211_Arnett_Capitaine-Bion.mp3

otter.ai

30.03.2023

no

Unknown Speaker 0:00
Oh interesting

Unknown Speaker 0:09
yeah and she can clip that on where we want to

Unknown Speaker 0:19
go all right I'm here

Unknown Speaker 0:59
we're gonna hold on a second

Unknown Speaker 1:13
yeah think Charles

Unknown Speaker 1:31
well that are placed on pretty low there for a while seem to be

Unknown Speaker 1:47
going well they don't have the price right that's why

Unknown Speaker 2:05
they may be famous right? Oh boy

Unknown Speaker 2:30
I know you and Charles had a few battles there I stayed out of it

Unknown Speaker 2:53
you get a talk here with no Oh

Unknown Speaker 2:59
all right. That's great. That was way better actually. Yeah, totally done it's up at the bar especially most people. Yeah. Well that's what's so fun about that. I mean so many people are rediscovering that through your book. Yeah, my father in law he was he's probably been down there sort of in the Chinese history will show up. Birkin. Yeah. Let's just saw the people like this

Unknown Speaker 3:28
wave so cool. So you did a good job on that video.

Unknown Speaker 3:37
Part Two restore the buildings and plants

Unknown Speaker 3:48
Oh yeah. So that's all done now. So I guess that goes into March. Have you read it or read it? Yeah, so what did he think about it Yeah, they're pretty good faith. All except the main house kind of foundation

Unknown Speaker 4:13
actually a bit of concrete Yeah. Unusual. Wow. Yeah, but the little barn shape the offices we put in there yeah, we put in

Unknown Speaker 4:34
I could see them restoring that place to be like when he was little old with like a little town for me. It was like a little company. Really was Yeah, kind of boardwalk and marker. I hope they do some like that. Yeah, well, we got people dressed up walking around.

Unknown Speaker 4:54
We got enough pictures and locations. You A lot of market

Unknown Speaker 5:05
oh yeah I think there's only one original building the church buildings yeah I don't even

Unknown Speaker 5:19
think just you know keep up the existing buildings and the ruins and the I love the ruin a little bunkhouse it's the foundations here and once you realize how big that building was and

Unknown Speaker 5:35
unfortunately I got it out of any idea

Unknown Speaker 5:44
yeah

Unknown Speaker 5:45
it was really Kochi and everything inside

Unknown Speaker 5:48
yeah

Unknown Speaker 5:50
we should have just bulldoze it really had just like

Unknown Speaker 6:09
we had a good wind

Unknown Speaker 6:18
built out with a local guy

Unknown Speaker 6:26
last time the old family they had Samuel better to build a house to their house their farmhouse still standing the guy looked at talking to his locket says one of the best build homes he's ever seen

Unknown Speaker 6:53
all the other buildings

Unknown Speaker 7:01
so you get the

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gist just surviving but you know what the mill ended up playing he missed the move everything somewhere after

Unknown Speaker 7:16
yeah

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sort of curious somebody must have gone down or recycled or barge some out red cross border

Unknown Speaker 7:39
sort of a lot of old logging equipment and stuff almost disappeared Yeah, I've seen dogs at least three times in the bush and then during the strap drive in the war the

Unknown Speaker 7:50
tractors and everything

Unknown Speaker 7:59
they clean out everything

Unknown Speaker 8:05
doing research on

Unknown Speaker 8:11
second edition

Unknown Speaker 8:29
people realizing things or grandparents or parents work their way because this is where my father in law he hasn't been down they'll stand down anyway

Unknown Speaker 9:01
an excellent book series because you know there were some times where it went there

Unknown Speaker 9:09
were Chinese like one of the places I got totally Chinese first was Japanese

Unknown Speaker 9:21
yeah yeah, that's interesting.

Unknown Speaker 9:26
And when you look at some of the other books, they were actually living in separate area to see Japanese Japanese Japanese Chinese bunkhouse Indian huts or something and then and then cook house Funkhaus white guy

Unknown Speaker 9:50
Yeah. Sweet Norwegian was by choice I think I don't think that's really you know, I don't think different stuff They just want us to their own way

Unknown Speaker 10:15
every Saturday or Wednesday every

Unknown Speaker 10:28
Saturday I wouldn't be here

Unknown Speaker 10:38
this I ended up here yard encoded

Unknown Speaker 10:52
I'm gonna I'm gonna do something

Unknown Speaker 10:57
formula meal meal yes this is a guy called Get together

Unknown Speaker 11:08
I was down to your place on a Sunday three weeks ago I guess nobody around Okay

Unknown Speaker 11:19
second we're yes we're really well two separate friends yeah you are you guys talking about yeah I was going well you know

Unknown Speaker 11:43
I didn't know

Unknown Speaker 11:53
some of the organizers before you write your book about

Unknown Speaker 12:05
barber secretaries or read the minutes of the last day

Unknown Speaker 12:13
President doesn't have those calls in order to welcome members and guests ask people to make sure that they have signed in minutes of AGM held May 11 2005. Were read. minutes were then adopted as amended. Most technic Carrie Emily Hepburn Susan's no correspondence, residence reports before filing pressure support and by John Dickinson most second is Carrie Conrad and universe.

