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Month: September 2022

NOGLO

Posted on by Vernon Museum

 

A view down a street over the rooftops of houses. A green hillside is visible in the background. A double rainbow is also visible, with the bottom one being much stronger and the top one quite faint.
View of a double rainbow over the rooftops of Vernon’s Foothills development in 2014. Photo by F. Arseneault.

LGBTQ+ History Month

October is LGBTQ+ History Month in Canada, the United States, and Australia. Meanwhile, one local organization that fought against discrimination of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community members was the North Okanagan Gay and Lesbian Organization (NOGLO).

Socializing without fear

NOGLO was founded by Arne Kirkeby and his partner Chris, who arrived in Vernon in the 1990s. They wanted to become part of a community, and so through word-of-mouth organized a dance with other LGBTQ+ couples. The event provided a place for Vernonites to socialize without fear and was a major success, with around 300 attendees. More events would follow in the coming years.

In 2013, NOLGO embarked on a number of projects to raise funds for community events, including a garage sale and the production of a business directory. These projects helped support events like a Halloween Howl later that year, hosted in memory of Chris and other NOGLO members who had passed away. Prizes were offered for the most creative individual and group costumes.

YouthGlo

Brian Webb, a former North Okanagan resident and board member of NOGLO, received the People Choice’s award in the 2012 competition of Mr. Gay Canada. Webb also served as a peer counsellor at YouthGlo, an organization dedicated to helping LGBTQ+ youth in the North Okanagan. In 2013, he founded HomoCulture, a leading online resource that attempts to increase awareness of the interests and values of the LGBTQ+ community across North America.

As for NOGLO, the organization later disbanded, but others have emerged to fill its void, including the Vernon Pride Community who worked tirelessly to host their first Pride event earlier this year. Two former NOGLO members, Dawn Tucker and Susan Armstrong, alongside Madeline Terbasket, will present how the lived experiences of the historically underrepresented 2SLGBTQIA+ community can have more Pride in Place in local museums, archives and other cultural institutions at the Vernon Museum on October 13. Click here to learn more. 

 

To explore more of Vernon’s history, check out our other blog posts! 

Gwyneth Evans, Research and Communications Coordinator

 

 

 

 

National Council of Women

Posted on by Vernon Museum

 

A black and white photo of 11 women, some seated on chairs, some in front on the floor, with one standing in the back. They are in a room lined with bookshelves that has brick walls and several large houseplants/.
Members of the National Council of Women in Ottawa in 1898. Lady Aberdeen is in the centre, holding a book. Image courtesy: Topley Studio / Library and Archives Canada / PA-028035

Gender Equality Week

September 18 to 24 is Gender Equality Week in Canada, and this year’s theme was “Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities.” In an official statement, the Honourable Marci Ien, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, described the week as a time to “recognize the important progress we’ve made towards gender equality while also recognizing the important work that lies ahead of us.”

a local connection

One organization with local roots that was dedicated to the advancement of women was the National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC). Founded it 1893, it is one of Canada’s oldest advocacy groups, and is still operating from its headquarters in Ottawa. The NCWC, a member of the International Council of Women (ICW), was created by its first president—and former Vernonite—Lady Ishabel Aberdeen.

Lady Aberdeen was the wife of Lord Aberdeen, Canada’s Governor General from 1893 until 1898. When she established the National Council of Women, she was also the president of the ICW. In 1895, Lady Aberdeen established a Vernon Branch of the NCWC, with Addie Cochrane serving as president.

Women’s Suffrage

The NCWC began fighting for women’s suffrage in 1910; however, the NCWC was considered to be an elitist organization by several well-known suffragists, including Nellie McClung, due to its middle-class composition and lack of French Canadians and women of colour.

The case was similar here in Vernon, in that the local branch was mostly made up of women from Vernon’s more wealthy families. However, both the local and national chapters of the Council of Women made important contributions towards gender equality in Canada.

