A Bit of Club History
There is a framed hanging on one of the Galiano Community Hall walls which displays a long list of beautifully inscribed names in–troduced with, “Galiano Club Charter Members for the Year Nineteen Hundred and Twenty Five”. Lots here is of interest to me. Most of these family names are quickly recognizable—Bell–house, Burrill, Georgeson, Morgan, Murcheson, Page, Twiss—to mention just a few. The names are part of my island neighbour–hood geography. Their descendants are amongst us; some con–tinue the tradition of being Galiano Club members. The list is a nice mix of nationalities—Japanese, European, First Nation. A few oddities too: the married women have no individual name; the one Japanese name has no first name at all. And, the hanging does not contain the name of the artist/designer. I’ve decided the solve the mystery of the latter.
Several years ago the then Lieutenant Governor, Galiano native Iona Campagnolo, visited the island to attend a public event at the Hall accompanied by her mother, Mrs. Rosamund Hardy. Afterwards Mrs. Hardy and I had a chance to chat. Remembering that, of course, she too had spent some time living on the island, I drew her attention to this wall hanging asking if she knew any of the names. “Well, all of them!!”, she answered. There were the names of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Finlay Murcheson, the names of most of their neighbours. She also recalled attending the unveiling of this hanging, “in the 1970s”.Many years later I finally started a search through the Galiano Club Executive Meeting Minutes to find out more. I found that in October,1968, the then Club President, Margaret Robson, introduced the idea to create a “picture scroll commemorating the giver of the land which the Hall stands on and (to) all the pioneers who helped build and organize the Community Hall.”
The January, 1969 Executive meeting was told that “Mrs. George Templeman has kindly consented to do the picture scroll”. The April,1970, meeting minutes contain the announcement that “a Spring Tea is to be arranged for Saturday, May 2nd. Mr. James will be present to give a garden talk, and invitations to be sent out to all Charter members of Galiano Club to witness unveiling of plaque commemorating the founding of the Galiano Club 1925.” So, that must be the “unveiling” Mrs. Hardy remembered.Searching for info then on the scroll’s designer, Mrs. George Templeman, I find not much (even with the help of friend & researcher, Helen Russell). I do learn however that her first name was Ingunn, that her maiden name was Inkster. The longtime Galiano resident and watercolour artist Amy (Field) Inkster was her mother. A family relative reports on Google that “Aunt Ingunn was an excellent draftsperson when young, but after marrying and becoming a mother she turned to water colour painting, at which she excelled. She was quiet in her manner, but enjoyed a good joke and was a positive and gentle soul.” The same relative has her Aunt being born “about 1937” in Edmonton, Alberta, dy–ing in Grand Forks, BC, “about 2016”. Friend Margaret Howell tells me that she owns paintings done by both women and that she likes the works “very much”. I discover too that Ingunn’s daughter, Katherine Templeman, remains in contact with several islanders, is a regular contributor to the Facebook site “Galiano Island Photo Album from the Past”. And … that’s about it.
Much later, after it had already been hanging on a Community Hall for almost a decade, the document got amended. In the early 1980s then Club Director Ken Hardy noticed that some Charter members had been left off the list. Mrs. Templeman had departed the island so amateur calligrapher Willow Jewell was hired by the Club to add the names. Willow remembers that she spent “many agonizing hours” trying to match Ingunn’s script; she succeeded.The Hall’s framed “picture scroll” will soon have added to it:‘An Oct.1968 Galiano Club Executive decision to create a “picture scroll commemorating the giver of the land which the Hall stands on and (to) all the pioneers who helped build and organize the Community Hall” was the result of an initiative of the President, Margaret Robson (Mrs. Fred Robson).
Eventually this framed “picture scroll” was designed/created by Ingunn Inkster (Mrs. George Templeman) and was unveiled at a public ceremony on May 2nd, 1970 attended by those listed & still surviving. In the early 1980s Club Director, Ken Hardy, noticed that the names of some Galiano Club founders were missing. Willow Jewell was hired to add the names, to complete in the same script as Mrs. Templeman.