Kamloops Museum and Archives Fernie Family fonds 1994.009, 2000.036, 2001.001, 2001.008, 2007.004, 1964.109, 0.2818 Compiled by Robb Gilbert, December 2012 Revised by Jaimie Fedorak, December 2019 Kamloops Museum and Archives 2019 KAMLOOPS MUSEUM AND ARCHIVES 1994.009, etc. Fernie Family fonds [188-?]-[ca. 2004] Access: Open. Textual, Cartographic, Graphic 1.59 meters Title: Fernie family fonds Dates of creation: [188-?] – [ca. 2004], predominant 1900 – 1950 Physical description: 1.59 m of textual records, cartographic records, and graphic material Biographical sketch: William Lewis Fernie was born on 1 April 1868 at Macklesfield, Cheshire, England. He was educated at the King Edward VI Grammar School in Macklesfield and at Owens College, Victoria University, in Manchester. In 1887 Fernie emigrated from England and settled in Minnedosa, Manitoba, where he was employed as a farmer. He worked in Manitoba for two years before deciding against a career in farming and instead moved further west to British Columbia. After arriving in B.C. he spent a short time working on the coast as a fisherman and in the Chilcoten district as a cowhand. Fernie eventually moved to the Kamloops area in 1890 and took out a pre- emption of 320 acres at Black Pines in the North Thompson Valley. From 1900 to 1901 he served in the Boer War with the Strathcona Horse. After the war Fernie returned to Kamloops and joined the B.C. provincial police, signing on as a local constable in April of 1901. Fernie was quickly promoted to chief constable of Kamloops five years later and then appointed inspector following WWI. His career stretched over three decades until his retirement in 1934. As a police officer, Fernie was a formidable tracker who played instrumental roles in numerous notable arrests, though he is likely remembered most for aiding in the capture of the notorious American train robber Bill Miner. On May 12th, 1906 Miner held up a Canadian Pacific Railway passenger train just east of Kamloops with “Shorty” Dunn and Lewis Colquhoun. Fernie and fellow police officer E.T.W. Pearse organized a posse to find Miner and after tracking the men for two days Fernie eventually located them near Douglas Lake. Fernie was responsible for notifying the North West Mounted Police of the location of Miner which led to the successful arrest of all three men. After the capture, Miner was brought to Kamloops where he stood trial in the city courthouse. The arrest and trial of Bill Miner garnered widespread attention in newspapers across North America, and for his part in Miner’s capture Fernie received $1350 in reward money. Other major cases Fernie was involved in include the pursuit and arrest of Louis Paquette (1902), C.H. Williams (1907), and Paul Spintlum and Moses Paul (1912). He was also instrumental in the capture of 10 German prisoners of war that escaped from the Vernon WWI internment camp (1915). In 1915 Fernie was sent overseas to serve in WWI as a cavalry officer with the 172nd Rocky Mountain Rangers. He was later an intelligence officer with 1 KAMLOOPS MUSEUM AND ARCHIVES 1994.009, etc. Fernie Family fonds [188-?]-[ca. 2004] Access: Open. Textual, Cartographic, Graphic 1.59 meters the 5th Canadian Division in England after the breakup of the RMR and was later still transferred to the 7th Canadian Infantry Battalion to serve in France as a platoon commander. He was appointed a lieutenant in the army and also served briefly as an acting provost marshal supervising military police with the 3rd Canadian Division. After returning from WWI, Fernie returned to the provincial police force and continued to be active in the military, serving in the B.C. Lighthorse regiment (later B.C. Hussars). He was eventually appointed commanding officer and then during the 1930s he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. Throughout his life Fernie was an accomplished sportsman. He excelled at polo, tennis, and badminton and competed in matches across B.C. while also serving as the president of both the polo and badminton clubs in Kamloops for a period. His love of the outdoors also led him to assist in the establishment of the Bowron Lake game reserve (later provincial park) in the mid-1920s. Fernie married Mary Isobel Lyle of London, England, on September 11th, 1905, and raised three children: William Vacy (1906-1930), Mary (1907-2005), and Eva Daphne (1909-2005). He died in Kamloops on July 23rd, 1943. Mary (May) Isabel Fernie (neé Lyle) was born 1878 at London, England. She was educated in Germany at a predatory school. After immigrating to Canada she married William Lewis Fernie on September 11th, 1905, in Vancouver. She and her husband W.L. Fernie raised three children – William Vacy, Mary, and Daphne – in Kamloops. May Fernie excelled