressed to her Grandma - Mrs. W. F. Stewart / Eburne / B.C.

 

Jane Annie (nee Evans) McCleery / Stewart

(b. 20 May 1849 in Haldimand, Ontario, Canada – d. 30 March 1928 at age 78 in Vancouver, B.C.)

 

Her first husband - Samuel McCleery

(b. 1839 in Down, Ireland – d. 18 October 1882 at age 43 in Kamloops, British Columbia) - they were married - 9 June 1880 in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada

 

Her second husband - William Francis Stewart

(b. 2 June 1857 in Pictou, Nova Scotia – d. 30 August 1926 at age 69 in Richmond, British Columbia) - they were married - 19 September 1888 in British Columbia. LINK to - newspaper obituary for Captain W. F. Stewart - www.newspapers.com/clip/112616538/obituary-for-w-f-stewart/

I packed my belongings, gathered the money I had got from that day, and I headed off to the address the letter had gave me. I didn't know what to expect from the offering, or even if it was legitimate. The journey took around three train journey's, until I arrived at Star City. The location was a warehouse, not a very big one, but very old. The front doors were locked, and they looked like they hadn't been open for years. My tension rose, as I anxiously looked round the edges of the building, looking for another way in. My hand was twitching around the holster of where I kept my gun. There was a side door, it wasn't looked and it didn't look too rusty, I figured that was the way in. The door opened with a loud screech, echoing through the large empty haul. I couldn't see anything, it was like something from a horror movie. I decided that to make it less like a horror movie I would find the lights. I felt all along the walls like a blind person, trying to feel for something that would help me see. "Close your eyes!" said a voice in the distances, followed by an echo of the sentence.

"Hello!?" I shouted, almost jumping out of my skin when I heard the voice.

"If you close your eyes it will make it easier for your other senses to focus" the voice replied. Not really knowing what to do I decided to follow the instructions of the voice. It only took me a while until I felt something like a light switch, I flicked it on. The lights roared on, one by one causing humongous beams from the sky. My eyes began going fuzzy, but in the distance I could see a figure. The figure had something in it's hand, my first thought was a gun, so I fiddled to get out mine. The figure got closer, the more I struggled to get out my gun the more the it got closer and closer. I managed to pull it out, just as my vision was clear again. I aimed the barrel at the figure, twitching my figure on the trigger. The figure was a man and the object was not a gun, it was a walking stick, one like what a blind man would use. I looked at my surroundings for a second, realising we were at a shooting range. "Hello Floyd, I am the one you seek, I am Mr Hutton." He said coming even more closer towards me. When I could finally see his face, I realised why he had that stick, he was blind. "You say you can teach me the skills I need to become a great marksman?"

"Not only a great marksman, the world's second best! Because the world's best is me of course." He said with a little giggle at the end.

"No offence sir, but your blind..."

Just as I said that he whipped my gun from my hand, aimed the gun at the dummy in the shooting range and fired the gun. The bullet went straight through the dummy's forehead.

"Just because I am blind, it does not mean I am worthless!" he shouted at me, forcing the gun in my hand "It means my other senses are more enhanced, giving me the ability of sight without eyes!" He took deep breathes. Then he spoke again "I have learnt to use my in ability of seeing to my advantage and live without, just like you did when you had to look for the light switch without using your eyes. I can teach you how to increase your other senses, allowing you to fire at any target, even when you are blind. Would you like me to teach you?"

Scotswood Bridge is one of the main bridges crossing the River Tyne in North East England. It links the west end of Newcastle upon Tyne on the north bank of the river with the MetroCentre and Blaydon in Gateshead on the south bank. It is situated 5.2 km (3.2 mi) upstream of the better-known city centre bridges.

 

The Chain Bridge

Scotswood Bridge over River Tyne Act 1829

The first bridge across the river at this location was the Old Scotswood Bridge, or "The Chain Bridge" as it was known locally. It was a suspension bridge with two stone towers, from which the road deck was suspended by chains. An act to authorise the building of the bridge was passed by Parliament in 1829 (10 Geo. 4. c. x) and designed by John Green, with construction beginning that year. It was opened on 16 April 1831.

 

The toll to cross the bridge was abolished on 18 March 1907. In 1931 the bridge needed to be strengthened and widened. The width was increased from 17 ft (5.2 m) to 19.5 ft (5.9 m) with two 6 ft (1.8 m) footpaths. The suspension cables and decking were also strengthened, allowing the weight limit to be raised to 10 tonnes (9.842 long tons; 11.02 short tons). The bridge eventually proved too narrow for the traffic it needed to carry and its increasing repair costs proved too much. After standing for 136 years, it was closed and demolished in 1967 after its replacement had been completed.

 

Current bridge

Scotswood Bridge Act 1962

A replacement for the Chain Bridge had been proposed as early as 1941. Permission was finally granted in 1960, and authorised by an act of Parliament, the Scotswood Bridge Act 1962. A new bridge was designed by Mott, Hay and Anderson and built by Mitchell Construction and Dorman Long. Construction commenced on 18 September 1964. It was built 43 m upstream of the Chain Bridge, which continued operating during the new bridge's construction. The bridge was opened on 20 March 1967. It is a box girder bridge, supported by two piers in the river and carries a dual carriageway road. Combined costs for demolition of the old bridge and construction of the new one were £2.5 million.

 

Scotswood Bridge carried the traffic of the Gateshead A69 western by-pass from 1970 up until the construction of Blaydon Bridge and the new A1 in 1990. Between June 1971 and January 1974 traffic on the bridge was limited to single file to enable strengthening work to take place, which was needed to address design concerns. It has required further strengthening and repairs a number of times since; between 1979 and 1980, in 1983 and in 1990.

 

Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle is a cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the River Tyne's northern bank, opposite Gateshead to the south. It is the most populous settlement in the Tyneside conurbation and North East England.

 

Newcastle developed around a Roman settlement called Pons Aelius, the settlement became known as Monkchester before taking on the name of a castle built in 1080 by William the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose. It was one of the world's largest ship building and repair centres during the industrial revolution. Newcastle was part of the county of Northumberland until 1400, when it separated and formed a county of itself. In 1974, Newcastle became part of Tyne and Wear. Since 2018, the city council has been part of the North of Tyne Combined Authority.

 

The history of Newcastle upon Tyne dates back almost 2,000 years, during which it has been controlled by the Romans, the Angles and the Norsemen amongst others. Newcastle upon Tyne was originally known by its Roman name Pons Aelius. The name "Newcastle" has been used since the Norman conquest of England. Due to its prime location on the River Tyne, the town developed greatly during the Middle Ages and it was to play a major role in the Industrial Revolution, being granted city status in 1882. Today, the city is a major retail, commercial and cultural centre.

 

Roman settlement

The history of Newcastle dates from AD 122, when the Romans built the first bridge to cross the River Tyne at that point. The bridge was called Pons Aelius or 'Bridge of Aelius', Aelius being the family name of Roman Emperor Hadrian, who was responsible for the Roman wall built across northern England along the Tyne–Solway gap. Hadrian's Wall ran through present-day Newcastle, with stretches of wall and turrets visible along the West Road, and at a temple in Benwell. Traces of a milecastle were found on Westgate Road, midway between Clayton Street and Grainger Street, and it is likely that the course of the wall corresponded to present-day Westgate Road. The course of the wall can be traced eastwards to the Segedunum Roman fort at Wallsend, with the fort of Arbeia down-river at the mouth of the Tyne, on the south bank in what is now South Shields. The Tyne was then a wider, shallower river at this point and it is thought that the bridge was probably about 700 feet (210 m) long, made of wood and supported on stone piers. It is probable that it was sited near the current Swing Bridge, due to the fact that Roman artefacts were found there during the building of the latter bridge. Hadrian himself probably visited the site in 122. A shrine was set up on the completed bridge in 123 by the 6th Legion, with two altars to Neptune and Oceanus respectively. The two altars were subsequently found in the river and are on display in the Great North Museum in Newcastle.

 

The Romans built a stone-walled fort in 150 to protect the river crossing which was at the foot of the Tyne Gorge, and this took the name of the bridge so that the whole settlement was known as Pons Aelius. The fort was situated on a rocky outcrop overlooking the new bridge, on the site of the present Castle Keep. Pons Aelius is last mentioned in 400, in a Roman document listing all of the Roman military outposts. It is likely that nestling in the shadow of the fort would have been a small vicus, or village. Unfortunately, no buildings have been detected; only a few pieces of flagging. It is clear that there was a Roman cemetery near Clavering Place, behind the Central station, as a number of Roman coffins and sarcophagi have been unearthed there.

 

Despite the presence of the bridge, the settlement of Pons Aelius was not particularly important among the northern Roman settlements. The most important stations were those on the highway of Dere Street running from Eboracum (York) through Corstopitum (Corbridge) and to the lands north of the Wall. Corstopitum, being a major arsenal and supply centre, was much larger and more populous than Pons Aelius.

 

Anglo-Saxon development

The Angles arrived in the North-East of England in about 500 and may have landed on the Tyne. There is no evidence of an Anglo-Saxon settlement on or near the site of Pons Aelius during the Anglo-Saxon age. The bridge probably survived and there may well have been a small village at the northern end, but no evidence survives. At that time the region was dominated by two kingdoms, Bernicia, north of the Tees and ruled from Bamburgh, and Deira, south of the Tees and ruled from York. Bernicia and Deira combined to form the kingdom of Northanhymbra (Northumbria) early in the 7th century. There were three local kings who held the title of Bretwalda – 'Lord of Britain', Edwin of Deira (627–632), Oswald of Bernicia (633–641) and Oswy of Northumbria (641–658). The 7th century became known as the 'Golden Age of Northumbria', when the area was a beacon of culture and learning in Europe. The greatness of this period was based on its generally Christian culture and resulted in the Lindisfarne Gospels amongst other treasures. The Tyne valley was dotted with monasteries, with those at Monkwearmouth, Hexham and Jarrow being the most famous. Bede, who was based at Jarrow, wrote of a royal estate, known as Ad Murum, 'at the Wall', 12 miles (19 km) from the sea. It is thought that this estate may have been in what is now Newcastle. At some unknown time, the site of Newcastle came to be known as Monkchester. The reason for this title is unknown, as we are unaware of any specific monasteries at the site, and Bede made no reference to it. In 875 Halfdan Ragnarsson, the Danish Viking conqueror of York, led an army that attacked and pillaged various monasteries in the area, and it is thought that Monkchester was also pillaged at this time. Little more was heard of it until the coming of the Normans.

 

Norman period

After the arrival of William the Conqueror in England in 1066, the whole of England was quickly subjected to Norman rule. However, in Northumbria there was great resistance to the Normans, and in 1069 the newly appointed Norman Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Comines and 700 of his men were killed by the local population at Durham. The Northumbrians then marched on York, but William was able to suppress the uprising. That same year, a second uprising occurred when a Danish fleet landed in the Humber. The Northumbrians again attacked York and destroyed the garrison there. William was again able to suppress the uprising, but this time he took revenge. He laid waste to the whole of the Midlands and the land from York to the Tees. In 1080, William Walcher, the Norman bishop of Durham and his followers were brutally murdered at Gateshead. This time Odo, bishop of Bayeux, William's half brother, devastated the land between the Tees and the Tweed. This was known as the 'Harrying of the North'. This devastation is reflected in the Domesday Book. The destruction had such an effect that the North remained poor and backward at least until Tudor times and perhaps until the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle suffered in this respect with the rest of the North.

 

In 1080 William sent his eldest son, Robert Curthose, north to defend the kingdom against the Scots. After his campaign, he moved to Monkchester and began the building of a 'New Castle'. This was of the "motte-and-bailey" type of construction, a wooden tower on top of an earthen mound (motte), surrounded by a moat and wooden stockade (bailey). It was this castle that gave Newcastle its name. In 1095 the Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Mowbray, rose up against the king, William Rufus, and Rufus sent an army north to recapture the castle. From then on the castle became crown property and was an important base from which the king could control the northern barons. The Northumbrian earldom was abolished and a Sheriff of Northumberland was appointed to administer the region. In 1091 the parish church of St Nicholas was consecrated on the site of the present Anglican cathedral, close by the bailey of the new castle. The church is believed to have been a wooden building on stone footings.

 

Not a trace of the tower or mound of the motte and bailey castle remains now. Henry II replaced it with a rectangular stone keep, which was built between 1172 and 1177 at a cost of £1,444. A stone bailey, in the form of a triangle, replaced the previous wooden one. The great outer gateway to the castle, called 'the Black Gate', was built later, between 1247 and 1250, in the reign of Henry III. There were at that time no town walls and when attacked by the Scots, the townspeople had to crowd into the bailey for safety. It is probable that the new castle acted as a magnet for local merchants because of the safety it provided. This in turn would help to expand trade in the town. At this time wool, skins and lead were being exported, whilst alum, pepper and ginger were being imported from France and Flanders.

