Alfred Bateson Vye Parminter
Was born January 29, 1889 in Leeds, Yorkshire (our family tree says 1889, his enlistment papers of 1917 have 1887 as the year of birth). His father was John Vye Parminter, a school Headmaster (1884-1911) and mother was Maria Bateson (died 1951). Alfred died on April 23, 1970 in New Westminster, B.C.
He worked at the Farnley Iron Co., Limited in Yorkshire beginning in April 1902. His first pay stub indicates a wage of 2/1 (two shillings and one pence?) for a week.
https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Farnley_Iron_Co I am not sure when and where Alfred met his wife Frances (nee Hutchinson, born January 1, 1881 in Northumberland, died March 31, 1959 in Vancouver).
She was head of housekeeping in a manor house in England, which was usually a position held by a man (Head Butler? - not sure of the correct terminology).
Family stories say that Alfred and Frances made their way to the west coast of Canada and lived in a tent beside a river until they got established. One of Alfred’s first jobs was on a construction crew building a steel railway bridge over a river east of Vancouver.
He and Frances then lived in Victoria, B.C. for a few years and he worked at the Victoria Machinery Depot, shipbuilders.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Machinery_Depot They moved back to the Vancouver area and he worked in a sawmill at Fraser Mills, east of Vancouver, for the rest of his working life (1914 or 1915 to about 1955). He was a pipe fitter and worked in the power plant which burned wood waste to produce electricity for the sawmill machinery and steam heat for various purposes.
The sawmill began operations in 1891, closed in 1892, restarted in 1903 and was owned by the Canadian Western Lumber Company from 1910 until 1953. They had extensive forest lands on Vancouver Island and two logging companies there cut the trees and sent them to Fraser Mills for processing into lumber, shingles, plywood and doors. The sawmill was considered to be the largest in the British Empire for several decades, employing 1200 men. There was a company town (called Millside until 1907 then renamed Fraser Mills) with housing for single and married workers and a company store.
Alfred enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force at Vancouver, B.C. on January 16, 1917. He served in France and was gassed in action somewhere on the western front. After that he was given a medical discharge. His breathing was affected for the rest of his life and being a heavy smoker didn’t help matters.
He lived and worked at Fraser Mills, B.C. at the time he enlisted. The three children – John Anthony (died young), Margaret Vye (1915 - March 5, 2005) and Alfred Vye (November 2, 1916 - September 20, 1990) lived at Fraser Mills for a few years and then the family had their own house in New Westminster.
In his retirement Alfred and Frances lived in one of the company houses once more. After a few years it was moved several miles away as it was in the way of a new road. That might have been in the late 1940s or early 1950s, by which time their children had left home.
I remember visiting them in that house when I was young and before Frances died in 1959. After that, Alfred lived alternately with his daughter Margaret in Guelph, Ontario and son Alfred in Vancouver, then in a senior’s residence in New Westminster until his death in 1970.
Alfred’s son was a school teacher, later a university professor, and his first posting was as Principal (Headmaster) of Millside Elementary School (built in 1907), which he himself had attended years before.
Follows a photo of Alfred Bateson Vye Parminter taken in Yorkshire before he emigrated to Canada.
John Vye Parminter, grandson
Victoria, B.C.