ORGANIZATIONAL ACHEIVEMENTS

One of the most prominent accomplishments of the Vernon branch was the petition for a hospital, which led to the opening of the Vernon Jubilee Hospital in 1909. Meanwhile, the NCWC established the Victorian Order of Nurses to provide at-home nursing care, and supported the rights and opportunities of women in the workforce.

Mysteriously, the local branch of the NCWC virtually disappeared in 1920, and the reason for this is unknown. In 1959, it was resurrected as the Vernon & District Council of Women which operated until 1974 before folding due to low membership numbers. However, since then, other local organizations have continued to protect and promote the rights of women and gender equality for all.

 

To explore more of Vernon’s history, check out our other blog posts! 

Gwyneth Evans, Research and Communications Coordinator

Vernon’s Sister Cities

Posted on by Vernon Museum

 

a group of men and women standing facing the camera. Behind them is a golf course, and on the right is part of a sign that reads "1st tee and range" with an arrow.
A sister city exchange group from Saint-Lambert visiting Vernon in 1992. Included in the picture are Vernonites Patrick Mackie (center, wearing a hat), and then Mayor Wayne McGrath (third from left).
A short, bush-like tree with gnarled branches and dropping leaves outside a brown brick building.
The Weeping Beach donated to the City of Vernon by the City of Saint-Lambert outside the Vernon Museum.

A tree from Saint-Lambert

Outside the Vernon Museum, at the foot of a small gnarled tree, one can find a little plaque that reads “weeping beech donated by Mayor Guy Boissy of Saint-Lambert, Quebec, a Sister City of Vernon, 18 October 1997.” Saint-Lambert, located in southwestern Quebec, is home to more than 20,000 people, and, as the plaque suggests, is one of Vernon’s six sister cities.

The History of Town twinning

A sister city or twin town agreement is made to promote peace and diplomacy and to create cultural and commercial ties between municipalities across borders. The first modern example of town twinning can be traced back to World War Two, when Alfred Robert Grindlay, then Mayor of Coventry, England, demonstrated solidarity for the people of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in Russia, since both cities were emerging from the wreck of devastating blitz attacks.  

Vernon’s Sister City Committee

At a Vernon City Council meeting on September 1, 1982, an “International Friendship Committee” was established, and a resolution passed that twinned Vernon with its first sister city—Modesto, California.

The Committee later became known as the Sister Cities Committee, and coordinated the twinning of another five municipalities, including Saint-Lambert. The others are Tome, Japan (twinned in 1986), Tavullia, Italy (1993), Frankenburg, Austria (2008), and Anandpur Sahib, India (2012). Over the years, the Committee organized several trips to these sister cities, including a visit to the “Holy City of Bliss” (Anandpur Sahib) in 2016.

Enduring relationships

A testament to Vernon’s enduring relationship with its twin cities can be seen in the form of a wayfinding sign outside of City Hall with the cardinal directions and approximate distances of Tome, Tavullia, Frankenburg, Anandpur Sahib, Saint-Lambert, and Modesto. 

Wayfinding sign outside of Vernon City Hall.
  • Saint-Lambert: Click here to learn more
  • Tome: Click here to learn more
  • Anandpur Sahib: Click here to learn more
  • Tavullia: Click here to learn more
  • Frankenburg: Click here to learn more
  • Modesto: Click here to learn more

To explore more of Vernon’s history, check out our other blog posts! 

 

Gwyneth Evans, Research and Communications Coordinator

Saint-Lambert, Canada
Anandpur Sahib, India
Frankenburg, Austria

 

Tome, Japan
Tavullia, Italy
Modesto, U.S.A.

 

Elizabeth Nel: Winston Churchill’s Secretary

Posted on by Vernon Museum

 

In the middle of the photo is a woman in a white dress with vertical pink red and blue stripes. She has short curly light brown hair, and is looking at a balding man in a beige trench coat. To her left, is a lady with dark grey short hair with glasses, a black shirt and blue blazer.
Elizabeth Nel (center) with Patrick Mackie and Edna Oram during her visit to Vernon in 1989.