 

Middle Ages

Throughout the Middle Ages, Newcastle was England's northern fortress, the centre for assembled armies. The Border war against Scotland lasted intermittently for several centuries – possibly the longest border war ever waged. During the civil war between Stephen and Matilda, David 1st of Scotland and his son were granted Cumbria and Northumberland respectively, so that for a period from 1139 to 1157, Newcastle was effectively in Scottish hands. It is believed that during this period, King David may have built the church of St Andrew and the Benedictine nunnery in Newcastle. However, King Stephen's successor, Henry II was strong enough to take back the Earldom of Northumbria from Malcolm IV.

 

The Scots king William the Lion was imprisoned in Newcastle, in 1174, after being captured at the Battle of Alnwick. Edward I brought the Stone of Scone and William Wallace south through the town and Newcastle was successfully defended against the Scots three times during the 14th century.

 

Around 1200, stone-faced, clay-filled jetties were starting to project into the river, an indication that trade was increasing in Newcastle. As the Roman roads continued to deteriorate, sea travel was gaining in importance. By 1275 Newcastle was the sixth largest wool exporting port in England. The principal exports at this time were wool, timber, coal, millstones, dairy produce, fish, salt and hides. Much of the developing trade was with the Baltic countries and Germany. Most of the Newcastle merchants were situated near the river, below the Castle. The earliest known charter was dated 1175 in the reign of Henry II, giving the townspeople some control over their town. In 1216 King John granted Newcastle a mayor[8] and also allowed the formation of guilds (known as Mysteries). These were cartels formed within different trades, which restricted trade to guild members. There were initially twelve guilds. Coal was being exported from Newcastle by 1250, and by 1350 the burgesses received a royal licence to export coal. This licence to export coal was jealously guarded by the Newcastle burgesses, and they tried to prevent any one else on the Tyne from exporting coal except through Newcastle. The burgesses similarly tried to prevent fish from being sold anywhere else on the Tyne except Newcastle. This led to conflicts with Gateshead and South Shields.

 

In 1265, the town was granted permission to impose a 'Wall Tax' or Murage, to pay for the construction of a fortified wall to enclose the town and protect it from Scottish invaders. The town walls were not completed until early in the 14th century. They were two miles (3 km) long, 9 feet (2.7 m) thick and 25 feet (7.6 m) high. They had six main gates, as well as some smaller gates, and had 17 towers. The land within the walls was divided almost equally by the Lort Burn, which flowed southwards and joined the Tyne to the east of the Castle. The town began to expand north of the Castle and west of the Lort Burn with various markets being set up within the walls.

 

In 1400 Henry IV granted a new charter, creating a County corporate which separated the town, but not the Castle, from the county of Northumberland and recognised it as a "county of itself" with a right to have a sheriff of its own. The burgesses were now allowed to choose six aldermen who, with the mayor would be justices of the peace. The mayor and sheriff were allowed to hold borough courts in the Guildhall.

 

Religious houses

During the Middle Ages a number of religious houses were established within the walls: the first of these was the Benedictine nunnery of St Bartholomew founded in 1086 near the present-day Nun Street. Both David I of Scotland and Henry I of England were benefactors of the religious house. Nothing of the nunnery remains now.

 

The friary of Blackfriars, Newcastle (Dominican) was established in 1239. These were also known as the Preaching Friars or Shod Friars, because they wore sandals, as opposed to other orders. The friary was situated in the present-day Friars Street. In 1280 the order was granted royal permission to make a postern in the town walls to communicate with their gardens outside the walls. On 19 June 1334, Edward Balliol, claimant to be King of Scotland, did homage to King Edward III, on behalf of the kingdom of Scotland, in the church of the friary. Much of the original buildings of the friary still exist, mainly because, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries the friary of Blackfriars was rented out by the corporation to nine of the local trade guilds.

 

The friary of Whitefriars (Carmelite) was established in 1262. The order was originally housed on the Wall Knoll in Pandon, but in 1307 it took over the buildings of another order, which went out of existence, the Friars of the Sac. The land, which had originally been given by Robert the Bruce, was situated in the present-day Hanover Square, behind the Central station. Nothing of the friary remains now.

 

The friary of Austinfriars (Augustinian) was established in 1290. The friary was on the site where the Holy Jesus Hospital was built in 1682. The friary was traditionally the lodging place of English kings whenever they visited or passed through Newcastle. In 1503 Princess Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII of England, stayed two days at the friary on her way to join her new husband James IV of Scotland.

 

The friary of Greyfriars (Franciscans) was established in 1274. The friary was in the present-day area between Pilgrim Street, Grey Street, Market Street and High Chare. Nothing of the original buildings remains.

 

The friary of the Order of the Holy Trinity, also known as the Trinitarians, was established in 1360. The order devoted a third of its income to buying back captives of the Saracens, during the Crusades. Their house was on the Wall Knoll, in Pandon, to the east of the city, but within the walls. Wall Knoll had previously been occupied by the White Friars until they moved to new premises in 1307.

 

All of the above religious houses were closed in about 1540, when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries.

 

An important street running through Newcastle at the time was Pilgrim Street, running northwards inside the walls and leading to the Pilgrim Gate on the north wall. The street still exists today as arguably Newcastle's main shopping street.

 

Tudor period

The Scottish border wars continued for much of the 16th century, so that during that time, Newcastle was often threatened with invasion by the Scots, but also remained important as a border stronghold against them.

 

During the Reformation begun by Henry VIII in 1536, the five Newcastle friaries and the single nunnery were dissolved and the land was sold to the Corporation and to rich merchants. At this time there were fewer than 60 inmates of the religious houses in Newcastle. The convent of Blackfriars was leased to nine craft guilds to be used as their headquarters. This probably explains why it is the only one of the religious houses whose building survives to the present day. The priories at Tynemouth and Durham were also dissolved, thus ending the long-running rivalry between Newcastle and the church for control of trade on the Tyne. A little later, the property of the nunnery of St Bartholomew and of Grey Friars were bought by Robert Anderson, who had the buildings demolished to build his grand Newe House (also known as Anderson Place).

 

With the gradual decline of the Scottish border wars the town walls were allowed to decline as well as the castle. By 1547, about 10,000 people were living in Newcastle. At the beginning of the 16th century exports of wool from Newcastle were more than twice the value of exports of coal, but during the century coal exports continued to increase.

 

Under Edward VI, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, sponsored an act allowing Newcastle to annexe Gateshead as its suburb. The main reason for this was to allow the Newcastle Hostmen, who controlled the export of Tyne coal, to get their hands on the Gateshead coal mines, previously controlled by the Bishop of Durham. However, when Mary I came to power, Dudley met his downfall and the decision was reversed. The Reformation allowed private access to coal mines previously owned by Tynemouth and Durham priories and as a result coal exports increase dramatically, from 15,000 tons in 1500 to 35,000 tons in 1565, and to 400,000 tons in 1625.

 

The plague visited Newcastle four times during the 16th century, in 1579 when 2,000 people died, in 1589 when 1700 died, in 1595 and finally in 1597.

 

In 1600 Elizabeth I granted Newcastle a charter for an exclusive body of electors, the right to elect the mayor and burgesses. The charter also gave the Hostmen exclusive rights to load coal at any point on the Tyne. The Hostmen developed as an exclusive group within the Merchant Adventurers who had been incorporated by a charter in 1547.

 

Stuart period

In 1636 there was a serious outbreak of bubonic plague in Newcastle. There had been several previous outbreaks of the disease over the years, but this was the most serious. It is thought to have arrived from the Netherlands via ships that were trading between the Tyne and that country. It first appeared in the lower part of the town near the docks but gradually spread to all parts of the town. As the disease gained hold the authorities took measures to control it by boarding up any properties that contained infected persons, meaning that whole families were locked up together with the infected family members. Other infected persons were put in huts outside the town walls and left to die. Plague pits were dug next to the town's four churches and outside the town walls to receive the bodies in mass burials. Over the course of the outbreak 5,631 deaths were recorded out of an estimated population of 12,000, a death rate of 47%.

 

In 1637 Charles I tried to raise money by doubling the 'voluntary' tax on coal in return for allowing the Newcastle Hostmen to regulate production and fix prices. This caused outrage amongst the London importers and the East Anglian shippers. Both groups decided to boycott Tyne coal and as a result forced Charles to reverse his decision in 1638.

 

In 1640 during the Second Bishops' War, the Scots successfully invaded Newcastle. The occupying army demanded £850 per day from the Corporation to billet the Scottish troops. Trade from the Tyne ground to a halt during the occupation. The Scots left in 1641 after receiving a Parliamentary pardon and a £4,000,000 loan from the town.

 

In 1642 the English Civil War began. King Charles realised the value of the Tyne coal trade and therefore garrisoned Newcastle. A Royalist was appointed as governor. At that time, Newcastle and King's Lynn were the only important seaports to support the crown. In 1644 Parliament blockaded the Tyne to prevent the king from receiving revenue from the Tyne coal trade. Coal exports fell from 450,000 to 3,000 tons and London suffered a hard winter without fuel. Parliament encouraged the coal trade from the Wear to try to replace that lost from Newcastle but that was not enough to make up for the lost Tyneside tonnage.

 

In 1644 the Scots crossed the border. Newcastle strengthened its defences in preparation. The Scottish army, with 40,000 troops, besieged Newcastle for three months until the garrison of 1,500 surrendered. During the siege, the Scots bombarded the walls with their artillery, situated in Gateshead and Castle Leazes. The Scottish commander threatened to destroy the steeple of St Nicholas's Church by gunfire if the mayor, Sir John Marley, did not surrender the town. The mayor responded by placing Scottish prisoners that they had captured in the steeple, so saving it from destruction. The town walls were finally breached by a combination of artillery and sapping. In gratitude for this defence, Charles gave Newcastle the motto 'Fortiter Defendit Triumphans' to be added to its coat of arms. The Scottish army occupied Northumberland and Durham for two years. The coal taxes had to pay for the Scottish occupation. In 1645 Charles surrendered to the Scots and was imprisoned in Newcastle for nine months. After the Civil War the coal trade on the Tyne soon picked up and exceeded its pre-war levels.

 

A new Guildhall was completed on the Sandhill next to the river in 1655, replacing an earlier facility damaged by fire in 1639, and became the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council. In 1681 the Hospital of the Holy Jesus was built partly on the site of the Austin Friars. The Guildhall and Holy Jesus Hospital still exist.

 

Charles II tried to impose a charter on Newcastle to give the king the right to appoint the mayor, sheriff, recorder and town clerk. Charles died before the charter came into effect. In 1685, James II tried to replace Corporation members with named Catholics. However, James' mandate was suspended in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution welcoming William of Orange. In 1689, after the fall of James II, the people of Newcastle tore down his bronze equestrian statue in Sandhill and tossed it into the Tyne. The bronze was later used to make bells for All Saints Church.

 

In 1689 the Lort Burn was covered over. At this time it was an open sewer. The channel followed by the Lort Burn became the present day Dean Street. At that time, the centre of Newcastle was still the Sandhill area, with many merchants living along the Close or on the Side. The path of the main road through Newcastle ran from the single Tyne bridge, through Sandhill to the Side, a narrow street which climbed steeply on the north-east side of the castle hill until it reached the higher ground alongside St Nicholas' Church. As Newcastle developed, the Side became lined with buildings with projecting upper stories, so that the main street through Newcastle was a narrow, congested, steep thoroughfare.

 

In 1701 the Keelmen's Hospital was built in the Sandgate area of the city, using funds provided by the keelmen. The building still stands today.

 

Eighteenth century

In the 18th century, Newcastle was the country's largest print centre after London, Oxford and Cambridge, and the Literary and Philosophical Society of 1793, with its erudite debates and large stock of books in several languages predated the London Library by half a century.

 

In 1715, during the Jacobite rising in favour of the Old Pretender, an army of Jacobite supporters marched on Newcastle. Many of the Northumbrian gentry joined the rebels. The citizens prepared for its arrival by arresting Jacobite supporters and accepting 700 extra recruits into the local militia. The gates of the city were closed against the rebels. This proved enough to delay an attack until reinforcements arrived forcing the rebel army to move across to the west coast. The rebels finally surrendered at Preston.

