The family story below is by Cynthia Fleming, great-great granddaughter of Sir James Douglas (Cynthia is pictured on the right with her sister Gloria Bushby at the National Historic Site in Fort Langley). This story was originally published in The Trail of 1858 (Mark Forsythe & Greg Dickson). “The Father of British Columbia’ is acknowledged each year on or near Douglas Day (November 19th) by the Langley Heritage Society with a special dinner and guest speaker.

“I was born in San Fernando, Chile, on November 18, 1939 and lived in Chile for the first 10 years of my life. My dad was John Sinclair Bushby. His mother, Violet Bushby (born in England), the widow of George Bushby, visited Chile shortly after I was born and stayed with us until we moved back to British Columbia in the summer of 1950. My grandfather, George Bushby was the son of Arthur Bushby and Agnes Douglas, daughter of Sir James Douglas.

Grandmother Bushby lived in the past. She told me the most exciting stories about her life in Victoria, her travels to South Africa and England to see her daughter Audrey and five grandchildren. The parties, what people wore – everything was explained to me in great detail. She told me many things about their life in Canada, and it was better than any storybook. But if she did mention Sir James Douglas during that time I can’t honestly remember.

I believe I first heard about him after we arrived in Victoria. Of course, being in Victoria it was not hard to see his name everywhere you went. My father took my mother and me to visit his Aunt Rose and Aunt Dot for tea. My mother did not speak English and therefore did not notice how they snubbed her; but I had gone to English private schools and could understand them quite well and found them nothing but snobs. I guess Dad did too, because shortly after, we all packed up and moved to Vancouver. My mom, dad and grandmother lived there until they died.

The first school that I attended in BC was Sir James Douglas Elementary School, on Victoria Drive in Vancouver. It is pretty interesting that Douglas happened to be the neighbourhood school, considering how many schools there are in Vancouver. Unbeknownst to me, my father had in his possession the Sir James Douglas Bible. He allowed the school to display it in a glass case near the entrance. I attended the school for one more year before going to John Oliver School. When my family returned to Chile, the school returned the bible and my father left it with me. The bible now resides in the City of Vancouver Archives, where it was taken in by Major J.S. Matthews. It was later that I started to realize the importance of my great-great-grandfather….One thing is for sure: we might not be living in this beautiful Canadian province if it wasn’t for the sacrifices made by my Great-Great-Grandfather and Grandmother Douglas. ”