HRM QUEEN ELIZABETH II

With the passing of HRM Queen Elizabeth II on September 8, the Vernon Museum has turned to the memories of a Vernonite who was not only received by the Queen during a visit to Buckingham Palace, but also served as Winston Churchill’s personal secretary.

Elizabeth Nel, then Layton, with her class from St. Michael’s School for Girls in 1926. GVMA #13678.

A Vernon girl makes it big

Elizabeth Nel, born Layton, arrived in Vernon with her family in 1924; they had emigrated from Suffolk, England, on the advice of a physician who thought the climate might ease Elizabeth’s father’s tuberculosis. In Vernon, Elizabeth went to the St. Michael’s School for Girls and later attended secretarial school in London.

At the outbreak of World War Two, Elizabeth served with the Red Cross, but in 1941 was sent to work at Downing Street, where she met Churchill for the first time. Initially, she would only sit silently behind a typewriter while he dictated his speeches to her, but she quickly earned his respect; while attending the 1945 Yalta Conference in Crimea, Churchill proposed a toast “to Miss Layton” during a banquet in which she was the only woman present.

NEL AND CHURCHILL

It is said that Churchill and Elizabeth wept together after his defeat in the 1945 election, and that they remained in contact even after she immigrated to South Africa with her husband Frans Nel, a South African soldier who had served with the British Eight Army.

Elizabeth was invited to Buckingham Palace in 1990 for the 50th Anniversary of Churchill becoming Prime Minister. In an oral history of her meeting with Queen Elizabeth, Elizabeth Nel described sharing fond memories of Churchill with the Queen between appropriately-timed curtsies. She also related her embarrassment during this visit while speaking to Lord Louis Mountbatten, who told her a bawdy joke with left him in chuckles, and her exchanging uncomfortable glances with the Queen. 

Elizabeth Nel passed away in 2007.

To explore more of Vernon’s history, check out our other blog posts! 

 

Gwyneth Evans, Research and Communications Coordinator

 

The Joe Harwood School

Posted on by Vernon Museum

 

A slightly-angled view of a black and white school building with arched windows and a curtain verandah. It has two stories. Several old-fashioned cars are parked in the front.
The building that once housed Vernon’s first court house, and, later, the Joe Hardwood/South Vernon School, at 3410 Coldstream Avenue. This photo was taken shortly before it was demolished in 1959.

Classroom overcrowding

Especially during the COVID era, a return to school presents challenges in terms of classroom overcrowding, but long before the pandemic, Vernon schools were attempting to navigate this very same difficulty.

In 1921, there were a handful of elementary schools in use in Vernon, including the Okanagan Landing and Park Schools. Even so, more students had registered for school that year than could be accommodated, with 170 more pupils than in 1920, and drastic measures were needed to ensure that no one was turned away.

A front view of a black and white building white a dark brown brick exterior and white trim. The doorways and windows are arched at the top. Several spindly tress without leaves are standing in front of the two-story building and an unpaved road is in front of it.
The former Vernon Court House on Coldstream Avenue in 1892, the year it was completed.

The Old Vernon Court House

The summer before the new term, school trustees were scrambling to house all the students; thankfully, they secured use of what was formerly Vernon’s first court house on Coldstream Avenue. With one month left before school started up again, work crews busily began adding classrooms to the building. However, despite their best efforts, the work was not finished in time.

Instead, some students found themselves in makeshift classrooms in the basement of Central (now Beairsto) school for the first few weeks of September. They were able to move into the Court House School, nicknamed the “Joe Harwood School” after the city councilor who spearheaded the project and was later named President of the BC School Trustees Association, when construction was completed on September 19, 1921.

The South Vernon School

The Joe Harwood School (or the South Vernon School as it was actually called) consisted of four classrooms; over the years, the building was put to other uses as well, including as a Legion and a health unit. In the years following the 1921 scramble, the opening of other schools—including Harwood Elementary—meant that the Joe Harwood School was no longer needed.

The building was demolished in 1959.

To explore more of Vernon’s history, check out our other blog posts! 

 

Gwyneth Evans, Research and Communications Coordinator

 

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