 

In 1745, during a second Jacobite rising in favour of the Young Pretender, a Scottish army crossed the border led by Bonnie Prince Charlie. Once again Newcastle prepared by arresting Jacobite supporters and inducting 800 volunteers into the local militia. The town walls were strengthened, most of the gates were blocked up and some 200 cannon were deployed. 20,000 regulars were billeted on the Town Moor. These preparations were enough to force the rebel army to travel south via the west coast. They were eventually defeated at Culloden in 1746.

 

Newcastle's actions during the 1715 rising in resisting the rebels and declaring for George I, in contrast to the rest of the region, is the most likely source of the nickname 'Geordie', applied to people from Tyneside, or more accurately Newcastle. Another theory, however, is that the name 'Geordie' came from the inventor of the Geordie lamp, George Stephenson. It was a type of safety lamp used in mining, but was not invented until 1815. Apparently the term 'German Geordie' was in common use during the 18th century.

 

The city's first hospital, Newcastle Infirmary opened in 1753; it was funded by public subscription. A lying-in hospital was established in Newcastle in 1760. The city's first public hospital for mentally ill patients, Wardens Close Lunatic Hospital was opened in October 1767.

 

In 1771 a flood swept away much of the bridge at Newcastle. The bridge had been built in 1250 and repaired after a flood in 1339. The bridge supported various houses and three towers and an old chapel. A blue stone was placed in the middle of the bridge to mark the boundary between Newcastle and the Palatinate of Durham. A temporary wooden bridge had to be built, and this remained in use until 1781, when a new stone bridge was completed. The new bridge consisted of nine arches. In 1801, because of the pressure of traffic, the bridge had to be widened.

 

A permanent military presence was established in the city with the completion of Fenham Barracks in 1806. The facilities at the Castle for holding assizes, which had been condemned for their inconvenience and unhealthiness, were replaced when the Moot Hall opened in August 1812.

 

Victorian period

Present-day Newcastle owes much of its architecture to the work of the builder Richard Grainger, aided by architects John Dobson, Thomas Oliver, John and Benjamin Green and others. In 1834 Grainger won a competition to produce a new plan for central Newcastle. He put this plan into effect using the above architects as well as architects employed in his own office. Grainger and Oliver had already built Leazes Terrace, Leazes Crescent and Leazes Place between 1829 and 1834. Grainger and Dobson had also built the Royal Arcade at the foot of Pilgrim Street between 1830 and 1832. The most ambitious project covered 12 acres 12 acres (49,000 m2) in central Newcastle, on the site of Newe House (also called Anderson Place). Grainger built three new thoroughfares, Grey Street, Grainger Street and Clayton Street with many connecting streets, as well as the Central Exchange and the Grainger Market. John Wardle and George Walker, working in Grainger's office, designed Clayton Street, Grainger Street and most of Grey Street. Dobson designed the Grainger Market and much of the east side of Grey Street. John and Benjamin Green designed the Theatre Royal at the top of Grey Street, where Grainger placed the column of Grey's Monument as a focus for the whole scheme. Grey Street is considered to be one of the finest streets in the country, with its elegant curve. Unfortunately most of old Eldon Square was demolished in the 1960s in the name of progress. The Royal Arcade met a similar fate.

 

In 1849 a new bridge was built across the river at Newcastle. This was the High Level Bridge, designed by Robert Stephenson, and slightly up river from the existing bridge. The bridge was designed to carry road and rail traffic across the Tyne Gorge on two decks with rail traffic on the upper deck and road traffic on the lower. The new bridge meant that traffic could pass through Newcastle without having to negotiate the steep, narrow Side, as had been necessary for centuries. The bridge was opened by Queen Victoria, who one year later opened the new Central Station, designed by John Dobson. Trains were now able to cross the river, directly into the centre of Newcastle and carry on up to Scotland. The Army Riding School was also completed in 1849.

 

In 1854 a large fire started on the Gateshead quayside and an explosion caused it to spread across the river to the Newcastle quayside. A huge conflagration amongst the narrow alleys, or 'chares', destroyed the homes of 800 families as well as many business premises. The narrow alleys that had been destroyed were replaced by streets containing blocks of modern offices.

 

In 1863 the Town Hall in St Nicholas Square replaced the Guildhall as the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council.

 

In 1876 the low level bridge was replaced by a new bridge known as the Swing Bridge, so called because the bridge was able to swing horizontally on a central axis and allow ships to pass on either side. This meant that for the first time sizeable ships could pass up-river beyond Newcastle. The bridge was built and paid for by William Armstrong, a local arms manufacturer, who needed to have warships access his Elswick arms factory to fit armaments to them. The Swing Bridge's rotating mechanism is adapted from the cannon mounts developed in Armstrong's arms works. In 1882 the Elswick works began to build ships as well as to arm them. The Barrack Road drill hall was completed in 1890.

 

Industrialisation

In the 19th century, shipbuilding and heavy engineering were central to the city's prosperity; and the city was a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle's development as a major city owed most to its central role in the production and export of coal. The phrase "taking coals to Newcastle" was first recorded in 1538; it proverbially denotes bringing a particular commodity to a place that has more than enough of it already.

 

Innovation in Newcastle and surrounding areas included the following:

 

George Stephenson developed a miner's safety lamp at the same time that Humphry Davy developed a rival design. The lamp made possible the opening up of ever deeper mines to provide the coal that powered the industrial revolution.

George and his son Robert Stephenson were hugely influential figures in the development of the early railways. George developed Blücher, a locomotive working at Killingworth colliery in 1814, whilst Robert was instrumental in the design of Rocket, a revolutionary design that was the forerunner of modern locomotives. Both men were involved in planning and building railway lines, all over this country and abroad.

 

Joseph Swan demonstrated a working electric light bulb about a year before Thomas Edison did the same in the USA. This led to a dispute as to who had actually invented the light bulb. Eventually the two rivals agreed to form a mutual company between them, the Edison and Swan Electric Light Company, known as Ediswan.

 

Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine, for marine use and for power generation. He used Turbinia, a small, turbine-powered ship, to demonstrate the speed that a steam turbine could generate. Turbinia literally ran rings around the British Fleet at a review at Spithead in 1897.

 

William Armstrong invented a hydraulic crane that was installed in dockyards up and down the country. He then began to design light, accurate field guns for the British army. These were a vast improvement on the existing guns that were then in use.

 

The following major industries developed in Newcastle or its surrounding area:

 

Glassmaking

A small glass industry existed in Newcastle from the mid-15th century. In 1615 restrictions were put on the use of wood for manufacturing glass. It was found that glass could be manufactured using the local coal, and so a glassmaking industry grew up on Tyneside. Huguenot glassmakers came over from France as refugees from persecution and set up glasshouses in the Skinnerburn area of Newcastle. Eventually, glass production moved to the Ouseburn area of Newcastle. In 1684 the Dagnia family, Sephardic Jewish emigrants from Altare, arrived in Newcastle from Stourbridge and established glasshouses along the Close, to manufacture high quality flint glass. The glass manufacturers used sand ballast from the boats arriving in the river as the main raw material. The glassware was then exported in collier brigs. The period from 1730 to 1785 was the highpoint of Newcastle glass manufacture, when the local glassmakers produced the 'Newcastle Light Baluster'. The glassmaking industry still exists in the west end of the city with local Artist and Glassmaker Jane Charles carrying on over four hundred years of hot glass blowing in Newcastle upon Tyne.

 

Locomotive manufacture

In 1823 George Stephenson and his son Robert established the world's first locomotive factory near Forth Street in Newcastle. Here they built locomotives for the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, as well as many others. It was here that the famous locomotive Rocket was designed and manufactured in preparation for the Rainhill Trials. Apart from building locomotives for the British market, the Newcastle works also produced locomotives for Europe and America. The Forth Street works continued to build locomotives until 1960.

 

Shipbuilding

In 1296 a wooden, 135 ft (41 m) long galley was constructed at the mouth of the Lort Burn in Newcastle, as part of a twenty-ship order from the king. The ship cost £205, and is the earliest record of shipbuilding in Newcastle. However the rise of the Tyne as a shipbuilding area was due to the need for collier brigs for the coal export trade. These wooden sailing ships were usually built locally, establishing local expertise in building ships. As ships changed from wood to steel, and from sail to steam, the local shipbuilding industry changed to build the new ships. Although shipbuilding was carried out up and down both sides of the river, the two main areas for building ships in Newcastle were Elswick, to the west, and Walker, to the east. By 1800 Tyneside was the third largest producer of ships in Britain. Unfortunately, after the Second World War, lack of modernisation and competition from abroad gradually caused the local industry to decline and die.

 

Armaments

In 1847 William Armstrong established a huge factory in Elswick, west of Newcastle. This was initially used to produce hydraulic cranes but subsequently began also to produce guns for both the army and the navy. After the Swing Bridge was built in 1876 allowing ships to pass up river, warships could have their armaments fitted alongside the Elswick works. Armstrong's company took over its industrial rival, Joseph Whitworth of Manchester in 1897.

 

Steam turbines

Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine and, in 1889, founded his own company C. A. Parsons and Company in Heaton, Newcastle to make steam turbines. Shortly after this, he realised that steam turbines could be used to propel ships and, in 1897, he founded a second company, Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company in Wallsend. It is there that he designed and manufactured Turbinia. Parsons turbines were initially used in warships but soon came to be used in merchant and passenger vessels, including the liner Mauretania which held the blue riband for the Atlantic crossing until 1929. Parsons' company in Heaton began to make turbo-generators for power stations and supplied power stations all over the world. The Heaton works, reduced in size, remains as part of the Siemens AG industrial giant.

 

Pottery

In 1762 the Maling pottery was founded in Sunderland by French Huguenots, but transferred to Newcastle in 1817. A factory was built in the Ouseburn area of the city. The factory was rebuilt twice, finally occupying a 14-acre (57,000 m2) site that was claimed to be the biggest pottery in the world and which had its own railway station. The pottery pioneered use of machines in making potteries as opposed to hand production. In the 1890s the company went up-market and employed in-house designers. The period up to the Second World War was the most profitable with a constant stream of new designs being introduced. However, after the war, production gradually declined and the company closed in 1963.

 

Expansion of the city

Newcastle was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835: the reformed municipal borough included the parishes of Byker, Elswick, Heaton, Jesmond, Newcastle All Saints, Newcastle St Andrew, Newcastle St John, Newcastle St Nicholas, and Westgate. The urban districts of Benwell and Fenham and Walker were added in 1904. In 1935, Newcastle gained Kenton and parts of the parishes of West Brunton, East Denton, Fawdon, Longbenton. The most recent expansion in Newcastle's boundaries took place under the Local Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974, when Newcastle became a metropolitan borough, also including the urban districts of Gosforth and Newburn, and the parishes of Brunswick, Dinnington, Hazlerigg, North Gosforth and Woolsington from the Castle Ward Rural District, and the village of Westerhope.

 

Meanwhile Northumberland County Council was formed under the Local Government Act 1888 and benefited from a dedicated meeting place when County Hall was completed in the Castle Garth area of Newcastle in 1910. Following the Local Government Act 1972 County Hall relocated to Morpeth in April 1981.

 

Twentieth century

In 1925 work began on a new high-level road bridge to span the Tyne Gorge between Newcastle and Gateshead. The capacity of the existing High-Level Bridge and Swing Bridge were being strained to the limit, and an additional bridge had been discussed for a long time. The contract was awarded to the Dorman Long Company and the bridge was finally opened by King George V in 1928. The road deck was 84 feet (26 m) above the river and was supported by a 531 feet (162 m) steel arch. The new Tyne Bridge quickly became a symbol for Newcastle and Tyneside, and remains so today.

 

During the Second World War, Newcastle was largely spared the horrors inflicted upon other British cities bombed during the Blitz. Although the armaments factories and shipyards along the River Tyne were targeted by the Luftwaffe, they largely escaped unscathed. Manors goods yard and railway terminal, to the east of the city centre, and the suburbs of Jesmond and Heaton suffered bombing during 1941. There were 141 deaths and 587 injuries, a relatively small figure compared to the casualties in other industrial centres of Britain.

 

In 1963 the city gained its own university, the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, by act of parliament. A School of Medicine and Surgery had been established in Newcastle in 1834. This eventually developed into a college of medicine attached to Durham University. A college of physical science was also founded and became Armstrong College in 1904. In 1934 the two colleges merged to become King's College, Durham. This remained as part of Durham University until the new university was created in 1963. In 1992 the city gained its second university when Newcastle Polytechnic was granted university status as Northumbria University.

 

Newcastle City Council moved to the new Newcastle Civic Centre in 1968.