at tennis and served as the president of the Kamloops Tennis Club in 1936. In 1933 she traveled Europe and wrote a series of articles for the Kamloops Sentinel under the title “By a Kamloops lady travelling in Europe”. In 1945 she moved to the Metchosin area of Victoria where together with her two daughters she ran a farm breeding polo ponies and raising goats. She died in 1968. William Vacy Fernie was born 21 September 1906 at Kamloops, the eldest son of William and Mary Fernie. He studied at the University of British Columbia. While working in the Cariboo district of B.C. for the summer he contracted meningitis and died on June 24th, 1930, at the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops. Mary Fernie was born 5 October 1907 in Kamloops. She was raised in Kamloops and educated at St. Ann’s Academy in Kamloops and Victoria. She studied at the Royal Inland Hospital Training School for Nurses, graduating in 1930. She worked as a nurse in Kamloops, Lytton, Williams Lake, New Westminster, and Victoria. Mary was an accomplished athlete who was active in polo, tennis, badminton, and horse riding. In 1945 she moved to the Metchosin area of Victoria where together with her mother and sister they operated a farm breeding polo ponies and raising goats. The Fernie Farm later expanded to include a tea room which Mary ran with her sister Daphne until 1990 selling their well known Fernie Farm Teas. She died on September 15, 2005, in Victoria. 2 KAMLOOPS MUSEUM AND ARCHIVES 1994.009, etc. Fernie Family fonds [188-?]-[ca. 2004] Access: Open. Textual, Cartographic, Graphic 1.59 meters Eva Daphne Fernie was born June 11, 1909 in Kamloops. She was a provincially ranked badminton player and an accomplished polo player. She worked for BC Forest Products at New Westminster. In 1946 she moved to the Metchosin area of Victoria and with her mother and sister ran a farm breeding polo ponies and raising goats. She also ran the Fernie Farm Tea Room with her sister Mary until it closed in 1990. She died in Victoria on 24 June 2005. Scope and content: Fonds consists of correspondence, sketchbooks, notebooks, journals, photographs, albums, publications, and artwork that document two generations of the Fernie family of Kamloops. Most records relate to W.L. Fernie’s careers in the military and the B.C. provincial police. Included are his World War I sketchbooks, police notebooks, daily journals, a police record book, as well as publications and photographs. There are also records related to the nursing training and career of his daughter Mary Fernie; a diary, correspondence, and travel journal of his wife May Fernie; and a small amount of material related to his son Vacy and his daughter Daphne Fernie. Also included are 23 personal photograph albums that belonged to W.L. Fernie, his wife, and two daughters. The albums contain family photographs from approximately 1900 to 1940. Custodial history: Most of the records of W.L. Fernie and May Fernie in this fonds were in the custody of their two daughters Daphne and Mary Fernie at the Fernie farm in Victoria before they were donated to the Kamloops Museum and Archives (KMA) in four accessions. The records in accession 1994.009 were donated to the KMA by Daphne and Mary Fernie on August 2nd, 1994. Douglas S. Ruth, the sisters’ neighbor in Victoria, transported the records to the KMA on their behalf. Records in accession 2000.036 were donated by Daphne and Mary Fernie on May 9, 2000, and were also transported to the KMA by their neighbor Douglas S. Ruth. Daphne and Mary Fernie donated the records that comprise accession 2001.001 directly to the KMA on 6 June 2001. The records in accession 2007.004 were acquired from Terrance Cue, Executor of the Estate of Daphne and Mary Fernie, on 14 April 2007. Many records in these accessions were received with accompanying post-it notes attached to them. The notes provide information on the contents of the records and were likely created by Daphne and Mary Fernie. The notes have largely been retained wherever warranted and attached to bond paper within the files for preservation purposes. Additional records related to the Fernie family were initially placed in the Vertical Files collection, and were accrued to this fonds during reprocessing in 2019. Accession 1964.109 was donated on 3 KAMLOOPS MUSEUM AND ARCHIVES 1994.009, etc. Fernie Family fonds [188-?]-[ca. 2004] Access: Open. Textual, Cartographic, Graphic 1.59 meters September 22, 1964 by G.N. Stacey. It is unknown how Stacey acquired these materials, but the letter from W.L. Fernie indicates that he gave the colt pistol he had acquired from Bill Miner to an unnamed “Captain.” Accession 2001.008 was donated on Janaury 10, 2001 by mail by Daphne Parr, on behalf of Mary and Daphne Fernie.