An interview with W.R. Manson

Abstract

First segment of the audio recording (17 min.) is William Barraclough interviewing long time Nanaimo resident, William R. Manson on March 15, 1966. Mr. Manson gives details about how several members of his family left the Shetland Islands in Scotland to settle in British Columbia. The Manson family operated a general store in Nanaimo on Haliburton Street from the 1870s until the 1950s. Mr. Manson explains how after the store closed many of the fixtures and some of the old inventory was donated to the general store of Barkerville, B.C. The second segment of the tape (15 min.) is a recording of Dayrell M. Bate's presentation to the Nanaimo Historical Society on November 8, 1966. Mr. Bate was the grandson of Nanaimo's first mayor, Mark Bate. Mr. Bate reminisces about his boyhood days on Vancouver Island, including memories of spending summers in Royston and visiting his grandparents in Nanaimo.