 

As heavy industries declined in the second half of the 20th century, large sections of the city centre were demolished along with many areas of slum housing. The leading political figure in the city during the 1960s was T. Dan Smith who oversaw a massive building programme of highrise housing estates and authorised the demolition of a quarter of the Georgian Grainger Town to make way for Eldon Square Shopping Centre. Smith's control in Newcastle collapsed when it was exposed that he had used public contracts to advantage himself and his business associates and for a time Newcastle became a byword for civic corruption as depicted in the films Get Carter and Stormy Monday and in the television series Our Friends in the North. However, much of the historic Grainger Town area survived and was, for the most part, fully restored in the late 1990s. Northumberland Street, initially the A1, was gradually closed to traffic from the 1970s and completely pedestrianised by 1998.

 

In 1978 a new rapid transport system, the Metro, was built, linking the Tyneside area. The system opened in August 1980. A new bridge was built to carry the Metro across the river between Gateshead and Newcastle. This was the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, commonly known as the Metro Bridge. Eventually the Metro system was extended to reach Newcastle Airport in 1991, and in 2002 the Metro system was extended to the nearby city of Sunderland.

 

As the 20th century progressed, trade on the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides gradually declined, until by the 1980s both sides of the river were looking rather derelict. Shipping company offices had closed along with offices of firms related to shipping. There were also derelict warehouses lining the riverbank. Local government produced a master plan to re-develop the Newcastle quayside and this was begun in the 1990s. New offices, restaurants, bars and residential accommodation were built and the area has changed in the space of a few years into a vibrant area, partially returning the focus of Newcastle to the riverside, where it was in medieval times.

 

The Gateshead Millennium Bridge, a foot and cycle bridge, 26 feet (7.9 m) wide and 413 feet (126 m) long, was completed in 2001. The road deck is in the form of a curve and is supported by a steel arch. To allow ships to pass, the whole structure, both arch and road-deck, rotates on huge bearings at either end so that the road deck is lifted. The bridge can be said to open and shut like a human eye. It is an important addition to the re-developed quayside area, providing a vital link between the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides.

 

Recent developments

Today the city is a vibrant centre for office and retail employment, but just a short distance away there are impoverished inner-city housing estates, in areas originally built to provide affordable housing for employees of the shipyards and other heavy industries that lined the River Tyne. In the 2010s Newcastle City Council began implementing plans to regenerate these depressed areas, such as those along the Ouseburn Valley.

To address the critical housing, health, and social justice needs of the downtown eastside, First United Church is partnering with Lu’ma Native Housing Society to redevelop this site at 320 East Hastings.

 

This is the ninth of a series as the project proceeds. The deconstruction of the existing building started early June 2022.

 

The four-storey FIRST UNITED facility will serve as the pedestal for an additional seven stories of below-market rental housing for Indigenous Peoples (over 100 studio and one-bedroom units - 35 supportive housing units and 68 rental homes prioritized for Indigenous Peoples.)

 

The housing complex will be operated by Lu’ma Native Housing Society.

 

The non-residential portion of the project on floors one through four, will be a purpose-built First United facility offering a range of social services and programming for residents and the surrounding community.

 

Construction is expected to complete in late 2025. The residential floors will have a separate entrance at 438 Gore Ave.

VICOSA - a Post Office located in South Vancouver, British Columbia.

 

One new Post Office has been opened in South Vancouver, is be known as VICOSA, and is to be under the Vancouver Post Office jurisdiction. It will be served every day in the week except Sunday, at the same time as the Janes Road Post Office.

 

(The Greater Vancouver Chinook newspaper - 3 May 1913 -- A NEW POST OFFICE in South Vancouver has been christened "VICOSA" by the Dominion postal powers that be. The name is pretty and euphonious, but will it "help any" towards better mail distribution?

 

The VICOSA Post Office was fist located in "Jackson & Bowes Grocers" store at the corner of 52nd and Victoria Road in South Vancouver. The address was 6602 Victoria Drive in South Vancouver. The Postmaster was Harold Tasman Jackson and his business partner was Joseph Alfred Bowes.

 

The VICOSA Post Office was established - 1 May 1913 - it became VANCOUVER SUB 28 - 1 May 1922 and closed in 1972.

 

LINK to a list of the Postmasters who served at the VICOSA Post Office - recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record... and the VANCOUVER SUB OFFICE No. 28 - recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record...

 

When this postcard entered the postal system at VICOSA the Postmaster was Harold Tasman Jackson - he served as Postmaster from - 1 May 1913 to - 5 July 1920.

 

Harold Tasman Jackson

(b. 6 October 1884 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia - d. 17 September 1922 at age 37 in South Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) - occupations - Storekeeper / Postmaster - LINK to his newspaper obituary - www.newspapers.com/article/vancouver-daily-world-obituary...

 

His wife - Ethel Mary / May / Marie (nee Britton) Jackson

(b. 27 March 1884 in New Norfolk, Tasmania, Australia - d. ?)

 

His grocery business partner - Joseph Alfred Bower

(b. 10 September 1886 in Durham, County Durham, England – d. 27 September 1946 at age 60 in Vancouver, British Columbia) - LINK to his Find a Grave site - www.findagrave.com/memorial/179071252/joseph-alfred-bowes - LINK to his newspaper obituary - www.newspapers.com/article/the-vancouver-sun-obituary-for...

 

- sent from - / NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C / DEC 24 / 5 30 PM / 1914 / - machine cancel

 

- arrived at - / VICOSA / DE 25 / 14 / B.C. / - split ring arrival backstamp - this split ring hammer (A1-1) was proofed - 23 April 1913 - (RF E now is classified as RF D).

 

Message on postcard reads: Wishing you a very happy Xmas - E. J. Rowling

 

Elizabeth Jane Rowling

(b. 24 August 1874 in Vancouver, British Columbia - d. 22 November 1961 at age 87 in Surrey, British Columbia / New Westminster, British Columbia) - occupation - housekeeper - she never married - LINK to her death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/b5...

 

Addressed to: Miss McNab / Vicosa / B.C.

Address plate, London, UK.

Address: 22°27′50.63″N 114°5′7.98″E

 

雞公嶺是香港新界西北的一座山峰，位於元朗新市鎮和粉嶺／上水新市鎮之間，海拔585公尺。雞公嶺原名圭角山或掛角山。根據《大清一統志》：「掛角山，在縣南三十里，兩峰突起如角，曰大掛，小掛，一名牛潭山」。而在新安縣志中，「掛角山一名桂角在縣東南四十里。山多老桂，兩峰對峙，其形如角，故名」。雞公嶺大部份屬於元朗區，唯東北麓則屬於北區。山嶺大部份亦屬於林村郊野公園，除西北麓之外。

雞公嶺由兩個山峰組成，包括海拔585公尺的主峰（又稱為大羅天或大掛），以及其西海拔374公尺的副峰（又稱為雞公山、金雞嶺或小掛）。兩山山頂均設有三角測量站（不過山峰的三角測量站是建於西面的572公尺山頭，而不是585公尺最高點），而副峰更設有香港數碼地面電視廣播之輔助發射站，服務元朗東部、錦田、水邊村及輞井圍等地。在旅行界，雞公嶺主峰上的三個山頭由西至東細分為大羅天（572公尺）、羅天頂（585公尺）和龍潭山（550公尺），而雞公嶺向北伸展，有牛潭山（337公尺）和麒麟山（222公尺）。

該山山體廣闊，而其東、北和西方都沒有比它高的山，所以從元朗和上水等地都可清楚望見。站在山上，可鳥瞰元朗平原和米埔一帶的鄉郊景色與及深圳市區與蛇口一帶景色。

 

info: wikipedia.org

This is the royal balcony from where the Mughal emperor's would address their audience.

  

The Lahore Fort, locally referred to as Shahi Qila (Urdu: شاهی قلعہ ) is citadel of the city of Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. It is located in the northwestern corner of the Walled City of Lahore. The trapezoidal composition is spread over 20 hectares. Origins of the fort go as far back as antiquity, however, the existing base structure was built during the reign of Mughal emperor Akbar (1556-1605), and was regularly upgraded by subsequent rulers,having thirteen gates in all.[1]. Thus the fort manifests the rich traditions of the entire Mughal architecture.[2] Some of the famous sites inside the fort include: Sheesh Mahal, Alamgiri Gate, Naulakha pavilion, and Moti Masjid. In 1981, the fort was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with the Shalimar Gardens (Lahore).

 

The origins of Lahore Fort are obscure and are traditionally based on various myths.[3] However, during the excavation carried out in 1959 by the Department of Archaeology, in front of Diwan-e-Aam, a gold coin of Mahmood of Ghazni dated A.H. 416 (1025 A.D.) was found at a depth of 7.62 metres from the level of the lawns. Cultural layers continued to a further depth of 5 metres, giving strong indications that people had lived here, long before the conquest of Lahore by Mahmood in 1021 A.D.[4] Further mention of the fort is traceable to Shahab-ud-din Muhammad Ghuri's successive invasions of Lahore from 1180 to 1186 A.D.

  

[edit] Timeline

 

Location of Fort along the Walled City of LahoreIt cannot be said with certainty when the Lahore Fort was originally constructed or by whom, since this information is lost to history, possibly forever. However, evidence found in archaeological digs gives strong indications that it was built long before 1025 A.D

1241 A.D. - Destroyed by Mongols.

1267 A.D. - Rebuilt by Sultan Ghiyas ud din Balban.

1398 A.D. - Destroyed again, by Amir Tamir's army.

1421 A.D. - Rebuilt in mud by Sultan Mubark Shah Syed.

1432 A.D. - The fort is occupied by Shaikh Ali of Kabul who makes repairs to the damages inflicted on it by Shaikha Khokhar.

1566 A.D. - Rebuilt by Mughal emperor Akbar, in solid brick masonry on its earlier foundations. Also perhaps, its area was extended towards the river Ravi, which then and up to about 1849 A.D., used to flow along its fortification on the north. Akbar also built Doulat Khana-e-Khas-o-Am, the famous Jharoka-e-Darshan (Balcony for Royal Appearance), Masjidi Gate etc.

1618 A.D. - Jehangir adds Doulat Khana-e-Jehangir

1631 A.D. - Shahjahan builds Shish Mahal (Mirror Palace).

1633 A.D. - Shahjahan builds Khawabgah (a dream place or sleeping area), Hamam (bath ), Khilwat Khana (retiring room), and Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque).[5]

1645 A.D. - Shahjahan builds Diwan-e-Khas (Hall of Special Audience).

1674 A.D. - Aurangzeb adds the massively fluted Alamgiri Gate.

(Sometime during) 1799-1839 A.D. - The outer fortification wall on the north with the moat, the marble athdera, Havaeli Mai Jindan and Bara Dari Raja Dhiyan Singh were constructed by Ranjit Singh, Sikh ruler from 1799-1839 A.D.

1846 A.D. - Occupied by the British.

1927 A.D. - The British hand over the Fort to the Department of Archaeology after demolishing a portion of the fortification wall on the south and converting it into a stepped form thus defortifying the fort.

The strategic location of Lahore city between the Mughal territories and the strongholds of Kabul, Multan, and Kashmir required the dismantling of the old mud-fort and fortification with solid brick masonry.[6] The strcucture is dominated by Persian influence that deepened with the successive refurbishments by subsequent emperors.[7] The fort is clearly divided into two sections: first the administrative section, which is well connected with main entrances, and comprises larger garden areas and Diwan-e-Aam for royal audiences. The second - a private and concealed residential section - is divided into courts in the northern part, accessible through 'elephant gate'. It also contains Shish Mahal (Hall of Mirrors of Mirror Palace), and spacious bedrooms and smaller gardens.[8] On the outside, the walls are decorated with blue Persian kashi tiles. The original entrance faces the Maryam Zamani Mosque, whereas the larger Alamgiri Gate opens to the Hazuri Bagh through to the majestic Badshahi Mosque.[9]

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahore_Fort

Address:静岡県静岡市清水区三保

 

「三保松原」は、万葉の昔から白砂青松と霊峰富士の眺望の素晴らしさで全国にその名を知られています。これまでにどれほどの日本人がこの景色に感動し、魂に刻んできたかは現代に伝わる数多くの詩歌、絵画が如実に証明しています。何百年にもわたり愛され続けてきた所以、それはそれが本物であるからとしか表現できません。人間が理屈抜きに本当に素晴らしいもの、美しいものを欲する以上、この地は人間を惹きつけて止まない魅力に溢れています。古今東西、老若男女を問うことなく、万民にとって一度は訪れたい、憧れの地、羨望の地となりうる吸引力を持っているのです。そして、その魅力は、「富士山」と一体となることで完成度が高まります。

なぜ、富士山から45キロメートル離れている「三保松原」が構成資産なのでしょうか。

 

Info:http://www.city.shizuoka.jp

This painting was done for the Purity & Pollution Exhibition in collaboration with the Moving Ethos Modern Dance Group. It is a diptych in acrylics describing the destruction caused by pollution.