Unknown Speaker 12:48
92 members at meeting today to get our cost report. Report. Professional talk directly doesn't have her neighbor report on status of library to date and talked about the inclusion of the archives in respect

Unknown Speaker 13:13
to coordinating repression across the society, Richard has offered to take over from her. Thank you from all of us for counting counting, most second carry Dorothy Kyle is that letter expressing our condolences on our carry. nominating committee ranking member can work within state offices and this year. VP, Treasurer Beth Hepburn Secretary Farber Duma directors at large Jen Jiang, Susan good revertas Dr. Frank Newman, John Dickinson, Dorothy Kyle, already let this information. Special thanks to Tony for Tom right. Another reason why you need to work on adjourn and the to 25 guests introduce special speakers to shut down talking about Ireland schools. We should give a marvelous background of the old honors school and the seven school districts. presentation was enthusiastic and well researched. It was a pair that she loves during the presentation, and hopefully will come again and tell us more about the previous teachers and all of the anecdotes that she alluded to wonderful display and all done by hand. Thank you so much. Session is presented Boucher with a signed copy of the new Walking Tour booklet has A

Unknown Speaker 15:05
very good year for can we remember Are there any errors or omissions

Unknown Speaker 15:16
all the favor. Thanks know, our financial statement and outspoken or treasurer presented that statement now

Unknown Speaker 15:33
there were a few copies of the back to pick up after interested in the accounts we keep track of the archive as a separate item and brochure any other grants we have on society and stuff. And the different on the bulletin board over there has all the details on total archives assets at the moment are $1,247. The brochure number one the Ganges tour showing a profit of $63. And the society itself has 41 years five in the total is 12,500. And it's interesting to note that at least 5000 that is spent by the archives

Unknown Speaker 16:33
can be 716 160 a year. And that's out of the cash flow of income of 6688. And expenses of 5152. Very stable we have lots of money to work with and just about the same as last year. So I moved the report we accepted a seconder. Please. All favor. Thank you questions on of course we'll be here obviously yes. I'm also the membership fee, we mean the same next year and the person segment in order to enter in all.

Unknown Speaker 17:36
Membership report, Susan is not here today. I will be given member signs.

Unknown Speaker 17:51
Five hamburgers and about the 835

Unknown Speaker 17:52
members of eight. Yes, thank you very much. Sorry for that. That's what we need. The membership report. We have I think it's 72 members for this year. Haven't had an update on that I think

Unknown Speaker 18:13
archives report very pleased with this has been a very busy year.

Unknown Speaker 18:31
We started off completing our requirements for the latest memory problem threat results of which you can view on our website. HTTP colon slash slash software architects.com has left us with a number of photos to digitize. We applied for unhampered seat for that we have been successful in obtaining a grant from the urban K Barbara digitization program. And a new member of our office will be working on that project as soon as funding is available. In other words, we haven't received the money yet we just know that negotiations have been underway to obtain a vacant room in one of the schools. But they have it was slow and not very satisfactory. Apparently the only room available is one of the middle school many homes right. It seems rather strange that a more satisfactory room would be available for us, given the declining enrollment that we hear so much about. We apply for assistance in hiring a student for summer employment through the federal government programs that were not successful in obtaining that the archives now has institutional membership in our parent body, the archives Association of British Columbia. As a member of ABC the archives is required to be open for seven formal hours. Please. Therefore we have volunteers are controlled comm for Monday afternoons from 1pm to 5pm. Except when the library's closed such as holiday Monday, Thursday mornings will continue as usual, with basement door access from 8:30am and library access from 10am and 1130. If somebody wants to come in early, they should follow and make an appointment so that we know that they are come see us when they knocked at the basement door. major acquisitions and digitization that have been accomplished this past year includes beyond the counter reforms gathered in the process. Store Chris are now assisting and we have been in touch with the Boer War Museum is on the wall as some of major Dion's collection describes to Steve sorry, strategic events in World War One, which will go to that facility when we have a properly sorted and prepared transcript. Kathleen rathwell collection was synchronized and even the processing within the five Nancy very close by a folder or her own chemical collection to digitize that email identification is ongoing from an incentive in Ontario. Kushner called Holman family photos and documents digitized in preparation for Charles Spencer, this time because that culminated in an exciting book launch at Pycon called April 15, which included a tour of the house museum of browns Chris tap. Staff member Lucia rock is working on another book on the anniversary of harbor. Charles time produced a book for the mouth and for the moment anniversary supplement gene award materials from the archives and the archives been much material for me Moeller Charles is now working on the history of the hospital with similar contributing much knowledge and material which she has also go to the archives on Saturday, May 26, that art historical society and archives will be hosting a bookmark for New South Wales latest endeavor, and it has been girl's face. Booth is coming from Ontario for this event, and will be on hand all the practical for you from 1pm to 3pm. Refreshments will be served. Some of you may remember Ruth when she looked on salts paper, she interviewed about 30 farmers for audio tapes and puts the whole audio tape collection where the order with an index and commentary. The Archives benefits greatly from the work of our local authors writing about this item and its test scores. As most of you are aware of our archive staff members have been very close within the last few months. I am sure that you join with me in expressing our sincere sympathies and condolences to mark them on.

Unknown Speaker 23:35
So as you can see, the archives is a very busy place and continues to produce materials for the preservation of the history of Salisbury Island. And if you are in the neighborhood or you wish to visit their website, they're located in the basement, the library but they also have a website which had been Google, David Saltspring archives.com. And they have all the family collection or most of the family collections on there. And it's quite interesting to look through that. I'd like to thank the Dorothy Kyle and Barbara environment who are going to provide goodies for us at the end of the meeting. And also like to thank Don and recorder for taking on the coffee duties for this year. And Nona has agreed that she will do it again next year. So that's good.

Unknown Speaker 24:24
Election of officers we have a full slate as of all of our executive has indicated they're prepared to come back with the exception of Gen j. So we will put the slide up behind me names Oh by surprise, the names we do have one member not running again. Who is leaving obviously not up there. That's Gen J who served for one year. You heard in the minutes that John Dickinson had presented the treasure before dinner last Is Daniel genuine Union as a member of our certified executive? Unfortunately, he had he has passed away in the interim. And so we wish John's family Well, we already mentioned the gentleman, but he was one of our setup group and worked very hard to help us set up each meeting and we really miss Jack. We have lots of jobs available for people who do not want to serve on the executive. But who would like to help out might set up the meetings or help us with various activities as we go through the year. I would like to give a special thanks to Frank Newman for all of us electronic wizardry and

Unknown Speaker 25:43
most programs and work is evident. So the slate is on the board. Check to make sure. A couple of overlap positions. Duncan this year served as treasurer and vice president. So we had to, we had to we have room for one more person on the executive. We do that again next year. is are there any nominations from before to serve on the executive for next year? I have to ask the three times to keep your hands still no, I see some of you are interested. Are there any further nominations for serving on the executive for the following year, under our Constitution, we all have to resign each year and get me elected. So any further nominations and I would move that the slate on your wall, be our executive for the coming year gratulations.

