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authority records
Backman, Bill
Person

Bill Backman is a retired forester who worked for Bloedel, Stewart and Welch. He has also served as president of the B.C. Forest History Association.

Alcuin Society
Corporate body · 1965-

The Alcuin Society is a non-profit organization devoted to the art of the book and fine book publishing. The society's aims are to further the interests of book collecting and promote the interest of fine books and reading. To achieve this end, the society is involved in the production of limited edition books, memorabilia and a society periodical, the Amphora. The society was established in 1965 in Vancouver in response to the initiative of one of the original society members, Geoff Spencer. Since its creation, the Alcuin Society has continued as a limited editions venture while actively promoting other book related interests including "authorship, book design and production, bookselling, book buying and collecting, printing, binding, papermaking, calligraphy and illustration." (Alcuin Society Website)

The Alcuin Society is actively engaged in a wide variety of cultural activities, including book design competitions, educational events, awards and prizes. The Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada and the Antiquarian Book Roadshow are the most prominent of these activities.

The Alcuin Society is a volunteer association, with members throughout Canada and the world. The Alcuin Society is governed by a Board, which is elected annually at the Annual General Meeting.

Taylor, Alfred James Towle
Person · 1887-1945

Born in Victoria, Alfred Taylor was a prominent B.C. engineering contractor and entrepreneur. During World War II, he served as technical advisor to the British Ministry of Production in London and Washington, D.C. In addition to developing projects such as the construction of the Lion's Gate Bridge and British Properties, Taylor's company also helped develop the Dolly Varden Mine and related projects in the Alice Arm area of B.C.

Burge, Alice Maud
Person · 1882-1948

Alice Maud Jones (1882-1948) was born in Great Britain and married James McKay Burge in 1903. After employment in South Africa, England, Rossland, and Vancouver, James Burge purchased the Cariboo Ranch at Gray Creek on Kootenay Lake and moved there in the early twenties where he combined managing the family farm with fulltime work as an assistant ranger for the B.C. Forest Service until his death in a car accident in 1934. His wife, Alice Maud, continued to live on the family farm and raise their five children on her beloved Kootenay Lake property.

Corporate body

The Centre for Transportation Studies prepared reports on B.C. Rail relating to the Royal Commission on B.C. Railway of 1977.

Woodsworth, Bruce, 1914-
Person

Bruce Woodsworth was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on November 24, 1914 to Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) pioneer J.S. Woodsworth and Lucy L. (Lillian) Staples Woodsworth. In 1936, Mr. Woodsworth graduated from UBC with a Bachelor of Arts (Hon.) in Geology. From 1936 to 1939, the Anglo-American Exploration Company employed Mr. Woodsworth to work in Northern Rhodesia for the purpose of prospecting, surveying and mapping the area. While in Northern Rhodesia, Mr. Woodsworth engaged in big game shooting which he later wrote of in several articles. In 1939, Mr. Woodsworth began graduate work in both economic and political science at McGill University, and returned to British Columbia in 1940 to take a teachers' training course at UBC, from which he earned an academic certificate. Mr. Woodsworth married Fannie E. J. Williams in Toronto in 1944. An ardent CCF supporter, Bruce Woodsworth first became involved with the party through his father. At the age of 16, before the CCF was even formally founded, Mr. Woodsworth delivered campaign literature for J.S. Woodsworth in Winnipeg North Centre. In 1939, he became a member of the CCF and canvassed for many candidates, took part in CCF clubs, and attended various speeches and conferences that the party promoted.

Bullock (family)
Family

Reginald Bullock (1905-1979) was a boilermaker by trade and worked at Wallace Shipyards and Burrard Drydocks in Vancouver. He was active in his own union and with various political parties espousing the socialist cause including the CCF, the League for Socialist Action, and the Socialist Workers Party. The Bullocks were expelled from the NDP in the 1960s. Ruth Bullock met her husband in 1938. She was active in the socialist movement and as an advocate for human rights. A thesis was written about her by Heather McLeod entitled "'Not Another God-Damned Housewife': Ruth Bullock, The 'Woman Question' and Canadian Trotskyism", Simon Fraser University, 1993.

Corporate body

CAIMAW was formed in Winnipeg in 1964, merged with the Canadian Electrical Workers Union (CEWU) in 1969, and after 1971, reorganized structurally and relocated in Vancouver. In 1991 CAIMAW merged with the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW).

Corporate body

The Federationist Publishing Company, founded in 1936, published the Federationist, the party newspaper of the provincial CCF (Cooperative Commonwealth Federation).

Nightingale, Florence
Person · 1820-1910

Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820 in Florence, Italy. She came from an affluent British family of merchants. When Florence was 5 years old her father inherited two estates in England. Florence moved to England where her father provided her with a classical education. It was in the neighbouring village Florence first aided the ill and poor, and by the age of 16 she believed nursing to be her divine purpose. She told her parents of her intentions to pursue nursing; however, they forbade her to do so as they viewed nursing as menial labour below her social class.

In spite of her parent’s objections, Nightingale enrolled as a nursing student in Kaiserswerth, Germany in 1844. In the 1850s she returned to London to nurse an ailing governess in a Middlesex hospital, where she was promoted to superintendent within a year. This hospital suffered from a cholera outbreak which Nightingale was able to limit by improving the hospital’s hygiene practices.

In 1853 the Crimean War began with the British Empire combating the Russian Empire. A year later, due to major casualties as a result of unsanitary and inhumane conditions, the British Secretary of War Sidney Herbert requested Nightingale to organize a corps of nurses to be sent to Crimea. In response, Nightingale assembled over 30 nurses and sailed with them to Crimea. They arrived at Scutari, the British base hospital in Constantinople, where conditions were unsanitary. Nightingale promptly asked the least infirm patients to scrub the hospital from floor to ceiling. This, along with her nightly rounds of ministering to patients, reduced the hospital death rate by two-thirds. The soldiers took to calling her “the Lady with the Lamp” and “the Angel of the Crimea” due to her nightly rounds and endless compassion. Nightingale wrote an 830-page report analyzing her experience in Crimea called Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army. She returned to England from Crimea in 1856 once the conflict in Crimea was resolved.

After the Crimean War she was bestowed with honours including what would later be called the “Nightingale Jewel” and $250 000 from the British government, which she put towards the founding of St. Thomas’ Hospital and the Nightingale Training School for Nurses. By 1858 Florence became homebound and bedridden due to her contraction of “Crimean fever” at Scutari. This did not deter her, as she continued to consult various hospitals, including field hospitals in the U.S. Civil War, India, and Britain. Nightingale died August 13, 1910 at her home in London.

Corporate body

The Food and Service Workers of Canada Union (FASWOC) was created in 1958 as the White Spot Employees Union. In 1968 the White Spot Company was purchased by General Foods Ltd. and the Union changed its name to Canadian Food and Associated Service Union (CFUSA) in 1972 and joined the Canadian Council of Unions in 1973. After organizing locals in two provinces, British Columbia and Ontario, the union changed its name to the Food and Service Workers of Canada Union in 1981. At the time of its merger with the Canadian Association of Industrial, Mechanical and Allied Workers (CAIMAW) in 1987, FASWOC represented nineteen White Spot Restaurants, forty-seven Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants, and other employees in British Columbia.

Corporate body

The Fort Langley and District Board of Trade was a non-profit organization of persons from Fort Langley, Walnut Grove, Willoughby, Glen Valley, and Port Kells, that was interested in promoting economic development and presenting public policy concerns to the government. The Board had its origins in 1910; after a period of inactivity, it was revived in 1947 and remained active until 1965, when the area came under the representation of the North Langley Chamber of Commerce. The Board was particularly active in promoting good transportation access to the area via highway, rail, and ferry; dredging and dyking for flood control; mosquito control programs; and tourism, as well as forging beneficial economic and co-operative links with other organizations.

Corporate body

The Franco-Canadian Trust Company was active in Vancouver as a real estate and insurance firm from 1911 to 1947.