- from 1908 "Lovell's Gazetteer of the Dominion of Canada" - NEW ALBERNI, a spacious seaport at the head of the Alberni Canal, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, in Comox-Atlin District, Vancouver Island. B.C., with port at Stamp Harbor. It is 58 miles from Nanaimo Station, on the Esquimalt & Nanaimo RR., or 120 miles by water (Strait of Georgia), from Victoria, and is the supply point for the Alberni mining district. It has 2 stores, 1 hotel, 1 saw mill, and telegraph and post offices. The population in 1908 was 100.

 

(from - Wrigley's 1918 British Columbia Directory) - PORT ALBERNI - is a city municipality, incorporated in 1912, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, at the head of the Alberni Canal. It is the western terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway, Island division, and is situated on an excellent deep water harbour, some 36 miles from the open ocean. The Alberni Canal is a natural fjord from two to five miles wide and extremely deep. The city has one large sawmill, cutting a resort for motorists, being at the western end of the Canadian road system. Beautiful lakes and streams abound in the vicinity, and excellent fresh water fishing is obtainable. The city is attractively situated on a slope rising gradually from the water's edge, with magnificent views of Mount Arrowsmith, the Beaufort Mountains, and snow-capped peaks at the head of the Alberni valley. The population in 1918 was 940.

 

ALBERNI takes its name from the canal which was named in 1791 by Lieutenant Francisco Eliza after Dom Pedro Alberni. Alberni was in command of the soldiers taking part in the Spanish expedition under Eliza sent by the Viceroy of Mexico to occupy the coast, 1790. A sawmill was established at the head of Alberni canal in 1860. Captain Richards, HMS Hecate, called the locality Alberni the following year.

 

Port Alberni Post Office Destroyed by Fire - Clipped from - The Victoria Daily Times newspaper - Victoria, British Columbia, Canada - Friday, 3 March 1911 - On Sunday morning (26 February 1911) about 1 o'clock fire broke out In Waterhouse's store in Port Alberni and spread to the wharf and Janse, McDonell & Timothy's warehouses and office, resulting in total destruction of all the buildings. It Is understood that the loss is only partially covered by insurance. The Port Alberni Post Office and also the telegraph office were situated In Waterhouse's store. Most of the mail was saved and Janse, McDonell & Timothy managed to save their books. The Tees will have either to land her freight and passengers at the Barclay Sound Cedar Company's wharf or at Bird's sawmill, Stamp Harbor, until the wharf can be rebuilt. LINK - www.newspapers.com/clip/119690997/port-alberni-post-offic...

 

The New Post Office at Port Alberni, British Columbia - The Port Alberni Post Office is located in a handsome Dominion Government building of red brick and stone facings, sharing quarters with the Customs Office, the District Indian Agent's office and the Federal Telegraphs system. The building was erected in 1913-14, and Postmaster Maclntyre has held office since the building was occupied. LINK - www.newspapers.com/clip/119708159/the-new-post-office-at-... In 1915, James William Brown, formerly of Gloucestershire, England installed a clock in the tower of the Port Alberni Post Office. This time he had to do it without the assistance of son Albert, who’d enlisted and been killed in action. LINK to a photo of the Dominion Government Building in Port Alberni - www.albernivalleynews.com/community/look-back-port-albern...

 

The NEW ALBERNI Post Office was established - 1 December 1900 - located one mile south of Alberni; changed name to PORT ALBERNI - 1 March 1910.

 

LINK to a list of the Postmasters who served at the NEW ALBERNI Post Office - recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record... - and the PORT ALBERNI Post Office - recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record...

 

When this postcard entered the mail system at PORT ALBERNI the Postmaster was A. E. Waterhouse - he served from - 1 December 1900 - 23 November 1914.

 

Arthur Edward Waterhouse

(b. September 1869 in the City of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England - d. 17 February 1940 at age 70 in Victoria, Capital Regional District, British Columbia, Canada)

 

His wife - Claire Helen (nee Lindsey) Beale / Waterhouse

(b. 6 December 1887 in Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana - d. 27 January 1974 at age 86 in Vancouver, B.C.) - they were married - 2 October 1918 in Alberni, British Columbia - LINK to their marriage certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/50... - LINK to her death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/41...

 

Clipped from - The Vancouver Sun newspaper - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - 19 February 1940 - First Mayor of Ptort Alberni Dies - VICTORIA, Feb. 19. Arthur Edward Waterhouse, 71, pioneer and first mayor of Port Alberni died here Saturday. A native of Lincolnshire, England, Mr. Waterhouse came to Canada in the 1890's. He was instrumental in construction of the Port Alberni wharf and opened a general store there. Shortly before the turn of the century he took over a small hotel building, rebuilt and expanded it into the present Somass Hotel, which he operated at the time of his death. He also owned the Waterhouse and Greene Department Store. Mr. Waterhouse was first mayor, of Port Alberni, taking office in March, 1912. He leaves his wile and one stepdaughter, Mrs. Elmer Glaspie of Vancouver. LINK - www.newspapers.com/clip/119698586/obituary-for-arthur-edw...

 

- sent from - / PORT ALBERNI / MY 14 / 10 / B.C. / - split ring cancel - this split ring hammer (A1-1) was proofed - 3 February 1910 - the hammer was destroyed in the Post Office fire on - 26 February 1911 - a new split ring hammer (A1-2) was proofed - 18 March 1911 - the first hammer (A1-1) is (RF E) - (A1-2) is (RF B).

 

Message on postcard reads - Just had a letter from W. Holmes, but no address in Vancouver. My best regards to you all. I'm always - H.B.

 

Addressed to - Miss Holmes / 1314 Yates St / Victoria / B.C.

 

The Holmes family: They lived at 1314 Yates Street for about one year (1910) before moving to 1521 Fort Street - he had three daughters so I do not know which one it was sent to.

 

Arthur Colquhoun Holmes

(b. 17 July 1861 in Baildon, Metropolitan Borough of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England - d. 20 December 1917 (aged 56) in Victoria, Capital Regional District, British Columbia, Canada)

 

WELL-KNOWN CITIZEN DIES THIS MORNING - Arthur Colquhoun Holmes Was Member of English Bar Before Coming Here - A well-known resident of the city passed away this morning in the person of Arthur Colquhoun Holmes, who died at his home, 1521 Fort Street, at the age of fifty-six. A native of Baildon, Yorks, the late Mr. Holmes was a member of the English Bar, but illness forced him to give up his practice and he traveled extensively in search of health, finally settling in Victoria twelve years ago, A continued stale of invalidism prevented his taking up a practice in this city. He is survived by a widow and three daughters, Mrs. C. F. P. Faulkner, whose husband is overseas with the 16th Reserve Battalion; Miss Marjorie Holmes, of the Public Library staff, and Miss Doris Holmes, who is at present studying at the Pratt Institute in New York. His only son, Carlton C. Holmes, fell in action at the Battle of Ypres in April, 1918, while serving as a member of the First Canadian Expeditionary Force.

 

LINK to the Holmes Family - Find a Grave site - www.findagrave.com/memorial/121308203/arthur-colquhoun-ho...

Address: Köstlerstrasse 3, 1040 Wien

Construction: 1898-1899

LEVANTHANHSON STUDIO

Address : 304 Lê Thanh Nghị, P.Hòa Cường Nam, Q.Hải Châu, TP.Đà Nẵng

Email : levanthanhson@gmail.com

Hotline : 0914.112.654

Fanpage : www.facebook.com/levanthanhson.photography

Gallery photo : www.flickr.com/photos/levanthanhson_color

Herstmonceux Castle, East Sussex

 

Grade l listed.

 

List Entry Number: 1272785

 

Statutory Address 1: Herstmonceux Castle, Herstmonceux Park

 

Listing NGR: TQ6463810388

  

National Grid Reference: TQ 64652 10335

  

Details

 

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 24/04/2020

 

TQ 61SW 13/406

 

HERSTMONCEUX HERSTMONCEUX PARK Herstmonceux Castle, with attached bridges to north and south and causeway with moat retaining walls to west.

 

GV I Castle/country house. c1441 (when licence to crenellate was granted) for Sir Roger Fiennes; further embellished mid C16 for Baroness and Lord Dacre; altered mid-late C17 for Lord Dacre; part demolished 1776-1777 for Robert Hare; restored and rebuilt early C20, mostly 1911-1912, for Lieutenant Colonel Claude Lowther and 1930s for Sir Paul Latham.

 

Red brick in English bond with some blue header diaper work; stone dressings; plain tile roofs. Square on plan with inner courtyard, this originally divided into four courts and containing Great Hall, but these and the internal walls of the castle demolished C18; south range and south ends of east and west ranges restored by Lowther, the remainder restored by Latham. Two storeys with attic and basement in parts; five x four wide bays with tapering polygonal towers at corners and between bays, taller at angles and centre. Built and restored in C15 style: exterior has one-light or two-light windows, some transomed; courtyard has more wider windows and some with cusped or round-headed lights; four-centred-arched or segmental-arched moulded or chamfered doorways with C20 studded board doors; tall plinth with moulded offset; moulded string below embattled parapet with roll moulded coping; rainwater pipes with decorative initialled heads; stacks with ribbed and corniced clustered flues; steeply-pitched roofs with roll-moulded coping, some with hipped ends.

 

South (entrance) elevation: three-storey central gate tower has tall recess containing wide, panelled door, window of two cusped, transomed lights above, and grooves for former drawbridge arms; on second floor two transomed windows of two round-headed lights flank coat of arms of Sir Roger Fiennes; flanking towers have gun ports at base, looped arrow slits, machicolated parapets with arrow slits to merlons, and towers rising above as drums. Projecting from gate tower is long bridge (mostly C20) of eight arches, that to centre wider and shallower, with cutwaters, stone parapet, and central corbelled embrasure with flanking tower buttresses.

 

North side: central gate towers formerly had rooms on lower floors, of which truncated walls and first-floor fireplace fragment remain; machicolated parapet; at left end of range C17 window openings with later eighteen-pane sashes. West side: attached causeway containing basement room and with three half-arched bridge on south side, walling returning as moat retaining walls; main range has a basement doorway with side-lights in chamfered embrasure.

 

East side: the second tower has C16 first-floor bow window; tall windows to central tower (which contains chapel); right half of range has older windows blocked and larger C17 replacement openings with later eighteen-pane sashes.

 

Courtyard: seven-bay arcade to north side and central corbelled stack with clock; three-bay 1930s Great Hall (now library) on west side with decorative tracery to windows and offset buttress; gable of former chapel on east side, has perpendicular tracery to window, a two-storey bay window and two crow-stepped gabled attic windows to its left; several doorways and a two-storey bay window to south side; hipped-roofed dormers; brick-lined well in south-west corner.

 

Interior: some original features survive, including fireplaces, privies, doorways, dungeon and brick-lined dovecote in south-east tower; other old features were brought in from elsewhere, including doors, fireplaces, panelling. In south range: porter's room has old fireplace and relocated linenfold door (found in cellar); reused traceried wood panelling in rebuilt dining room fireplace; stair hall has fine early C17 wooden stair (brought from Theobalds, Herts) with strapwork roundels between square vase balusters, elaborate relief decoration, and lion finials holding shields; at head of stair; elaborate doorcase of same period ribbed ceiling with pendant finials. Drummers Room has reused panelling, part dated 1697, with fluted pilasters and frieze and elaborately arcaded and fluted-pilastered overmantel. Green Room, on second floor, has restored fireplace with crests and beasts on hood; moulded beams and bosses; and reused traceried panel below courtyard window.

 

North range: very fine late C17 stair (brought from Wheatley Hall, Doncaster; possibly from the workshop of Grinling Gibbons) with baskets-of-flowers and pendant finials to newels, balustrades of open, leafy, scrollwork with flower roundels, and at head of stair two elaborately carved doorcases in similar style with shields in broken pediments. Former ball room has arched ceiling with decorative plasterwork; C17-style panelling; reused elaborately-decorated C17 wooden fireplace overmantel (from Madingley Hall, Cambs.) with two orders of caryatids and embossed panels.

 

East range: former chapel has reused C15 wooden screen (from France) set in west wall; former Drawing room has elaborate stone fireplace, 1930s in C16 style, and in ante room a reused richly decorated fireplace with griffins and portrait roundels. The C15 castle was well restored in the early C20 and the many fine features which were brought in at that time add to its importance.