Unknown Speaker 26:48
Another bit of new business today, GE a very exciting part of our new business. This meeting we're able to name Honorary Life members life members of our association and reflect on people who have given great service to historical society over the years who have maintained an interest in history and avid interest in history. And today we have two two of these to give out. The first one is going to go to a man who has worked with the Historical Society for well over 20 years, former president of the Society. He's worked on the historical plaque program and maintained and continued to work on that program. Right up until today. He helped develop the booklet the walking tour of Ganges he has an avid interest in sultry in history. And he's presented many times through our association over the years. He has a personal interest in HMS Ganges continues to study that has a great deal of information on the Ganges the ship that supposedly sailed in the Ganges harbour one time, he's coordinating materials and articles on this ship. And it also was instrumental in bringing some speakers into this region to speak on that. He's also been a hard worker tirelessly setting up the programs, setting up the meetings, moving the chairs, building the podiums doing all these things. He's a geologist to the study, sultry Island, and he knows it very well. I these two as Tom Wright become our first honorary member for this year.

Unknown Speaker 28:44
We really appreciate your work on this. Exciting thank you so much.

Unknown Speaker 28:58
Our second year we have some perfumers, we end up with two posts one gentleman who has research much of the agricultural history of the Saltspring Island. were closely involved in developing the history of his book, in the treasurer or past treasurer of our association, made presentations that our association worked tirelessly to preserve history and has a natural interest in history. And he has been well recognized and nominated by the members to receive this award is more of a portrait of

Unknown Speaker 29:40
the historical group

Unknown Speaker 29:55
church here Oh, great. Thank you. Well, that's good news. So I learned we chose the right person.

Unknown Speaker 30:03
Thanks for the talk. I really appreciate the work you've done over the past just getting their roots Sandwell. Buffon was mentioned as the 26th grade Burgoyne may there'll be a DVD programs and step by 73 different tapes and this is the final absolute date you're getting this is when it's June the third 7pm overhaul. Okay, it's the DVD of the history of the Virgin Valley Valley up through to the Fulford Valley and pictures individual people, it's all electronic presentation. It will be a nice program and a lot of it does actually come from some of our programs. The producers at the back Peter Prince, he's doing this and Frank Newman's got his hand in that too so if you're doing corporate haul come down and you won't be disappointed or may not be providing this our net 30 out there hurry it so we have the three, three theater friends Chris and Frank nuvet. So

Unknown Speaker 31:20
if you can't if you can't make it down the hall that evening. It's going to show on the Knowledge Network at 2pm The following

Unknown Speaker 31:32
June 3, seven o'clock overhaul, I guess it would be getting on the knowledge and you can pay for it and don't have to buy it

Unknown Speaker 31:48
Okay, thank you very much any new business

Unknown Speaker 31:56
but just to remind people that the about the book launch? Yes. Route Sandrock contesting rural space it's going to be Saturday May 26. One to 3pm at that spring

Unknown Speaker 32:11
there are written invitations and the best way to do that has all the details you'll need for coming to that we're looking forward to that I know Mary's done a lot of work and that will be a great afternoon okay know your business or somebody will be German me. Okay, now we're going to get ready for just a minute to Travis the transformation from me to Chris?

Unknown Speaker 33:01
On I turned it off because it gave feedback because I speak Arabic so it'd be fine. Okay, are we ready?

Unknown Speaker 33:18
Okay, I would like to introduce you Chris Arnett, who's a local historian he worked in basically in first nations history on the Gulf Islands and salt spray. He's made numerous presentations to us before he's an avid historian.

Unknown Speaker 33:47
Know that art historian has worked on Salisbury Island. And he's developed a great interest in first nations history, defended the history of the islands and he's made numerous presentations to our society. His interests are wide varied. And today he's coming forward with a presentation on I think, although in fact, salt is is the is one of her. Very interesting, I'm out of here. Thank you

