By T.W. Paterson
Who was the young man in the photo? Were the older couple in the other pictures his parents? Was the young woman his sister?
Let’s begin this local story with a visit to Vancouver’s Burrard Street Drill Hall, home of The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada since 1936.
I’m happy to report that, “In June, 2012 the Armoury began a 3-year $9.3 million seismic upgrade to…the existing structure and renovation. A further $31.2 million was allocated…for the construction of a new five-storey building which will be used for support organizations, as well as the headquarters for the 39 Canadian Brigade Group…
“The renovation was completed in May 2016. On Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016, the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada marched back to the Seaforth Armoury after an absence of four years. The new building becomes the new Vancouver Garrison and was officially named the Major General Bertram Hoffmeister Building after one of Canada’s best Generals, who had served for many years as a Seaforth…”
It’s also the home of their museum and archives, a fact of which I was recently reminded by an email from James Calhoun with a request for a copy of my book, Cowichan Goes To War, 1914-1918, and a photo that appeared with a Chronicles column several years ago.
The photo is that of Cobble Hill man Thomas James Jeffrey. And therein lies my story for today…
Thirty-odd years ago, while garage saling at Shawnigan Lake, I spotted a box of framed photos on the floor of a garage. The lady holding the sale said they’d come with the house, on the site of the old Shawnigan Lumber Co., and she knew nothing about them other than she “thought they were a local family”.
My mother wanted the frames, I wanted the photos. So I purchased the lot for all of $4 and, once at home, removed all the pictures from their frames but for that of a young soldier and filed them away.
He’s wearing a First World War army uniform and he’s a strapping example of prime young manhood — and prime cannon fodder as so sadly proved to be the case.
But who was he? Were the older couple in the other pictures his parents? Was the young woman his sister?
The late Bob Dougan, historian for the large pioneer Cobble Hill family, used to visit me to talk history and it occurred to me to ask him if he recognized the family.
I had my answer in a moment. One look and he identified them as the Jeffrey family who lived on Cameron Taggart Road. That’s Tom Jeffrey, he said; his name’s on the Cobble Hill and Duncan Cenotaphs.
Research revealed that Pte. Thomas James Thompson Jeffrey, born in Victoria, served with the 72nd Battalion of The Seaforth Highlanders, C.E.F.; he was killed in action on Sept. 29, 1918, just six weeks before Armistice.
I’ve displayed his photo in my small archives all these years and have told the story of its finding in previous writings. But, this year, I had reason to temporarily, and very gently, remove his photo from its frame.
Out of the blue, I’d had an email from Jim Calhoun, archivist for The Seaforth Highlanders who’d somehow become aware that I’d used the Jeffrey photo some years ago in the Citizen. (But not, to my belated consternation, in my book.) Would I provide the Seaforth’s Archives with a copy?
Of course I would. And I did.
I like to think that former Cobble Hill farmer Tom Jeffrey is now “at home” with his comrades of The Seaforth Highlanders.
All thanks to a chance garage sale and the late Bob Dougan.