 

Listing NGR: TQ6463810388

  

Sources

 

Books and journals

Calvert, D , The History of Herstmonceux Castle

Pevsner, N, Nairn, I, The Buildings of England: Sussex, (1965), 534-6

'Country Life' in 18 May, (1929), 702-709

'Country Life' in 7 December, (1935), 606-612

'Country Life' in 14 December, (1935)

 

Other

Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 14 East Sussex,

  

historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1272785

 

————————————————————

 

Before 1066 Herst (meaning forest or wood) was the name of a prominent local Anglo-Saxon family and ownership of the family's estate passed into the hands of the victorious Normans. In 1131 the manor and estates were transferred to Drogo de Monceux, a great grandson of William the Conqueror . Drogo's son Ingleram married Idonea de Herst, thus founding the Herstmonceux line.

 

—————————————————————

 

Herstmonceux Castle Gardens and Grounds is a 300 acre estate including woodland, formal themed gardens and of course a 15th century moated castle.

 

Made from red brick Herstmonceux Castle is one of the earliest examples of a brick built building in England.

 

Read more about the history here:-

 

www.herstmonceux-castle.com/history/

  

historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000231

LENS: Kodak Enlarging Ektar 50mm f/4.5

 

CAMERA: Olympus E-PM1

Letter on reverse penned on 18.2.1917 and addressed to a Willy Keuthe in Magdeburg. Einheitsstempel: II / L.J.R. 26.

 

The author of the letter is Unteroffizier Ernst Rolle of 5. Kompanie, 2. Bataillon, Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 26. He might be the ballsy fellow photo-bombing his officer's photo?

 

_________________________________________

Notes.

 

27.11.1916 - 15.03.1917: Stellungskämpfe an der Somme.

Address: 8-14 rue Cortot in Paris 18th - Montmartre district

The museum was founded and opened in 1960

It was built in the seventeenth century as the Bel Air House and is the oldest building in Montmartre.

It served as a residence and meeting place for many artists including Auguste Renoir, Suzanne Valadon and Émile Bernard, who held their studios here, as well as the fauve artists Emile Othon Friesz and Raoul Dufy.

www.museedemontmartre.fr/exhibitions

Camera Name : aywc03

IP Address : 192.168.1.11

Time : 2016-04-30 18:27:57

Sometimes the simplest of things in life are the hardest things to do. Like clicking send on an email...

 

Today I did that twice, but those emails represented something far greater, something that has been a long, long time in the making.

 

One email was addressed to my colleagues (about 120 people), the other addressed to people I deal with regularly through work (another 100+). They both explained my intention go fulltime as Siân in the near future!

 

Having plucked-up the courage to click 'send', I then sat there weeping as a constant flow of emails and texts piled-in with messages of support, admiration and love. It was just an amazing moment.

 

For those interested, I have set out below my message.

 

Another (BIG) step forward...

 

Siân x

  

I feel now is an appropriate time to share with you all a deeply personal issue that I have wrestled with for many years, and to advise you of some changes that will take place in the not-so-distant future.

 

Whilst I recognise that this may well come as a shock to many of you (or maybe not?), I wish to advise you all that I am transgender and that I intend on transitioning, living full time as a female.

 

The last few years in particular have been very difficult for me, and you will appreciate, I hope, that this isn’t a decision I’ve taken lightly.

 

Until recently, I didn’t believe that I would ever have the strength to discuss openly my gender dysphoria. But of late, I have come to realise that there is a way forward for me, however to achieve that, I need to be honest about my feelings.

 

Getting to this stage hasn’t been easy. Since my early teenage years, I felt a deep sense of shame about my dysphoria, fearing that my life would be over if anyone were ever to find out. However, after much soul searching, of late I have come to accept my feelings, and in doing so, develop a strong sense of personal pride.

 

I recognise that many of you may well be struggling to comprehend why I feel the way I do and why I’ve opted to go public. The truth is really quite simple... It is about me leading the life that I want to lead, not leading the life that others want me to lead.

 

It’s not about drawing attention to myself. Quite the opposite actually; I want to be able to walk down the street and go about my day-to-day life un-noticed.

 

It’s not a hobby. And it’s not about fulfilling sexual desires.

 

Instead, it’s about feeling good about myself. About feeling content.

 

And I would hope that you all recognise those basic needs to some degree.

 

Over the last three years, I have made some great strides forward, initially opening-up to my family and thereafter my friends.

 

My family – I’m sad to say – initially struggled to accept it, with my Dad first suggesting “Why don’t you just stop doing it?” If only it were that simple…

 

But we’re making progress, which is great, and credit to them for finally engaging in a very difficult situation.

 

My friends have been wonderfully supportive and have encouraged me on my journey. And I’ve also received much-welcome support recently from those colleagues in whom I have already confided.

 

I’m sorry to say that I haven’t received the same level of support from the NHS. Whilst my GP has been a fantastic ally, unfortunately the rest of the system has been found wanting. To illustrate, I was referred to a Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) in Summer 2017 – so, coming up on two years ago – and suspect I’ve still got at least another 18 months to wait until my first appointment!

 

Clearly this is hugely frustrating, but if nothing else, illustrates the scale of gender dysphoria within society.

 

Having received my referral, I foresaw the GIC process as providing much needed support and guidance in helping me conclude these important life decisions. However, given the timescales involved, I came to realise that I couldn’t wait and would instead need to make decisions unassisted, based ultimately on what felt right.

 

A little over a year ago, I opted to start a slow transition, not least growing my hair in order to achieve a more feminine appearance. I know that a number of you have queried what’s been going on with me over recent months, so now you know!

 

The most important consideration in all of this are my children. Whilst I have had an initial conversation with them, until such time as they are comfortable with the new situation, I will continue to present at work as [ ], so please (for now), continue to refer to me as [ ], using the pronouns he and his.

 

However, ultimately, it is my intention to present fulltime as a female, going by the name of Siân (pronounced ‘Sharn’) and using the pronouns she and her. At present, I am unable to be more specific with regards timings, but at least now you know my intentions.

 

Clearly there are a lot of logistics still to address, but with the help of the Board and HR, I would hope these are sorted in good order. We will, of course, keep you appraised as to the next steps and when I intend to present fulltime as Siân.

 

I have worked with some of you for more than 15 years and recognise that these changes – as and when they materialise – may cause some confusion initially, so please don’t feel bad if you accidentally call me [ ] or mis-gender me, and please don’t treat me any differently.

 

One important point I’m keen to leave you with is to stress that I am – and will remain – the same person, with the same morals and the same principles. I just look a little bit different; a bit like when Marathon bars became Snickers, as a close friend once described it.

 

I’ve chosen to share this with you as a trusted colleague and would appreciate your discretion in this matter. I would ask that you do not share this more broadly without my permission as my children’s mother and I are trying to support our children through this change in a gradual and considered way, and I therefore trust that you will respect our wishes.

 

If you’re unsure on anything I’ve explained herein – whatever it may be – please do come and speak to me; believe me, I’ve answered many embarrassing questions already, so you probably won’t be the first to ask!

 

In the meantime, you may find the following information resources of use:

 

www.livescience.com/54949-transgender-definition.html - what does ‘Transgender’ mean?

 

www.glaad.org/transgender/allies - tips for allies of transgender people

 

thinkgrowth.org/how-to-support-a-trans-colleague-641f0b34... - how to support a transgender colleague

 

transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/resources/Unde... - frequently asked questions about transgender people

 

In closing, I simply ask for your support and understanding in the coming months and years, thank you.

 

Kind regards

 

[ ]

(soon to be Siân)

 

The Address Hotel near Dubai Mall in Downtown Dubai.

 

Facebook | 500px | Google+

May be a stylish city apartment with classical overtones has appeal ..

Not mine I must say ..

 

ANZAC Square Apartments

Adelaide St . Brisbane

Official list entry

 

Heritage Category: Listed Building

Grade: I

List Entry Number: 1163790

Date first listed: 30-Jun-1961

Statutory Address: CHURCH OF SAINT JAMES THE APOSTLE

 

Location

 

Statutory Address: St Jame's Church, Village Rd, Christow, Exeter EX6 7LZ

County: Devon

District: Teignbridge (District Authority)

Parish: Christow

National Park: DARTMOOR

National Grid Reference: SX 83613 85039

 

Details

 

CHRISTOW CHRISTOW SX 88 NW 2/88 Church of Saint James the Apostle 30.6.61 GV I Parish church. C12 font, medieval fabric C15, restoration of 1862 by Edward Ashworth included rebuilding the chancel, the porch, adding the vestry, reseating and repairing and repainting the screen. Granite ashlar tower, the remainder of the church rubble and snecked stone ; slate roofs. Largely Perpendicular. Plan: of nave, chancel, 4-bay north and south aisles, south porch, west tower north- east vestry. C19 chancel with granite ashlar quoins set back buttresses, 3-light C19 Perpendicular east window with carved label stops, 1 buttress on the south side which has a C19 moulded priest's door and a 1-light cusped window with carved label stops; similar north window to chancel ; north-east vestry with 2-light cusped square headed window on the east side and a moulded doorway on the north side. North aisle with set back buttresses and buttresses with set-offs between the 4 C19 Perpendicular 3-light windows retaining medieval mullions and jambs ; similar east window ; 2-light square-headed cusped west window. South aisle with set back buttresses 2 windows east of porch, one to west, Perpendicular, 3-light with C19 tracery ; smaller west window ; tall 3-light C19 Perpendicular east window. Tall slim battlemented granite ashlar west tower of 3 stages with battlementing and obelisk pinnacles, set back buttresses and string courses. Shallow-moulded granite west doorway dated 1680 (presumably a restoration date) on the arch ; 3-light Perpendicular granite traceried west window ; 2-light chamfered belfry openings on all 4 faces ; rectangular openings at bellringers' stage on east and west faces. Porch with set back buttresses and a shallow moulded granite outer doorway with NB carved on one jamb, C19 hoodmould and carved label stops, good ledger stone used as paving slab outside porch, commemorating Nicholas and Walter Busell, died 1631 and 1632 ; C19 arched brace roof to porch with crude chamfered rounded inner doorway and probably C17 door. Interior: Plastered walls ; C19 timber chancel arch on brattished corbels ; 4-bay granite arcades of conventional Perpendicular design; double chamfered tower arch, the inner order on stone corbels. Ceiled wagon roofs with carved bosses to nave, similar C19 roof to chancel, ceiled wagons without bosses to north and south aisles. 5-bay rood screen, (Pevsner 'A'type), the coving missing, re-painted in the C19. 3- bay of the screen, formerly across the south aisle, have been re-sited as the tower screen. 1860s stone reredos of 5 gabled bays with texts and paintings on tin in the centre 3 bays, co-eval floor tiling and C19 poppyhead choirstalls with traceried fronts. The nave has a late C19 timber drum pulpit with carved panels incorporating C16 blind tracery ; C12 font with a square scalloped bowl on a replaced cylindrical stem and plinth. C16 square-headed bench ends with 2 tiers of blank tracery, one carved with a pomegranate, fixed to later seating in the aisles with low door added in the C19. Plain C19 benches in the nave except for 2 rows facing north and south with carved frontals. 1682 Royal Arms in plaster in high relief with the names of Tho Moore and Chr Moore, churchwardens, below. Memorials: Numerous C19 wall white marble wall monuments to the Exmouth family in the chancel, 2 of 1833 signed E. Gaffin, Regent Street, London : one to the Right Honourable Pownoll Bastard Pellew with a mourning woman ; the second commemorating the Right Honourable Edward Pellew with a sarcophagus, urn and laurels framed by half columns, naval trophies above and long verse below recording Pellew's rescue of 500 people from the wreck of the 'Dutton' ...." so, when this mighty orb, in dread alarm,/ shall crash in ruins, at its God's decree;/May thy redeemer, with triumphant arm,/ from the vast wreck of all things - rescue thee"/. The nave has a number of C19 wall monuments and 2 fine slate-cut ledger stones fixed to the west and north walls commemorating Edmund Davis, died 1652 and John Davys died 1682. Stained Glass: Fragments of C15 canopy work and a figure in the easternmost window of the south aisle ; some C18 bottle glass in the head tracery of the north aisle ; Outstanding Clayton and Bell glass, memorial date 1862, in the east. window of the south aisle ; chancel east window probably by Drake of Exeter, memorial date of 1899 glass by Ward and Hughes in the window in the south aisle, first bay from the east, memorial date of 1913. Window in north aisle, opposite the door, with memorial date of 1867, probably by William Wailes. Devon Nineteenth Century Churches Project.