Unknown Speaker 34:30
so is this on? Do I really need this thing? Okay. Okay. I think I'm all done here. Okay. Well, thank you all so much for coming out. And such a lovely afternoon. Keep it the lights here. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, we're going to talk a bit about the enormous mountains Ariel that we now have in the Saltspring Island archives, and elsewhere, is derived from the state of Capitan Paul beyond who arrived in Salisbury 1910, and with his wife and his brother in law and sister in law and their three children. Before I talk about absolute and also this isn't going to be sort of a comprehensive discussion because we literally have so much material we're just starting to go through we have thought over 1000 photographs, Capitan beyond was the lifelong photographer, it seems. And he's also an avid letter writer, we have literally hundreds of letters that he wrote, from his, from the time he was in France during World War One back to home to Saltspring island about four or five years of correspondence with his wife and her reply letters, and he kept all this stuff. So he collected in or he kept a lot of archival material relating to his life and his service in the French army during World War One. So how did we come across this material? This is Seymour Schatz, Lu, who is who is his niece, some of you may have known. I never met her unfortunately, I think she died, but 2003, I think, and lived on Saltspring since 1910, at the north end of the island north at the end of Ephraim road. It was mostly through her efforts and a good friend of hers, Jan Jiang that a lot of this material was preserved. Seymour champloo, was given a lifelong occupancy on the Vilna farm. And up in the attic of this marvelous farmhouse that we'll see pictures of in a bit, were trucks and boxes of stuff. And one day, Jan Jiang was up there with Simone and just started asking about it. And, and, you know, so this is stuff from my Uncle Paul, and they started to go through it, and there's just tons of materials. So, Jan, and Simone sorted through a lot of it. And this was the initial sort of sorting of this immense amount of material. And some of it has been preserved in the Saltspring archives. And another important part of the collection went to the, to a private military police Museum in Victoria. Maybe you remember the name of the place? Ask them museum thanks. And so we have been in contact with them. And we're gonna work together to kind of, you know, keep examining this material and developing it further. And this is, like I said, an enormous amount of stuff. So, the reef amount of time you have here, we're going to just sort of go through some of the photographic images that have been transferred to digital format from Frank and a lot of these came from very, some, in some cases, poorly preserved glass negatives that were broken. And you know, you had to kind of really delicately handle them to get a proper images. But anyway, SEMA will be seeing pictures of her later on, when she was much younger. This is hold the hall and his wife, Mary shaloo. And they were married, I think around at 99. He was born in multivariate set up, which is in Central, some somewhere in central France, I've only been to the coast of France. So I don't know much about the interior. But he was a French Huguenot ancestry. So he's the Protestant faith. And he was born in 1874. And grew up in sort of a well to do middle class family and route 18. During the fence Army in 1895, Dr. He'd be a young man about 20 and served for a number of years about three or four years, or up to 1901. And where he reached the rank of a second left tenant, and then he just entered the Army Reserve. We see the next one Frank. So after he left the army 1901, he studied to be an electrical engineer, and eventually got a position with the A Saigon electric company and he became one of the directors of these electrical plants in Saigon, so he moved to Saigon with his wife in 1906. And here this is probably taken in Saigon and that summit, or Madame beyond in a carriage, and here they are in their deeds, and Saigon. At some, Paul Dion and his wife, you know, just sort of relaxing around waiting for some servants to shoppers. But you can see they were quite a sort of an affluent upper middle class family. This is a photograph of the shots lives. This Francois Shan flew with the brother of Mary veal. And this was his wife, Paula Mara. And here are their two twin daughters were born in 1907. Mon and Colette Thank you. And I guess we're going to click there. So, so you're Paul VLANs, in Saigon, and he was there till about 1910. And then for some reason, they decided to purchase 160 acres on a prawn road and move to Saltspring island. They had returned to France, where these people live in Paris and they are in Paris. And then this family and the Beyonds decided to purchase this land together and take a life of farming Saltspring Island and by this time these people were Paul Beol was in his 40s. So he was kind of I guess, ready for retirement?

Unknown Speaker 41:10
I think that his wife was sick with TB and then wanting to get away from

Unknown Speaker 41:14
the city. Oh, yeah, I was gonna mention that. But was that the only reason you think that was one of them? Yeah, that's I was gonna get to that if she was ill with TB, and they thought that the climate here would be much improved her health. Yes, this lady here, and her name was Palmyra. Um, yeah. And so they all decided to move to Salzburg, because the next one frame two. And this was the farm, I think this may have been taken around 1910. And, unfortunately, Palmer died within I think a year of moving here. And her husband, of course, was heartbroken and left the farm. And she died on the farm. And he left and left the care of his twin daughters. And his son, John, with the beyond. This is this is that prime farmer. People from that area recognize any of this. See? Anyway, like I said, we have we have hundreds of slides or hundreds of images that we're still working out. Here's the farm house. Under Construction, they lived in a small crowd and for a while this house was built and it was built by Samuel Bennett's and, and one of the characteristics of his house construction is this sort of apron here, this sloping lower portion. The current owner of the property I'm glad to see here Steve Pearson is in is in the process of restoring his house and he gave me a tour of it. And this place is built like a rock. I mean it's amazing. The solid construction on this house, they Cross Timbers on the floors and double sided or when you call a double double shiplap and it's an amazing house in a really well built here's just another view showing you some of the quality of the quality of some of these slides like this you can see the there's been a tear in the solution that's on the glass plate. But fortunately we're able to digitize it and preserve it this just shows the scaffolding house in the process of being built. Here is the chicken coop Okay, these guys they were really into poultry. Paul the owner was and we know from his later correspondence and he was really into the father rail breed of chicken rooster which is very popular in France you know grows really quick it's like a gourmet delight and he originally called the farm fab Morel and later changed it to dogwood I guess on account of the numerous dogwood trees there today we can see that okay. This is Matt Emil and their son Yeah, who was born in 1914. So 1914 So the they were settling into their life on Saltspring Island and I think it was probably like a paradise to them, you know, the chance to become a gentleman sort of farmer something that might not be offered, you know be available in France I don't know this might have been taken later but you know, it was a primary focus on poultry but they they grew all sorts of very much a mixed farm operation. Next slide side, more shots of the farm at the end of the road. Okay, so now 1814 rolls along. And in August, the war breaks out on August 1, after a lot of build up and up until the details of it. But this notice appeared in local paper, I don't know call on us something calling on the French or French reservists living in Vancouver suburbs, so report immediately. And so he was mobilized and asked to rejoin his unit in France, which he did and Lucia was kind enough to, or she came across an interesting notice in the couch and leader of August 2019 14. There was a little item said Miss Chu, or Mr. Beyond a North Saltspring, a French reservist has been called to the colors and left amidst much demonstration last Monday, it was believed to have proceeded directly to his regiment in France. And he did he wasn't trapped within you know, very shortly. I believe he arrived there in October 19 4014. And he was given command of a company in the 329 regimen to the line. And judging from some of the records we have this company was, you know, not not a very good company, a very poorly disciplined as one a very poor quality and lacking and military ways. But his quote, zeal and devotion to duty, along with his loyalty to the man under his command transformed the company into one of the best in the regiment. And here he is in his captain's uniform. Actually, he was a left tenant, and then he was promoted to captain in the field, we see an excellent. Now this is a really interesting picture. And this is one of many photos in the collection showing troops from the air. And this I mean, I'm not sure but I have a feeling it is probably the 329th regiment, it looks about a regimental strengths. You know, these would be about companies here on the march. And one of those companies would have been captain and beyond unit. It's quite amazing, the detail of these aerial photographs. And we're still not sure if how many, like there's a large collection of these World War One aerial photographs in the in the archives, and we're still just sorting it out, you know, we're figuring out what is what is being represented. And yeah, it's an ongoing project. But really quite amazing. And we're not sure how many of these photos he took he was there are papers in the military papers saying that he was given permission authorized, there's authorization for him giving him permission to photograph in certain sectors. So I'm not sure I'm just speculating, but I think he was actually taken up in planes and you know, did a lot of these photographs himself. This is the aerial photographs in the trenches of which we have probably a few 100 are quite amazing to me and we're in the process of identifying actually where these places are. This we just show it shows a detail of a section of trench showing this would be the main trench here. This would be the front line facing this way and these are kind of bunkers. And this is a you know, these are pretty common communication trenches, zigzag trenches going between the various lines and you can see of course all the shell holes you know from constant bombardment anybody who's read about World War One knows it was just a hellfire. Here he is, I think that's him. I'm not sure that photograph in the field probably early in the in the in the in the in the war, the first year of fighting was particularly bloody and atrocious because we were adapting to the you know, the new technology of the day. A lot of the generals you know, had they had their experience in 1870 Franco Prussian war so a lot of the the opening battles are fought with Napoleonic tactics but in face of machine guns and other deadly weapons you know, they quickly had to adapt and and what they did was just you know, dig in basically and you know, keep out of the fire. Here's some troops probably from a 320 knights regiment Yeah, this is the end of 2019 See 320 nights on his hotel. So that's cool. These are these men are dads are just exhausted and waiting in the in the trench. You see several men here just sleeping. And this store this may be historic kept going beyond Central Offices continue to carry the swords into battle. This time. There's a picture of him shaving and here is Teddy up orderly to help him This was taken in September 1915. He his regimen was involved in very heavy fighting. See about the world war one war started it by by September, the Germans were practically on the doorstep of on the front steps of Paris. And it was only by intense counter attacks that they were driven back. And this is about the time that capital and beyond arrived in France during this counter attack. And his regiment was serving just south of where Vinnie ridges in the lands sort of area and involved in some heavy fighting. And he was involved in a heavy action in September 15, or may 15, at a place called the labyrinth. And it was called the labyrinth because it was an underground German fortresses built at tunnels. And it was just a hell of a fight where people were literally fighting 50 feet underground in some places, using flashlights and kerosene lamps and just you know, and this is where he was wounded in the hand. So we noticed is taken after that action. And he has an orderly taking care of him here.

