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SOOKE HISTORY: Drama production featured cast of Sooke society

Miller Higgs was a realtor whose prolific writing promoting Sooke made him one of the village’s first publicists
drama
This group of folks working on a drama production is posed in front of the original Sooke Hall in the early 1920s.

A pioneer village it might have been, but Sooke was never without culture. This group of folks working on a drama production is posed in front of the original Sooke Hall. This hall was built in 1915 by a consortium of Caroline Sanderson, Dr Richard Felton and John Murrayt on property once held by Eustace Arden. This location is now the site of the Sheilds Business Centre, the three-story structure at the corner of Sheilds Road and West Coast Road, only a stone’s throw from today’s Sooke Community Hall, which was built in 1937.

In this early 1920s photo, the tall gent on the left is Miller Higgs, pictured with his wife; he was a realtor whose prolific writing promoting Sooke made him one of the village’s first publicists. Those pictured formed an eclectic group; included was Veronique Willett, who later left for France, where she married her cousin, Count de la Hitte. The Count and Countess both worked for the French underground during the Second World War.

The Muir family had been Sooke’s founding immigrant family. A Muir grandson, John Stephen, was married to Eliza Throup, who is seen in the photo. Eliza Throup Muir went on to become mother to our well-known historian, Florence Muir, who shared so much history to help with the museum’s archives. Eliza Muir had two daughters, while Florence married Robert Acreman and lived near Maple Avenue, daughter Bertha became Mrs. Auchinachie and moved to Duncan.

Sooke’s fisheries officer at the time was Alec Reid, who lived on Murray Road; he and his wife Polly are in the group. His sister Sally Reid was in this scene as well, and later married Dick Seymour. Our notes tell us that Mrs. Milligan is shown as well, but we are not certain which Milligan she was married to, as there were four brothers: Bill, Norval, Jack and Dunbar, all in logging in Otter Point. Mrs. Wilham is another in the photo, she was wife to businessman Percy Wilham and mother to May (later May Giles) and to Elsie (later Elsie Arden).

Agnes McBride, another of the drama participants, became the wife of Joe Collins, an employee of Sooke Harbour Fishing and Packing, and went on to become a telephone operator in her senior years. Our source for this photo was Gladys Graignic Soule, whose family had come to Sooke from Port Townsend, in connection to the fishtraps industry. Sooke’s drama groups have continued through the years.

Elida Peers is the historian with the Sooke Region Museum.