 

© Historic England 2022

STEAMSHIP PRINCE RUPERT

Grand Trunk Pacific Coast Steamship Co. Ltd (1910-1925).

Canadian National Steamship Co. Ltd. (1925-1956).

Built for Seattle-Victoria-Vancouver-Prince Rupert service 1910 - sold 1956.

 

S.S. Prince Rupert Made Record Trip in 1911 - LINK to newspaper article - www.newspapers.com/clip/109624571/ss-prince-rupert-made-r...

 

S.S. Prince Rupert's Fast Trip in July 1911 - LINK to newspaper report - www.newspapers.com/clip/109625255/prince-ruperts-fast-trip/

 

The Grand Trunk steamship Prince Rupert and her sister ship SS Prince George served the coast of British Columbia and Alaska. Prince Rupert had a 45-year career serving northern ports from Vancouver, British Columbia, from 1910 to 1955. The ship was considered "unlucky" and suffered several incidents during her career, including two significant ones that left large portions of the vessel underwater. The ship was broken up in 1956. The passenger ship had a passenger capacity of 1,756; 220 First class, 36 Second class and 1,500 excursionists on the promenade deck. In 1916, Prince Rupert was given limited staterooms for second-class travellers. Six four-berth and one two-berth staterooms were installed. Prince Rupert also had a refrigerated freight capacity of 350 tons.

 

- / VANCOUVER - PRINCE RUPERT R.P.O. / JUL 25 1911 / STR. "PRINCE RUPERT"/ - double oval handstamp in bluish green ink (outer oval ring thick / inner oval ring thin - (#196a / 04-OMD / S-19b / RF C) - proofed - 19 January 1911.

 

- entered the mail system at - / PRINCE RUPERT / PM / JUL 26 / 11 / B.C. / - duplex cancel (DBC-300 or 301)

 

- arrived at - / PORT ESSINGTON / 29 / JUL / 11 / B.C. / - duplex arrival backstamp - (DBC-290) (?).

 

Message on postcard reads - July 24, 1911 - Dear Fan - In a hurry as per usual! Have had a busy day of it and it's oh! so very hot! Will write a long letter for Camosun. Had a delightful trip all the way. Found all well. How are you keeping? Doubtless mama is happy to be rid of me. Tell her it's not for long however, as I've decided on coming back as "N" will be here until after Xmas. It is now 10 PM and I have to cross to town to post this. Good bye. Write soon - remember me to all friends. Try to be good. Lovingly yours - M. Philips

 

Addressed to: Miss F. Noble / Essington / B.C.

 

Fanny Jane / Jean (nee Noble) MacKenzie / McKenzie

(b. 13 June 1893 in Victoria, B.C. - d. 9 October 1965 at age 72 in Vancouver, B.C. / Burnaby, B.C.) - she was a school teacher in the Methodist Day School at Port Essington, B.C. - LINK to her newspaper obituary - www.newspapers.com/clip/109580757/obituary-for-fanny-jane... - LINK to her death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/7a... - LINK to her Find a Grave site - www.findagrave.com/memorial/208557126/fanny-jane-mckenzie

 

Her husband - Alexander MacKenzie / McKenzie

(b. 10 July 1881 in Scotland - d. 17 Oct 1968 (aged 87) in Burnaby, British Columbia) - They were married - 23 March 1928 in Vancouver, B.C. - LINK to their marriage certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/40... LINK to his death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/2d...

 

Her brother - Alexander Victor Noble was killed in action during WWI, South East of Caix, Somme, Picardie, France on - 17 August 1918 - LINKS - www.newspapers.com/clip/109606636/young-gunner-gave-up-hi... and - www.newspapers.com/clip/109606891/young-gunner-dies/ LINK to his Find a Grave site - www.findagrave.com/memorial/56147932/alexander-victor-noble

 

Her father - Alexander Noble

(b. 26 January 1858 in Newhaven, City of Edinburgh, Scotland - d. 26 October 1940 (aged 82) in Vancouver, B.C.) - LINK to his Find a Grave site - www.findagrave.com/memorial/208557693/alexander-noble

 

Her mother - Jane “Jean” (nee Smith) Noble

(b. 16 April 1864 in Girvan, South Ayrshire, Scotland - d. 6 November 1937 (aged 73) in Vancouver, B.C.) - they were married - 28 August 1891 in Victoria, B.C.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*Addressing the Council*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Deciding Mamas fate, after she forgot to feed us AGAIN..

featuring: ImpyDimpy

MS: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Pleione/30/85/3102

Lami is using:

[IMP] The Dragon [IMP] The Lion [IMP] The Rat King [IMP] Capricorn [IMP] Rat & [IMP] Floatfish

@The main store now for a limited time!

 

Full credits here: babilleuad.blogspot.com/2024/01/addressing-council.html

Schebek Palace - the seat of the CERGE-EI institution

 

Address: Politických vězňů 936/7, Prague 1-New Town

Year: 1870–1872

Architects: Vojtěch Ignác Ullmann

 

One of the most beautiful neo-renaissance palaces in Prague still boasts luxurious luxury interiors, which have often served as a faithful backdrop for foreign film productions.

 

Its importance has always been linked to banking and economics. Today, the palace falls under national cultural protection and houses two leading scientific institutions that proudly continue the tradition of Schebek Palace as a center of economic education.

openhousepraha.cz/schebkuv-palac-sidlo-instituce-cerge-ei/

--------------------------------------

Schebek Palace (Czech: Schebkův palác), otherwise known as "The House of the Angel", is a neo-renaissance building located at Politických vězňů 7, čp. 936/II, in New Town, Prague 1. It is protected as a cultural monument in the Czech Republic. [1][2]

 

Prior to the construction of the current Palace, the building lot was occupied by an orphanage. It was sold to two railway magnates, Jan Schebek and František Ringhoffer, in 1868.[3][4] Jan Schebek then commissioned architect Vojtěch Ignác Ullmann to design the current building. Ullmann's designs were inspired by renaissance Rome, and the building was constructed between 1870 and 1872.

 

Originally designed to be three stories tall, additional floors have been added since the original construction. The building has four wings, with a rectangular courtyard in its center. Of special note are its ceiling murals by Viktor Barvitius, sculptures by Josef Wagner, and the building's marble staircase which leads to the first floor's main reception rooms.[5]

 

The Schebek family owned the building for 18 years before selling it to the Austro-Hungarian Bank, where it became the headquarters of the Prague branch of the bank. Following World War I, the building became the headquarters of The Banking Office of the Ministry of Finance in 1919, which was later transformed into the National Bank of Czechoslovakia in 1926. The bank owned the building until 1963, when it was taken over by the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (CSAS).[5]

 

Currently the building houses the Center for Economics Research and Graduate Education – Economics Institute (CERGE-EI), and it is owned by a unit of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schebek_Palace

 

- Ex Bill Robinson cover purchased February 1989 from Lee Auctions...

 

ISLE PIERRE - the community of Isle Pierre is located in central British Columbia, about 35 kilometers west of Prince George, along the Nechako River. It’s named for a rocky island in the river’s rapids. Isle Pierre was first settled by homesteaders from Saskatchewan in the 1920s. Today, the company Canadian Forest Products operates a sawmill in the town. The Nechako River’s coastal plains offer year-round activities, while a number of historic sites can be found in the area.

 

ISLE PIERRE Post Office was opened - 16 November 1928, in association with the nearby island. Post office closed - 9 March 1957.

 

LINK to a list of the Postmasters who served at the ISLE PIERRE Post Office - recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record...

 

- sent from - / ISLE PIERRE / MR 2 / 43 / B.C. / - split ring cancel - this split ring hammer (A1-1) was proofed - 15 September 1928 - (RF D). (4 strikes)

 

Cross-border sixteen-cent rate (six cents airmail for first ounce, plus ten cents registration) in use July 1, 1934 to March 31, 1943 - / R / Isle Pierre, B.C. / No. (675) / - registered boxed marking in magenta ink.

 

- via - / PRINCE GEORGE / MR 2 / 43 / B.C. / - cds transit backstamp.

 

- via - / EDM. & PR. GEO. R.P.O. / 198 / MR 2 / 43 / No. 4 / - rpo transit backstamp - (Ludlow W-43 / RF 130)

 

- via - / VANCOUVER / MR 4 / 43 / B.C. / - cds transit backstamp

 

Foreign Exchange Control Board sticker tied by boxed (MOTO) - / VANCOUVER, / MAR 5 1943 / B.C. / - in magenta ink (2 strikes)

 

- via - / SEATTLE, WASH. TERMINAL A / MAR / 5 / 1943 / REGISTRATION / - double ring transit backstamp in purple ink.

 

- arrived at - / LOS ANGELES (STA. S.) / MAR / 8 / 1943 / REGISTERED / - double ring arrival backstamp in purple ink.

 

- arrived at - / LOS ANGELES, CALIF, (TERMINAL ANNEX.) / MAR / 8 / 1943 / REGISTERED / - double ring arrival in purple ink (not shown above).

 

ISLE PIERRE - a farming and logging community, twenty miles west of Prince George, British Columbia, on the Nechako River and the northern C.N.R. line. Site of the last spike on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1914. Named in French for a rocky island in the river.

 

- sent by - J. C. Townsend / Reid Lake - B.C. / Canada

 

Jennie May (nee Chandler) Townsend

(b. 1888 in Millston, Jackson, Wisconsin, USA - d. 1970)

 

Her husband - Joseph Whitfield Townsend

(b. 6 April 1885 in North Shield, Northumberland, England - d. 8 July 1953 at age 68 in Prince George) - occupations - farmer, well driller. LINK to his death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/38...

 

Addressed to: Edwin J. Dingle, / 2nd Street at Hobart Blvd. / Los Angeles, California, / U.S.A.

 

Edwin John Dingle (b. April 6, 1881 - d. January 28, 1972 at age 90) was an English journalist, publisher, author, and mystical guru. Dingle was born in Cornwall but orphaned at just 9. He studied to become a journalist, moving to Singapore in 1900 to cover the Far East. He traveled extensively in China and was involved with the early days of publishing in Shanghai. From Shanghai and Singapore, he also published several early maps of China, Shanghai, the The New Atlas and Commercial Gazetteer of China, and several books on the history of China. In 1910, Dingle traveled to Tibet, where he reportedly studied under a Tibetan 'spiritual master' and Lama. On his return from Tibet, he witnessed the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, observing events in both Wuhan and Shanghai, as well as the brutal attacks on Hankou and Hanyang. After some 21 years in China, Dingle relocated to Oakland California, where he lived in seclusion meditating and practicing his own version of Pranayama in pursuit of mystical powers, extrasensory perception, and spiritual development. There Dingle founded the Institute of Mentalphysics in 1933-34, styling himself President and Preceptor Emeritus. The institute was well financed and hired the famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design a near 400-acre campus in Joshua Tree. At the institute he called himself by his adopted Chinese name, Ding Le Mei (丁乐梅). Dingle died in 1972 in California. LINK to an advertisement for his Church - www.newspapers.com/clip/117850944/dr-dingle/

The Cornwall brothers who established their ranch, "Ashcroft" in 1862, came originally from the village of Ashcroft in Gloucestershire, where their father had been vicar. When the CPR adopted the name Ashcroft for their station just east of the ranch (and what would become the townsite), the Cornwall's added "Manor" to the name of their home, making it Ashcroft Manor.

 

Ashcroft was founded in the 1860s, during the Cariboo Gold Rush, by two English brothers named Clement Francis Cornwall and Henry Pennant Cornwall, founders of Ashcroft Ranch, who emigrated to Canada from Ashcroft, at Newington Bagpath in Gloucestershire. The brothers had originally come in search of gold; however, on hearing stories from failed gold searchers they decided to found the town to give future gold searchers a place to saddle their horses. They sold flour to packers and miners, helping to make the community. Ashcroft was a major stop for trains, where mining supplies were dropped off.

 

- from 1908 "Lovell's Gazetteer of the Dominion of Canada" - ASHCROFT STATION, a post settlement and railroad depot on the C.P.R., in Yale co., B.C., about midway between Lytton and Kamloops, and 200 miles east of Vancouver. It is on the Thompson River, has a dry climate and light atmosphere, the surrounding district being excellent grazing land, on which much farming is done by irrigation and considerable stock raised. Ashcroft is the entrepot to the Cariboo district, via stage line to Barkerville, a distance of 287 miles. The village has a fine electric light plant and good water system; it has also 3 churches (Anglican, Presbyterian and Methodist), 10 stores, 3 hotels, 1 bank, 1 saw mill, 1 printing and newspaper office ("Ashcroft Journal"), besides express and telegraph offices. The population in 1908 was 500.