Unknown Speaker 51:09
This is a citation that he received. And I'm not sure this is a quite a gear. And I have a feeling that everyone in the regiment would get aquatic air, you know, if you've served in a particularly ferocious action, and this was quite a gear was awarded for the actions at very obok, the labyrinth and Temur, where he was also wounded. And he was wounded at the labyrinth in May. And then a few months later, he was in this action on September in September of 1916. And he was wounded in the leg. And yeah, so involved in a lot of heavy fighting. And here's just some more of these aerial trenches, you can see here a lot of information about altitude and in region. So it's possible to Frank and I once then sat down with Google Earth, and located one of these places on the map. And it's amazing to compare these images with the fields today, you can see some remnants of the it's funny like if you look at some of these, you can see the old farmer's field literally buried under all this gunk, all these tracks and bomb craters and trenches. And if you look at them today, the fields have come back, you know, and, and now the trenches that have faded back into the ground. This is Paul beyond in in, probably in his bunker. And this gets to another really fascinating part of this material. In addition to all the the wonderful photographs that we have, that he took, and others took, we have an amazing correspondence, you see that little sort of left, package up there, he wrote to his wife about every few days, and to wrote to her on Saltspring Island. And then she and she replied, and he kept all of these letters. And we have them all and this is to me is just an incredible archive of material Dating from about his rival in France from 1915. Up until about 1980. And even later when he was fine, he was a he was he was eventually decommissioned around 1923. But he and all during this time when he was away, he kept up this incredible correspondence. And I've only studied one of the letters and it's they get into a lot of detail you know about these experiences. So what we want to do is to, you know, collate just wonderful written material with the photographic history we have this is the only one I've read this was written in August 1915. And he's talking about his recovery, I think from his one of his wounds and his return to this unit. If anybody wants to get into translate, in contact, and so we're working through it, I showed this letter to a French speaking friend of mine, eight o'clock lady and she found it written, she found his handwriting really difficult, and found that he wrote it in a very sort of a formal kind of, she described the style like my grandparents would talk. So certainly a way of speaking. I'm you know, I'm not too fluent. So it'll be a bit of a challenge to get through it. But this is some of some of the letters had not been open since 1918. These are packages of letters that he was letter to recon day like these are letters that he had already responded to. So this guy was amazing. He not only wrote to his wife, but he wrote to his father who was alive and grew up to his brothers who are also in the military. But also to people to fellow military men from Saltspring island. There was a gentleman who who went over there and they kept the the correspondents while they were serving in Europe, but he was in a British unit. And and you know Paul beome is in a French unit and so they never met up with each other but they kept This correspondents going. And, of course her. Meanwhile, back on the farm, this is his son, you know, he had to leave shortly after his son was born in his sons, of course growing up. And here's a field of corn at the federal rail farm. And here are the kids. The two girls does anything like Yes. So what they might be here is that older 10 ish. So this picture could have been taken while they were while he was still in France. And these are the shots lose the two. This is a pullout Simone and John. Johnny is the next one. This photo this is my anatomy over here. But I have a feeling this was taken up at the at the bond house because they were friends with the bonds. It just seems to be the setting of the bond house. Anybody have any feeling about that? Or? I mean, it's not a very good photo as far as a setting but I don't think that's their farm.

Unknown Speaker 56:08
I think it's more likely the house was more likely by Sally. Okay. Down marble and dry.

