Photograph of Les Creelman, Anna Belle MacKay, Florence Godwin, Helen Street, and Peter Acland at the Volunteers Gala. A sign in the background reads, "Volunteers Are Special." The photograph is from Burnaby Today.
Photograph of Les Creelman, Anna Belle MacKay, Florence Godwin, Helen Street, and Peter Acland at the Volunteers Gala. A sign in the background reads, "Volunteers Are Special." The photograph is from Burnaby Today.
Photograph of two Boy Scouts and a Scout leader. The leader is explaining something and gesturing; eggs and an egg carton are in front of the two Boy Scouts. The photograph is from Burnaby Today.
Photograph of two Boy Scouts and a Scout leader. The leader is explaining something and gesturing; eggs and an egg carton are in front of the two Boy Scouts. The photograph is from Burnaby Today.
Photograph of brothers Earl and Norman Wild in Idaho, in the United States of America (USA). Norman is holding an unidentified toddler on one arm, and has his other arm around his brother.
Photograph of brothers Earl and Norman Wild in Idaho, in the United States of America (USA). Norman is holding an unidentified toddler on one arm, and has his other arm around his brother.
This portion of the interview pertains to W.H. "Harry" O'Brien's involvement with the formation of the Army of the Common Good Credit Union (now the South Burnaby Credit Union).
This portion of the interview pertains to W.H. "Harry" O'Brien's involvement with the formation of the Army of the Common Good Credit Union (now the South Burnaby Credit Union).
Date Range
[1932]-1936
Photo Info
Harry and Gertrude (Sutherland) O'Brien on their wedding day, October 12, 1940. Item no. 315-005
Recording is a taped interview with W.H. "Harry" O'Brien by SFU (Simon Fraser University) graduate student Bettina Bradbury. Major themes discussed are: the Army of the Common Good, the Union of the Unemployed and the Common Good Credit Union (now the South Burnaby Credit Union). To view "Narrow By" terms for each track expand this description and see "Notes".
Biographical Notes
W.H. “Harry” O’Brien was born in the coal mining town of Nanaimo, British Columbia on October 20, 1914. He came to Burnaby with his parents and five siblings in 1927. Harry’s mother, a school teacher, wanted her children to live closer to school in order to obtain a better education, so the O’Brien family settled at Inman Avenue, Burnaby. Harry's mother, Mary Anne Crossan, was Gilmore Avenue School's first teacher.
Harry left school in June of 1929. Harry’s father worked as the caretaker at Central Park around this time and Harry helped him to clear brush, plant trees and enforce the land clearing and wood cutting permit regulations held by men who were on script.
Although too young to vote by just over a week, Harry O'Brien worked as a scrutineer for the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) during the 1935 Federal Election.
On October 12, 1940 Harry O'Brien married Gertrude Sutherland at St. John the Divine in Burnaby. The Sutherland family came to Burnaby from Winnipeg in 1933 and settled at Nelson Avenue.
Harry began his involvement with the Unemployment Organization in Burnaby by participating in an organised protest against the municipality for homeowner evictions brought on by unpaid taxes. The South Burnaby Union of the Unemployed organised in order to protest rules around receiving Relief. Harry became involved, eventually becoming one of the spearheads of the organization, taking over as secretary by 1936.
Harry was an original member of the Army of the Common Good, helping to produce over one hundred and twenty-five tons of vegetables from its own gardens to feed Burnaby citizens suffering from the lack of resources during the Depression years. The members of the Army of the Common Good who cut wood for consumption or worked in the gardens were given credit for their work through LU (Labour Units) which they could then use to buy groceries and that at the Army's Cooperative stores, one of which was at McKay Avenue, where Harry began working as Manager of Groceries in 1937. The Credit Union movement of British Columbia was also organized by Harry O'Brien and his fellow Army of the Common Good members.
W.H. "Harry" O'Brien died July 1, 1992.
Bettina Bradbury teaches history and women's studies at York University. She is the author of Wife to Widow. Lives, Laws and Politics in Nineteenth-century Montreal. (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, June 2011), 520p; Working Families. Age, Gender and Daily Survival in Industrializing Montreal. (Toronto: Canadian Social History Series, McClelland and Stewart, 1993); (Republished Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1996) (3rd edition, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007). These interviews were undertaken after she completed her MA at Simon Fraser University in 1975 with the support of an LIP grant.
Interview was digitized in 2010 allowing it to be accessible on Heritage Burnaby. The digitization project was initiated by the Community Heritage Commission with support from City of Burnaby Council and the BC History Digitization Program of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia. It was recognized by the Heritage Society of BC with an award in 2012.
This interwar bungalow is beautifully preserved and retains many original features. Symmetrical in design, with two steeply-pitched front gables that flank a central arched gable over the front entrance, it also retains its narrow arched windows and projecting purlins in the front gables. Narrow sidelights flank the front door. The matching front elevation windows are typical of the period, with double-hung sash flanking a plate glass “picture window” with a curved transom; the upper panes are cross-leaded. This house was built by Agnes Michie and Elizabeth D. Michie.
Built for Annie Barrett-Lennard, this British Arts and Crafts residence has retained many of its original features, such as its stucco and half-timbering exterior with a cat’s slide roof over the front entrance. The steeply-pitched gables, asymmetrical half-massing, leaded windows and pegged joinery are all references to traditional British antecedents.
Danish builder Hans Jorgensen Hau (1878-1944) and his wife Anna (née Sorenson, 1874-1956), constructed this highly-distinctive Tudor Revival residence circa 1935. This was a time of entrenched traditionalism, and most domestic architecture reflected period revival styles. Tudor elements have been compressed here into a cottage form, including a distinctive front façade with half timbering and brick noggin; on the sides the nogging is rock-dash stucco. Casement windows contribute to the cottage appearance. The rear façade is clad with more utilitarian shingles. A prominent brick chimney exhibits angled and corbelled brickwork. Hau worked as a bricklayer and stonemason, and this house has common elements with the Moore Residence at 5165 Sperling Avenue, which Hau designed and constructed in 1943.