 

(from 1918 - Wrigley's British Columbia directory) - Ashcroft - on the main line, C. P. R. and C. N. R., 204 miles east of Vancouver, in the Provincial Electoral District of Yale. Dominion and Canadian Northern Express. Altitude, 1,004 ft. Centre of the irrigated belt and noted particularly for its famous potatoes and beans. Stock-raising and mining. The population in 1918 was 500.

 

Ashcroft Station was an early settlement. Before the railway was established, Ashcroft Manor was a stopping point on the Cariboo Road. The post office was originally in the local store but was moved to the station. It was established - 1 March 1886. The name was shortened to Ashcroft - 1 April 1899.

 

LINK - History of the Postmasters and Postmistresses who served at Ashcroft - ashcroftbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/PDF/Museum/August-2016.pdf

 

sent from - / ASHCROFT / AP 19 / 05 / B.C / - split ring cancel (second opening) - this split ring hammer (A-3 / 22.5 dia) was not listed in the Proof Book - it was most likely proofed c. 1904 - (RF A).

 

arrived at - / VANCOUVER / 12 / AP 20 / 05 / B.C. / - cds arrival backstamp

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Addressed to: Mrs. R.S. Pyke / 1114 Haro Street / Vancouver / B.C.

 

This postcard was sent by her husband Robert Samuel Pyke, who was a Commercial Traveller / Salesman.

 

Robert Samuel Pyke

(b. 29 April 1861 in East Camden, Lennox and Addington, Ontario, Canada – d. 17 January 1927 at age 65 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)

 

His wife - Kate Purdeaux

(b. 1861 in Belville, Ontario – d. 17 July 1945 at age 85 in Vancouver, B.C.)

 

They were married - 27 Jan 1886 at Kingston, Frontenac, Ontario, Canada - they had one son (who was mentioned in this postcard)

 

James Lorne Pyke

(b. 1 February 1894 in Vancouver, B.C. – d. 14 June 1973) his occupation was a Lawyer

 

The life story of Robert Samuel Pyke - (written in 1914) - ROBERT SAMUEL PYKE - One of the most widely known and popular traveling salesmen of British Columbia is Robert Samuel Pyke, representing the Gutta-percha & Rubber, Ltd. He has visited every section of the province and there is no man who has a more intimate knowledge of conditions and of the development and progress of this western section of the Dominion. He was born in Addington county, Ontario, April 30, 1861, a son of James and Martha (Stevenson) Pyke, both natives of Belfast, Ireland. The father was actively and successfully engaged in the shoe business in Addington county for many years, and in fact was identified with the shoe trade throughout his entire life. Both he and his wife passed away many years ago in Ontario. In the public schools of his native county Robert Samuel Pyke pursued his education to the age of fifteen years, when he entered his father's store, there continuing for a few years. In 1881 he came to Winnipeg and joined a surveying party, going thence to Portage la Prairie. From that point they walked to the present site of the town of Brandon, and Mr. Pyke has the distinction of having staked the first tent ever pitched by a white man on that townsite. He also helped to make a survey of the town, at which place the party arrived on the 26th of May, 1881. After spending the summer in Manitoba he went to Colorado, where he remained for one season, working in the shoe business. In the spring of 1882 he returned to Ontario, going to Kingston, out of which city he traveled as a salesman for leather and findings. Mr. Pyke continued in that business until 1890, when he came to Vancouver and joined his brother, J. A. Pyke, in the ownership and conduct of a retail shoe business. That association was maintained for twelve years, at the end of which time R. S. Pyke withdrew and associated himself with the Vancouver Rubber Company, Ltd., which on the first of January, 1913, was reorganized under the name of the Gutta-percha & Rubber, Ltd. Since becoming connected with the Vancouver Rubber Company he has traveled throughout the province from the international boundary to the Alaskan line and from the Alberta border to the Pacific coast. He covers this entire province twice yearly, and few men have known this vast area better in its primitive state and throughout, its various stages of development and advancement than Mr. Pyke. He is popular with the many patrons whom he has won for the corporation which he represents and is everywhere regarded as an enterprising, alert and progressive business man a splendid representative of commercial interests. In Kingston, Ontario, on the 27th of January, 1886, Mr. Pyke was united in marriage to Miss Kate Perdaux, of Belleville, Ontario, and they have one son, J. Loren, now a law student in the office of Burns & Walkem. The parents are active and faithful members of the Wesley Methodist church, of which Mr. Pyke is one of the board of governors. He has always been a conservative, active in politics and municipal affairs. In Vancouver he was made chairman of Ward Conservative Association and has since filled the intermediate offices until he is now president of the Vancouver Conservative Association for 1913. He is now serving his fourth year as a member of the board of license commissioners, during the first two years as a government appointee and during the last two by election of the people. His public record is most commendable, indicating his devotion to the general welfare and his loyalty to all that works for the betterment of city and province. He is also widely known in fraternal circles. Since 1891 he has been a member of the Independent Order of Foresters and has ever taken an active part in the work of that society. He was first elected high chief ranger of the high court of British Columbia and was active in its formation. He represented this province at two supreme court conventions, one at Los Angeles, California, in 1898, and the other in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1902. He is a typical representative of his age and district. He carries forward to successful completion whatever he undertakes and as the years go by his labors have been effective forces for success not only in business lines but in behalf of municipal advancement and general improvement.

- franked with a 5 cents - 1941 - Scott (#257) - "CARIBOU - MONARCH OF THE WILDS" Newfoundland stamp...

 

Addressed to: MR. A. M. Gowan / Boundary Road / White Rock, B.C. / Canada

 

Alvin "Al" Muir Gowan

(b. 9 February 1925 Winnipeg, Manitoba – d. 4 April 2011 at age 86 in Delta, B.C.) - he was a founding member and Past Master of Tsawwassen Lodge, an honorary member of Ancient Light Lodge, a member of Gizeh Shrine, the TOOB and the Royal Canadian Legion. His parents were William "Bill" Gowan and Cora Ruth Gowan. He married Mary Georgina (nee Scott) Gowan in 1955. He was in the RCN in 1943 on the east coast of Canada.

 

- arrived at - / WHITE ROCK / FE 9 / 46 / B.C. / - cds arrival backstamp.

 

This envelope contained a cover letter from the Secretary of Posts Telegraphs plus a list of postage and postage due stamps available at the General Post Office, St John’s, Newfoundland.

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(#190) 1932

5c violet BROWN, Caribou, "Monarch of the Wilds", Die I,

Die I: Antlers are even or equal height

 

(#191) 1932

5c DEEP violet, Caribou, "Monarch of the Wilds", Die II,

20.5mm wide, perf 13.6 x 13.3, Comb. perf. 13½

Die II: Antler under "T" is higher than other antler. Grass above first '5' is thinner.

 

(#257) 1941

5c VIOLET, Caribou, "Monarch of the Wilds", Die I,

Die I: Antlers are even or equal height

Perf 12½

City of Vancouver, B. C. Airport Dedication Event: City of Vancouver, B. C. Airport Official Opening and Dedication Date: July 22nd 1931 Location: Vancouver British Columbia Cachet - Roessler envelope.

 

Clipped from - The Vancouver Sun newspaper - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - 11 May 1931 - MAY CHANGE DATE OF AIRPORT OPENING - The official opening of the Sea Island airport may possibly be postponed from July 1 to July 22 to coincide with the arrival of the trans-Canada air tour, following receipt of a telegram from City Solicitor J. B. Williams, read to the City Council today. The tour, which will comprise about 30 planes, including a squadron of the famous Royal Canadian Air Force Siskin Fighters, will put on an air pageant here June 22 and 25. It is suggested that the city contribute 30 per cent of the gate receipts towards the cost of bringing the tour to Vancouver, or a minimum of $1500; also pay for gasoline and oil for the planes and provide accommodation for pilots and mechanics. Plans are being made for a return air mall flight from Lethbridge to Vancouver for that date, the telegram added. It is estimated that at least 30,000 people will attend, including many tourists. The event will be advertised in the principal cities In the Pacific States by Vancouver Publicity Bureau. Many airplanes from the United States are expected to take part in the various events.

 

Clipped from - The Province newspaper - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - 15 July 1931 - Planes Which Stole' the Show at Cleveland Coming - R.C.A.F. Siskin Fighters Beat Col. Lindbergh's Famous Stunt Team at National Air Race - Will Give Dazzling Thirty-Minute Display of Aeronautics at Airport Opening Next Wednesday and Saturday. FIVE Royal Canadian Air Force single-seated fighters, which "stole the show" from Col. Charles Lindbergh and his famous "High Hats" at the National Air Races in Cleveland, will arrive In Vancouver with the trans-Canada Air Pageant on Tuesday. They will give displays of formation flying arid stunting on Wednesday and Saturday at the civic airport opening at Sea Island. The Cleveland newspapers admitted the Canadians' superiority and headlines declared "Royal Aces Burn Up Sky In Most Daring of Stunts" and "Canadians Outdo Lindbergh and High Hats." LINK to the complete newspaper article - www.newspapers.com/clip/103289653/rcaf-siskin-fighters-be...

 

Clipped from - The Province newspaper - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - 23 July 1931 - Siskins Thrill Crowd - LINK to the complete newspaper article - www.newspapers.com/clip/103290280/siskins-thrill-crowd/

 

LINK to a photo of the Vancouver Airport in 1929 - searcharchives.vancouver.ca/vancouver-airport-7

 

LINK to a photo of the opening of the Vancouver Airport in 1931 - searcharchives.vancouver.ca/uploads/r/null/7/7/778879/34c...

 

Vancouver (YVR) officially opened on July 22, 1931. At the time, the airport was nothing more than a small, wood-frame administration building and a single runway that could only hold 12 large planes or 30 small aircraft with their wings folded. According to the airport's website, YVR only served 1,072 passengers that year. LINK to the complete article - bc.ctvnews.ca/from-1-000-passengers-to-25m-vancouver-airp...

 

LINK to a video of the Vancouver (YVR) Airport Opening Ceremonies in 1931 - www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaGjWD9vxew

 

- sent from - / VANCOUVER / JUL 22 / 2 PM / 1931 / BRITISH COLUMBIA / - / ADVISE / CORRESPONDENCE / OF YOUR / CORRECT ADDRESS / - slogan cancel (Coutts A-75) - in use at Vancouver from 1931 to 1933.

 

Air Mail Service in Canada to the United States - July 1, 1931 - July 31, 1932: War Tax - A War Tax of 1 cent was added to the 1st ounce air mail letter weight on July 1, 1931 for a total of 6 cents. The rate for each additional ounce was 10 cents.

 

Tax. 2¢ - handstamp in greenish ink - 6 cents paying 5 cents United States air mail letter rate + 1 cent War Tax - 1 cent shortpaid + 1 cent penalty = 2 cents. LINK to airmail rates - postalhistorycorner.blogspot.com/2014/02/air-us.html

 

- with handstamp - / CITY OF VANCOUVER, B. C. AIRPORT / OFFICIAL OPENING AND DEDICATION / JULY 22ND 1931 / CANADA AIR MAIL / - cachet in green ink

 

Addressed to - L. E. Mendonsa / 7046 Amherst Ave. / University City / Missouri / U.S. America - / - "Via Airmail", Vancouver.

 

Lawrence "Larry" Ernest Mendonsa

(b. 11 April 1913 in Missouri, USA - d. 6 January 2001 at age 87 in Chesterfield, Missouri, USA)

 

Dr. Lawrence Mendonsa - Was obstetrician for 48 years - Dr. Lawrence E. Mendonsa, a retired physician, died of infirmities Saturday (Jan. 6, 2001) at his home in Chesterfield. He was 87. Dr. Mendonsa was an obstetrician-gynecologist for 48 years. He worked on the staff of five hospitals in the St Louis area, including St John's Mercy Medical Center in Creve Coeur. In 1946, he started a private practice in St Louis and later moved it to Florissant. He retired in 1985. Dr. Mendonsa received a medical degree from Washington University in 1937 and completed his internship at Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1939. He completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology in 1941 at Greenpoint Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y. In World War II, he served in the Army Medical Corps in the Panama Canal Zone, attaining the rank of major. Dr. Mendonsa received the Distinguished Physician Award from St John's Mercy Medical Center. He was a member of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists. He was a lifelong member of Hamilton Christian Church.

 

His wife - Dorothy Deane (nee Oates) Mendonsa

(b. 1914 - d. 19 September 2012 in Missouri, USA) - they were married - 19 August 1940 in St. Louis, Missouri - they had two children - she was a registered nurse. LINK to her obituary - www.newspapers.com/clip/103308622/obituary-for-dorothy-de...

VM50