Unknown Speaker 56:19
Oh, I see. So that would be the view. Yeah. Okay, great. So, but anyway, it's really interesting to look at these letters, Amina my cursory knowledge of French, French, you know, he's, he's talking about his experience with the warden. And she's writing back telling him all about what's going on in the farm. Because he wanted to keep always informed. Here's another photograph of him in the field. And I'm not sure what are they making mattresses here, anybody have an idea? What's going on some foraging expedition. This is an interesting sequence of photographs, documenting the crash of the German biplane that hit the dirt after so he served in the infantry and these actions in northern France. And then in 1916, just prior to the Battle of the Somme, and the Battle of Verdun. He was appointed, you know, he, his his service came to the notice of his superiors, he was appointed to the headquarters are the First Army Corps and putting command at the second bureau. And this is sort of the military intelligence operation. And for his he, for his service in the Battle of Verdun, which was one of the greatest war, there were two huge battles in 1916. It was the song in sort of central France. And then Berg, the German offensive and Verdun, between, which took place between February and December 1916. And these were huge battles. So basically, we're going to quit there, threw back the German fence, as well as sort of a stalemate in the West. But in the east, the German, you know, they launched 2 million men at Verdun and he became famous, one of the most famous French victories. And just as and this is for his service in the fighting of your dad, he was awarded the French Legion of Honor. And I've been in contact with the Museum of Legion of Honor in France, and they have records of you know why he was awarded this, and we're gonna get a hold of that. But this is him getting the award. And we go back to the other picture. I think the first time we had to I show you this with a metal Oh, well, there was a photo of him earlier on wearing the Medal of Honor. So he so he was still involved, you know, he, his superiors though many accolades about his balance, enterprise loyalty and devotion to duty. And it was especially noteworthy because he was a reserve officer, and he was not a regular officer in the army. And I'm sort of a an amateur historian of military history, and often find that some of the most, the best soldiers are the ones that, you know, aren't sort of, you know, career soldiers, they just brought, you know, he went to Saltspring, to become a farmer, and then was caught out in this world event. And, you know, you know, went and served just, you know, incredible, you know, he's an incredible, made incredible contribution to the war effort. And I learned so much just learning about his, his role in the war, because, you know, my grandfather served in the First World War he enlisted in 158th battalion of the Dukes of connotes own rifles in Vancouver. And, you know, growing up I heard about the war I always, you know, embrace coming. I always have a skewed version of World War One we think, you know, wasn't for the British Expeditionary Force in the Canadian expeditionary Of course, the word would have been sent a loss. But when you look at the role of the French army, the role we played in that word is really dwarfed. I mean, it was really, the French are they suffered the most casualties of any nation, you know, per capita and really bore the brunt of the fighting. For example, on the Western Front, they might be set, you know, in the initial Dallas, there were seven British divisions, and about 50, or more French division. Anyway, here he is, proudly wearing his Legion of Honor and aquatic gear. So So, and because of the he spoke, it also during the sun's 1960s, and the Americans were starting to get a little, you know, they were about to enter the war. And so, because of his abilities with the English language, you know, he and his and his service, he was appointed to a French military obligation that was or that was sent to United States. I guess we could see those next two. And so he arrived in the US, Nike, Nike 17. And then between 1970 and 1919, he traveled all over the United States, and in different, you know, stationed at different camps. And he was basically instructing the US Army on the realities of trench warfare. And this is where a lot of his experience as an infantry man and later as a, as an intelligence officer came to be invaluable in helping the Americans get up to speed for the re entry into the war, which was, you know, very key to the successful conclusion of the war. See the next one. This is an example of one of the maps he would have used in his instructions. And this is a an overview of the the Battle of the Somme. And the the Battle of the Somme was sort of two sections, there was the British followed in sort of the West. And this was detailing the French operations on around the town of palm Lake, which was just the, you know, heavily heavily fortified German. Fork fortress. And here, you can see those colored waves and you see the red lines with the dates, these are showing the progress of the troop movement right here. They were here in the 30s, you know, September 13, they were here, up here at seven at, you know, within four days, they moved to here. And then of course, on this way, this was just to give the Americans an idea of, you know, what was involved and in association with these detailed military math for detailed aerial photographs were also used to show Americans what what the realities of trench warfare were like. And here, we can kind of see this thing laser. Okay, you can see some of the trenches here, some of the German trenches, you know, they all named like, this is Berlin, trench, and, you know, they named after all kinds of different things. These are names given to these trenches by the French, you know, they flew over these things with aerial with planes, and so they photographed them and they made these maps, these maps are based on aerial photographs. But you can see these trenches as they were taken, like, here's a German trench that was blue, and is now colored. It was taken by the French, you know, what, on the 25th of September 20, eighths, and so on by first of October, they're up here, let's still have a long way to go. I mean, this is the reality of war on the Western Front, it was just moving in slow increments. And then you know, you've run into a stalemate because there were, there were lines, lines of trenches. It wasn't just sort of one line that were, you know, many, many, many. Yeah, instructional map. And he also has a lot of notes. And what there was even a criticism of him by someone who said he tried to teach too much. Sort of like last Saturday now. It's just one of those overlays. Yeah, the this is really cool. We have a whole series. I think it's about 80 images, and they're overlay maps. So this is what he used to teach the Americans so here we have this is the German trench here and the opposing French trench and look how close they are. I mean, this is pretty darn close. You might even be able to throw like a football from there. I'm not sure. And this is just teaching out. I don't agree a shelter. Does anybody know what that is? Boil?

Unknown Speaker 1:04:25
Pipes, really?

