Shy little guys, they may have seemed in this 1929 photo when they were four years old.
Identical twins Stan and Len Jones were called “the Bubbers” when they were kids. When they grew up, though, these twin brothers were anything but shy – they became community leaders.
The twins’ mother, Mabel Eve Jones would take them for walks to entertain them, and the Royal Canadian Legion’s cenotaph was handy, standing in the 1920s /30s on the corner of Murray and Sooke Roads. The boys’ dad, George Jones, was a businessman who was operating a motor stage carrying freight between Victoria, Sooke and points west.
When they were old enough, Stan and Len both enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy and served overseas during World War II, as did their dad as well. Mabel Jones was left at home to care for the youngest, Gary, and contribute her time to working in the canteen at the Otter Point Army Training Camp.
Returning from the war, Stan went into logging at first, but his thoughts were on business. In 1966 Stan and his wife Marion bought Sooke’s main grocery business from Bob Gibson, at the Otter Point/Sooke Road corner.
The twins had married sisters from Alberta. Brother Len, married to Dorene, went into the forest industry as well, and eventually established a log booming business. His company was contracted to carry out the booming for Sooke Forest Products Sawmill on Goodridge Peninsula.
In 1974 the twins teamed up to establish Sooke’s first shopping mall, Cedar Grove Shopping Centre. While successful at business, the brothers’ first love remained the community itself. Stan Jones devoted half a century of work to developing the Sooke Community Association’s assets.
Len Jones spent many years with the Sooke Volunteer Fire Department, served as elected School Trustee for District 62 for seven years, and also devoted decades to the Sooke Community Association. The “Bubbers” never stopped. Following their parents’ early example, brothers Stan and Len shared their hearts with the people of Sooke and their legacy is carried on by the younger generations.
Should anyone be wondering why the cenotaph in the photo was fenced, Sooke had no pound law at that time, and cattle roamed freely about the village.
Elida Peers,
Historian
Sooke Region Museum