Photograph of (left to right) Bobby Johnston, Eleanor Irwin (Nelson), Maureen Johnston and Louise Irwin wearing swimsuits and standing in the yard of the Irwin family home on the site of the Barnet Lumber Mill.
Photograph of (left to right) Bobby Johnston, Eleanor Irwin (Nelson), Maureen Johnston and Louise Irwin wearing swimsuits and standing in the yard of the Irwin family home on the site of the Barnet Lumber Mill.
History
Henry Stanley Irwin (1890-1966) started work at Barnet mill in 1924. Henry and his wife Elsie May Irwin (Taylor) Irwin (1894-1985) first lived with thier two daughters, Eleanor (Nelson) (1924-2005) and Louise (1927-) in a worker's cabin before moving to the Barnet Mill's managers' residence. The household included Elsie's mother, Elizabeth (Shephard) Taylor (1868-1950). The family resided at Barnet until they moved to Vancouver in September 1939. Louise and her older sister Eleanor attended Barnet School like other children in the Barnet area. After the mill closed in 1931, Henry was unemployed for two years, during this time, he hired a horse and driver and cut logs from the slopes of Burnaby Mountain to support his family.
See page 42 of book "In the Shadow by the Sea: Recollection of Burnaby's Barnet Village" with caption "Bobby Johnston, Eleanor Irwin, Maureen Johnston, Louise Irwin pose in their swimsuits, c. 1928"
Date for description of photograph based on information provided in Johnston family image 8
Photograph of Boy Scouts swimming and diving while at New Westminster District Boy Scout camp at Granthams Landing. One of the Scouts is diving into the water while the others are standing on a rock on the shore.
Photograph of Boy Scouts swimming and diving while at New Westminster District Boy Scout camp at Granthams Landing. One of the Scouts is diving into the water while the others are standing on a rock on the shore.
File contains photographs of marathon swimmer Finn Donnelly at Fraser Foreshore Park after completing the second leg of the Swim for Salmon event as part of BC Rivers Day. Photographs depict Donnelly posing on the shore and helping unidentified members of his crew to move canoes out of the Fraser R…
File contains photographs of marathon swimmer Finn Donnelly at Fraser Foreshore Park after completing the second leg of the Swim for Salmon event as part of BC Rivers Day. Photographs depict Donnelly posing on the shore and helping unidentified members of his crew to move canoes out of the Fraser River.
Collected by editorial for use in a September 1999 issue of the Burnaby NewsLeader
Caption from metadata for 535-3346-1: "Marathon swimmer Finn Donnelly emerges from the Fraser River at Foreshare Park, after completing the second leg of his Swim for the Salmon to mark BC Rivers Day."
Caption from metadata for 535-3346-2: "Marathon swimmer Finn Donnelly helps bring ashore some of the voyageur canoes which accompanied him on the second leg of his Swim for the Salmon, on the Fraser River from New West Quay to Foreshore Park."
This portion of the recording pertains to Elsie (Brown-John) Ansdell's early memories of recreational activities and daily life as a young person in Burnaby (activities include swimming, skating and going to the movies). She mentions Frank Walsh's Garage and discusses photographs of Brown-John Truc…
This portion of the recording pertains to Elsie (Brown-John) Ansdell's early memories of recreational activities and daily life as a young person in Burnaby (activities include swimming, skating and going to the movies). She mentions Frank Walsh's Garage and discusses photographs of Brown-John Trucking, "the blasting stump" and Burns Acreage.
Date Range
1927-1938
Photo Info
Elsie Brown-John (bottom, far right) with her class at Kitchener Street School, [1936]. Item no. 549-001.
Recording is an interview with early Burnaby resident Elsie (Brown-John) Ansdell conducted by Burnaby Village Museum employee Eric Damer, September 18, 2012. Major themes discussed are: settling in Burnaby and the early years of the Brown-John family.
Biographical Notes
Elsie (Brown-John) Ansdell’s father, a trained carpenter and cabinet maker, Victor Brown-John came to Canada from Wales in 1910. He cleared three lots at Napier and Gilmore Streets and built a two-roomed house. In 1912, he was joined by his wife and two eldest sons, Victor and Archie. Twin boys, Frank and Roy, were born in 1914 in the Burnaby home and their fifth son, Clive, was born in 1915.
From 1916 to 1919 Victor John-Brown left Burnaby to serve overseas. Elsie Brown-John (later Ansdell) was born in 1921. Her younger brother, Gwyn "Jerry" was born in 1923.
In 1925 Victor Brown-John suffered a fatal accident while working as a longshoreman in Northern British Columbia.
Elsie attended Kitchener Elementary and North Burnaby High School. She married during the Second World War and moved to South Burnaby to raise her family whilst continuing to work in various department stores both in Vancouver and Burnaby.
Eric Damer is a lifelong British Columbian born in Victoria, raised in Kamloops, and currently residing in Burnaby. After studying philosophy at the University of Victoria, he became interested in the educational forces that had shaped his own life. He completed master’s and doctoral degrees in educational studies at the University of British Columbia with a particular interest in the history of adult and higher education in the province. In 2012, Eric worked for the City of Burnaby as a field researcher and writer, conducting interviews for the City Archives and Museum Oral History Program.
Photograph of a group of adolescents dressed in bathing suits and sitting on a floating log near a shore. Sisters, Margaret Norton (nee Knight) (far left) is wearing a bathing cap and fur collared coat over top of her swim suit, Naida Hansen (nee Knight) (second from right) and Dolly Walker-Kirkwoo…
Photograph of a group of adolescents dressed in bathing suits and sitting on a floating log near a shore. Sisters, Margaret Norton (nee Knight) (far left) is wearing a bathing cap and fur collared coat over top of her swim suit, Naida Hansen (nee Knight) (second from right) and Dolly Walker-Kirkwood (nee Knight) (far right) are wearing bathing suits. The three young men and the young woman second from left are unidentified.