Unknown Speaker 1:04:27
Pipes. Okay. Numerous concrete bump, or I guess these are, this map is particular, each map was designed to sort of teach something different. I guess this is about numerous shelters all on German line, shelters. This M these are Mitrailleuse. These are machine gun nests. They were all identified and of course, you know, using a stereoscopic glasses or magnifying glass to zoom in and really get a good idea about what a machine gun nests looked like. or hidden shelters and so on. Okay, yeah, that's small enough for us. So we have about 80 of these showing everything from battery, you know, hidden masks, battery positions, anything that an army would need to know about transformer fare is included in these wonderful maps. This was also this was taken in the US. And this is interesting because it shows a variety of nationalities here a branch here, French officers and Americans looks like somewhere in somewhere in meeting California. I know he's in camp Fremont, but many different places. And we can trace his travels throughout the United States by his correspondence because he wrote his wife, you know, dutifully every few days, and kept all his correspondence. So here is a little later in California, probably nearing the end of the war he was. After the armistice in 1918, he returned to France and was demobilized on the 31st of January 1919. So, and finally discharged on 18th of April 1923, in which time he's made an honorary officer. Then he returned to life on Saltspring Island. Yeah, we're not sure where this is taken. But this is probably the sun here. So maybe about the time it was returned at the Fernwood dock, of course, which was, you know, just a short ride down from their farm on f1 Road. And, you know, the nice vehicles there. Wilson, you folks. See the next one? The girls, they may recognize me for that vehicle. Now, here's a photograph of the farmhouse and now Seimone, around late teens 1980s, he was stricken with polio. Sorry. Okay. Thank you. And so here they are the endzone and in front of your house. Okay, next. So the return to life of farming now. I'm curious what this gentleman is this. Colonel Wilkinson? Does anyone know who this guy is? Recognize him? Because when you returned to solid screen, of course, he kept up friendships with a lot of military man and there was a colonel Wilkinson, who he was good friends with. He was a general. Okay, thanks. Green, little green. Is this him? Okay, well, that's good, we could find out. Here he is. Long away from the military operations in France, you know, French country farmer, his hand is a real weapon. i This is probably his first grandson. I'm just guessing. So this would be I guess, in the 30s. And he died in 1938, he suffered a stroke. And then he was in capacity for quite a while and there's a lot of very touching letters written by Madame beome to various authorities interest and cat and the Canadian government asking for help, you know, because he was very independent man. And, you know, I don't think had a pension or anything, he just, you know, relied on his own means and but when he was stricken with it, when he was had the stroke, he was you know, right out of it. And of course, Madame beyond found it very difficult to run the farm. This is the farm today. And we've just showed you that will dissolve and you're gonna be happy as far as being is in good hands and it's helping very carefully restored and renovated. The original set the original quarter section 164 has been subdivided, and there's still portions for sale if you want to buy historic property. These are interesting. The current owner has found this sort of stuff stuffed away under in various places. They're interesting to me because when I was a teenager, I was really into digging up handle bottles and things. These are handblown bottles with the labels on it. You never find stuff like this. So it's pretty rare but here's his brand. Whitehorse seller and another one. Now, there's renovations going underway in the house and the siding was taken away and revealed some of this cool stuff and this is the son Pierre beyond just scribbling on the wall and the tar paper before they put on extra stuff. Just kind of a there's a picture he drew from any kid art from the 19 teens teams. This is interesting a current owner found this in in one of the storage areas and this is a container of unopened, an unopened container of glass negatives slides ready for the camera, the original and this is what the slides would be, well, how many in a pack. I don't know if there's a say here, enough 10 or something. And that's the actual one of the slides here was the solution for us silver nitrate and captures the image. And he also found in the attic of the beautiful old mahogany antique camera that's now in the possession of the grand fans of Paul the owner, we're gonna have to get a photograph of that. Still, like I say, lots of material we're putting together. This is a photograph of an old sign of farmers later became known as daughters because of the numerous dogwood trees. I think they're still there, but somebody said they were dying offer kind of problem. Here she is. On the farm, and you know, she kept the poultry business out. This is how she met her good friend Jan Jiang just delivering eggs one day and, and Jan was sat one day, just sat down and started chat with her and found out this and she had this incredible sort of history in behind her and it's kind of a history that's been overlooked on Saltspring often wonder why the military like when you look, we all know, those lists of that famous list was made in 1895 of all the different ethnic groups and Saltspring there weren't any French in that list. There's 160, English, you know, 70, Scots, and all the way down to the one Patagonian or whatever. But no French people lived here until perhaps the the only the chat to do arrived in 1910. is Do we have another slide? That's it.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:49
story about how they bought from them? That they were on the train, and it was sold, sight unseen. That's your story with it. So I don't know if it was big romantic from her.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:01
Oh, yeah, they must have. We have actually a really long letter in one of the collections is written by a gentleman, a French gentleman who wrote this letter from the Northwest Territories back to Paris, and going on about a candidate but not describing Saltzman describing like Alberta. So there obviously was an interest in this part of the world. And of course, at this time between 1890 and 1910, there were a lot of well to do. European people moving to this area, you know, they weren't sort of the the hardscrabble pioneers of the 1860s. They're sort of more, you know, once you start a new life, and a new, a new land. Anyway, like I said, the beginning, we're just sort of scratching the surface of this incredible man and his family. These are just some images, we have well over 1000 photographs, hundreds of letters and receipts. I mean, this guy kept everything. And so stay tuned to the book in the movie. Anyway, so thanks for coming out. And I'd be happy to answer any questions if I could.

Unknown Speaker 1:13:20
Yeah, I would like to acknowledge always helped me a great deal of material that went to the boys and we will never have gotten this Oh, thank you.

Unknown Speaker 1:13:42
Yeah, it shows you know how this stuff is. So I mean, the stuff could have just been thrown out so easy, you know. And we all I mean, we I have stories of my own family, my grandmother just kind of watching things. And it's amazing that this stuff was preserved. You know, it could have so easily disappeared.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:04
They'll be here for a few minutes, you can talk to him and get some more information. Well, thanks, Chris. That's a great start of a lifelong project.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:18
Collected, maybe not. Only a month goes by when sometimes providing some information regarding the collection. bigger and bigger and bigger. Somebody maybe one at home, right streams are coming on Saltspring displays. But archives, I guess literally getting swamped. More storage and able to handle them better as the new library opens. To come this afternoon and sharing your information with us and People are all welcome to stay and have tea and coffee with us and to talk with Chris a little further. Thanks very much

Unknown Speaker 1:15:19
he's going to work for sure he's got all his new high tech

Unknown Speaker 1:15:26
gotta get really

Unknown Speaker 1:15:37
good where do we find out what

Unknown Speaker 1:15:46
it's really about? It's

Unknown Speaker 1:15:48
pretty much actually, you know, why do I call it? It's it's usually used for gun. Yeah, that's right. And then sorry of course in Quebec to

Unknown Speaker 1:16:07
use a pipe washing pipe but then I find that maybe it's like a tunnel you know because

Unknown Speaker 1:16:22
shelters like connecting tunnels

Unknown Speaker 1:16:24
yes because you know that is guts are like

Unknown Speaker 1:16:30
so like a boy to agree would be like yeah battle shelter underground

Unknown Speaker 1:16:34
because you have the trenches and then the shelter so maybe some kind of tunnel. The tune? Yeah, I think yeah, that makes sense. Yes, I think so

Unknown Speaker 1:16:44
we'll know better when like we've been sort of indirectly.

