Improvements

By the fall of 1915, the optimism of Vancouverites was plainly visible. The University of BC, under President F.F. Wesbrook, opened. The buildings in Point Grey wouldn't be finished until after the war so the students were taught in shacks and tents on the General Hospital grounds. And the official student gowns were piped with khaki cord to mark its wartime birth. Many students left classes soon after enrolment to enlist in the Western Universities Battalion for overseas service. But UBC was started!

That same September, the city got its first major war contract. It was a $2 million order for shell casings and it was split between Wallace Shipyards and North Shore Iron Works.

The Admirality released the old Empress of Japan to take up its trans-Pacific service again. In November, the first Canadian Northern (later known as the Canadian National) train left the city depot on Main Street. The Great Northern railroad was building a depot and the CPR trains had been running to Penticton on the Kettle Valley line since June 1.

At the end of the year, the Board of Trade called for conservation of resources, an end to monopoly control in industry, but also reported that business was sound, construction dead, and trade picking up.

The upsurge continued through 1916. The provincial government, under W. J. Bowser of Vancouver, provided laws and funds to aid shipbuilding, mining, farmers and seaport - all of which helped Vancouver. 

Prices were rising steadily. Though there was little or no increase in wages, everybody was back at work. The fish pack was fair, the lumber mills working to capacity, no miners on skid road. 

City building rose to $2.4 million from $1.5 million in 2015. However, it was almost all large industrial construction; permits for the year dropped from 612 to 434. 

Shipping was picking up. Large consignments of munitions and other war materials were shipped to embattled Russia via Vladivostok. This trade vanished with the outbreak of the revolution in 1917 and for years immense dumps of machinery and steel sat rusting at the city's outskirts.

Thanks to the book, Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis by Alan Morley for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

Meanwhile, Back At Home...

While the men were overseas proving themselves during the battles of World War I, what was happening back in Vancouver? As I have said before, there was a fair amount of mourning since the death toll was great but the citizens didn't let that stop them. They rolled up their sleeves to back up the fighting men.

Social life was non-existent except where it benefited the war effort. Red Cross work took up the time of Vancouver women - whether they were housewives or society women, they all lent a hand. Hundreds of businessmen drilled in the Horse Show Building with the Home Guard.

When the Georgia Street Viaduct was opened July 1, 1915, it was one continuous carnival, organized by the United Commercial Travellers to aid war efforts.

The careless happiness of the boom days was over and, at first, the strains of war intensified - rather than relieved - the depression. By April 1915, Vancouver considered itself "in a state of siege", with relief gangs working in the parks for $1a day, paid in groceries, and relief funds almost exhausted, a condition, which was temporarily relieved by a provincial grant.

South and West Vancouver were in financial problems. Assessments in the South dropped 20 percent to $37 million in a single year; only the wealthy Point Grey claimed to be in good shape. That was because there were fewer men on its relief and the majority of its residents were people of some substance.

For the first time in 22 years, the population of Greater Vancouver declined by 34,000 to an estimated 172,230. The opening of the Panama Canal was something we had looked forward to but it did little to increase the port's shipping. This was due to the lack of vessels in the Pacific.

However, the grain railway freight differential remained 20 per cent to 31 per cent above the rate on eastbound shipments from prairie points and largely cancelled out the drop in ocean traffic. Tax sales of forfeited land were general, buying the land instead of disposing it in a real estate market that didn't really exist.

Almost all news that winter was bad whether it was from the war front or the economic front. Businessman and community leader, R.H. Alexander and CPR executive, H.B. Abbott, died. On April 29, the Connaught (Cambie Street) Bridge was almost destroyed, and Granville Street Bridge was damaged lightly by simultaneous fires blamed on enemy sabotage. The Cambie Bridge went a long time before being repaired and it wasn't until mid-summer that people began to feel things were picking up.

Thanks to the book, Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis by Alan Morley for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

Blood and Guts

Imperial commanders refused to believe that the Canadian soldiers at Kitchener's Wood could still exist in the hell of shellfire.They prepared a counter-attack and shelled the Canadians from the rear.

Some "lost" Imperial units were placed into the line but had to withdraw again at 7 pm. The remnants of the 16th Battalion were already withdrawn from Kitchener's Wood.

A German attack from the wood was broken up by rifle fire and later rifle fire forced the Germans out of the village of St. Julien.

There was no rest that night for the troops who were fighting for 60 continuous hours. The night was spent bringing up ammunition and repairing wire.

There were 150 men remaining from the 7th battalion. They were taken out of the line, fed and shifted to Bombarded Cross Roads along with remnants of the 10th, Major Odlum in command.

A German attack was thwarted at dawn and the shelling was more intense than ever from 9 am to noon. Two companies of the 8th Battalion were brought up to reinforce the 7th and 10th. Three more attacks were thrown back that afternoon.

That night, the Imperial troops formed a line to the rear and the remaining Canadians made a fighting withdrawal to it.

They held the line for over 70 hours, mostly without food and short of ammunition. For every five men, three were lost. But they survived two gas attacks without respirators or any protection. And broke FIVE German divisions.

Sir John French's order of the day, "Those splendid troops have averted a disaster..."

Many Vancouver homes were in mourning after the second battle of Ypres. But Canadians held their heads high. Canadians were Canadians not "colonials". They have proven themselves.

The Canadian forces started the journey up the road of savage and intelligent heroism that made the CEF with the Australians the aristocrats of the European battlefields. Those fields called for blood and guts and Vancouver gave her share.

Thanks to the book Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis by Alan Morley for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill