ROYAL CANADIAN LEGION, SOOKE BRANCH, 1947
This photo of members of RCL Branch #54 was taken in 1947 in the original Sooke Legion Hall which stood on Eustace Road just about where Sheilds Road meets Eustace.
Front row: Lenora Hewlett, Elsie Arden, Elsie Thornber, Nettie Rumsby, Margaret Taylor, Pauline Morton, Agnes Collins, Bea Morrison, Olive Wadams, Sheila Martin.
Second row: Peter Wadams, Tommy Blight, Emily Nixon, Mrs. Jackman, Mrs. Bickford, Minnie Dixon, Betty Soutar, Jean Myers, G. Ashton, Mabel Jones, John Martin, Fred Thornber, Capt PW deP Taylor.
Third row: Bob Gibson, Vernon Norman, Jim Arden, Mr. Johnston, Jack Goldie, Peter Dixon, Jim Martin, Denis Lavender, Gordon Nixon, Sid Gates.
Rear: Larry Rumsby, Jack Lindley, Gerald Roberson, Don Morrison, Jack Myers.
The Sooke Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion was formed in 1926, with Captain PW “Buck” Taylor as first president. Their early meetings were held in the historic Curtis Muir house on West Coast Road, right where a car wash and doggie wash has been built today.
The first president of the Legion Women’s Auxiliary, formed in 1935, was Mrs Fred (Elsie) Thornber. By the mid-1940s the Legion folk were able to meet on their own premises, as pictured.
Records show that the First World War saw the loss of 15 servicemen resident in our area, and that in World War II, 11 servicemen from our community gave their lives.
Elida Peers,
Historian
Sooke Region Museum