Accession Number

2022.006.013

Description

One handwritten letter on cream-coloured paper dated 4th May, 1945, the black ink applied with metal nib. The letter paper one page that has been folded and covers three of four pages.

Narrative

The letter reads:

My Dear Maud

Many thanks for your sweet letter and kind sympathy.

Now I realize what you have gone through. Dear Reggie was one of the most charming men I ever met and you were a ? to him as dear as Mary was to me, now there is nothing in life for me and you but sadness. After 48 years of sweet companionship.

I had three serious operations during the past year and I think the shocks were too great for her as a nearly died three times.

Mary had two wishes, one was to die before me and the other to die peacefully which I thank God came true. Her dear heart gave out Now there is no one to come home to when I go out. She was always here to greet me. Enough of this as I do not wish to depress you with my sorrow.

Jim Fell has had two operations on his leg and is in hospital in San Francisco. He could hardly walk when he went away. I had a letter from him yesterday saying he had got up on crutches for a few minutes and hoped to be back here in two or three weeks.

About Betty. Royal Trust tell me her name and address is

Mrs. E.A. Kneckhoil [Knechtel]
Las Palma Hotel
1738 La Palma Boulevard
Hollywood, Cal.

That they send her money periodically but that she does not try to overdraw and has not for some time and they nothing about her otherwise.

With much sympathy to dear you and love

Yours affectionately, Boisy

I suppose you know that Allan sold your house to a Montreal millionaire by the name of Ross.

This letter was written to Henrietta Maud Dunsmuir (Mrs. Reginald Spencer Chaplin) on May 4, 1945 by a relative nicknamed Boisey living at 1649 Laurier Drive in Vancouver, B.C. There is an elegant old house still standing at 1649 Laurier Avenue in Vancouver, B.C. as of November, 2022. The 1944 and 1945 Vancouver Directories list the occupant as R. C. Buchanan. The letter refers to “Betty” and “Mrs. E. A.  Kneckhoil” [correct spelling is Knechtel] as the same person. Betty is Maud’s sister’s daughter’s daughter, Elizabeth Agnes Kirk (b. 18 December, 1904), daughter of Elizabeth Georgina Harvey, daughter of Agnes Crooks Dunsmuir, the second daughter of Robert and Joan Olive Dunsmuir. On September 30, 1903 at age 29, Elizabeth Georgina Harvey married George Alan Kirk, the son of James Buchanan and Emily Kirk.  R.C. Buchanan, aka “Boisy”, author of this letter, is the father of her first husband.

Elizabeth Georgina Harvey's daughter, Elizabeth Agnes Kirk (AKA "Betty"),  married B.C. Electric Company concrete inspector William Henry Keith Buchanan in Vancouver on August 29, 1929. The registration certificate of this marriage records that Mr. Buchanan lived at 1649 Laurier Avenue, and it lists his father as Rupert Charles Buchanan. This is the “R.C. Buchanan” listed as the owner of 1649 Laurier Avenue and hence, "Boisey", the author of this letter..

And so, in anthropological parlance, this letter to Henrietta Maud Dunsmuir was written by her sister’s daughter’s daughter’s first husband’s father. It is apparent from this letter that Maud was looking for Betty. It is not known whether they ever found each other. Similarly, it is not known how this letter came to be in the possession of the donor’s grandmother, Margaret Joan Harvey, who was Betty’s aunt. Perhaps Maud sent it to her so that she could find her niece in Hollywood.

Maud and her husband Reginald Chaplin lived on Vancouver’s Belmont Avenue, not far from 1649 Laurier Avenue from 1928-39. They may have socialized with Rupert Charles Buchanan during this period. Maud’s house that Mr. Buchanan refers to as being sold to the Montreal millionaire named Ross was almost certainly Glen Lodge, which was situated at 4899 Belmont Avenue.

History of Use

The donor of this photograph is a great great grandson of Robert and Joan Olive Dunsmuir, and the son of Georgiana Holme-Sumner, daughter of Margaret Joan Dunsmuir. This letter was used by his mother and himself in England and Scotland before it was donated to The Castle Society in 2022.

Date

May 4 1945

Dimensions

16.8 x 27 cm

Material

Paper

Country of Origin

Canada