Unknown Speaker 1:16:48
notion of

Unknown Speaker 1:16:49
borrowing. Oh, good. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:16:54
That makes sense when you think of it figuratively,

Unknown Speaker 1:16:56
because it's used to describe the interest times basically it's like a case casing for a sausage. Yeah, it makes this sort of like, pipe like something that's circular and

Unknown Speaker 1:17:21
that makes way more sense. I'll look at it in more detail

Unknown Speaker 1:17:27
when he wrote to his wife

Unknown Speaker 1:17:35
all his letters were just like that. Yeah, I mean the letters were gonna scan them eventually put them on the site.

Unknown Speaker 1:17:43
Yes. Well, I'm very very busy. Because the island and it looks very much like the abandoned farm

Unknown Speaker 1:18:01
working Yeah, exactly. But

Unknown Speaker 1:18:06
I'm working my way through it because I

Unknown Speaker 1:18:09
would be happy to help you with translating. The writing is different.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:14
This is what my friend told me. She said, Oh, I can only run your Santa

Unknown Speaker 1:18:18
Monica because of the writing, you know, handwriting.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:22
Writing in a trance like some of them are written on these special little cards that were given to soldiers to

Unknown Speaker 1:18:27
it's still a mystery of why these send their eyes and also being a Huguenot religious notions because some Catholics left in the early 20th century, because they were discriminated against because of the new

Unknown Speaker 1:18:52
or the anti kind of clerical

Unknown Speaker 1:18:55
would not be there.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:58
Oh I think he just I think they just had the desire to go to America. The Americans and

Unknown Speaker 1:19:11
there were some very idealistic

Unknown Speaker 1:19:21
some of them, you know, living

Unknown Speaker 1:19:31
don't think he was but I know he had a fondness for Americans because some of the books we have are some of the material we found. It's like he's talking, you know, there's a publication on the, on the on the, on the on the friendship between the Americans and the French relationships. Yeah. It's such a contrast to kind of today. Today. There's kind of this animosity but back in World War One, they were all buddies.

Unknown Speaker 1:20:05
Davidson's My name Hey, I really enjoyed that presentation. Because I have a very special interest in World War One my dad was wounded at me and so on. And I have a lot of archival material just on my family, my dad and right who's the current owner of this house? What are they intending to do with it?

Unknown Speaker 1:20:28
Oh, these restoring it? Yeah, yeah, he's fixing it up. It's incredible. Let's take was it in when he inherited it? Yeah, not too good. Because the women there the elderly lady was living on her own and she had no help and so starting to run down you'll see the attic where all this stuff was stored had you know pots of water drips and stuff and the foundation was a bit rotted but this guy he's, he's a carpenter sooner he took off but

Unknown Speaker 1:20:54
fundamentally the history of sound I mean, oh, yeah, like,

Unknown Speaker 1:20:57
I mean, the floors are like criss cross for beams. four by four, six by six solid, double siding. Double was shipped out as a rock. I mean, this guy said you could pick up one corner of it and move it over. I mean, very sorry. This is typical Samuel Bettis. He built a number of homes in the island. He was just a school carpenter. So your dad What did he serves on the cf

Unknown Speaker 1:21:26
cf. And he was wounded Vinny. Take him to a little hospital on the coast. I visited me and then I went to Wimmer which is now a little seaside resort town.

Unknown Speaker 1:21:47
But at the time, it was a field hospital for Commonwealth, wounded, New Zealanders Australians. And then through a friend of a friend, I corresponded with a woman who had been a nurse at this hospital. She remembered it well. She said, we used to sit out in the evening and watch the Zeppelin's Going over the bomb, Lyndon,

Unknown Speaker 1:22:10
oh, you're interested in this ages ago. These people wouldn't be around anymore. So you've got, you know, war records and stuff. My granddad's got a ton of photos. It's amazing stuff is available. I can get the word diaries online. Now you could trace you know, your dad's unit what they were doing every single hour. Yeah, my grandpa, he was just there and the action for just a month after Danny was wounded it lands and he was lucky. He was wounded in the first month he was there. Because, you know, he didn't like talk about he said, none of that made any sense. No help, you know, just crazy. Just beyond his comprehension.

Unknown Speaker 1:22:54
It was interesting is getting my reading the letters from my dad, he was 19 when they were getting mobilized to go overseas, for patriotism, bravado, I can hardly wait to get over there. And we hope we get there in time before the war ends because it's going to be over quickly. And we've got to get there first. And then they get there and then they go into training in London or near London. They go over into the trenches and the letters start getting more and more despondent after a while they get me out of here as hell I know it's so

Unknown Speaker 1:23:31
awful. That's so they hear the most about old vets with a rat for you

Unknown Speaker 1:23:46
let's be witnesses. That will go all right. That was yeah, that was kind of you should do that on TV. I'll do it. Yeah, it'll be on TV

Unknown Speaker 1:24:14
funny story it's kind of just captivated swan. I used to live right by for France. Oh, that's yeah. Where there was great fighting and great national lines. Yeah. That was the group the big French victory. saw was a British victory. They're done with the French

Unknown Speaker 1:24:38
study in one way