A Visit from the Past

Copeman’s was one of four Houses at the time, Mr. Manning recalled, along with Lake’s, Groves’ and Ripley’s. It was heated by a coal furnace that the boys had to stoke. In the winter months, it could get so cold overnight that if you left a glass of water beside your bed, you might wake up to find a thin layer of ice formed on top.

 

There were 12 boys to a dorm, and bed inspections every morning. Mr. Manning’s House Director was Mr. Derek Hyde-Lay, whose family remains part of the School community, while the Matron was Mrs. Hartl, whose family is memorialized in the name of one of the creeks that crosses campus. Once the boys left their rooms in the morning, they didn’t return until bedtime. All classes were held in the classroom block until it burned down in 1958 – a spectacle Mr. Manning remembers watching from his dorm while older boys helped firefighters battle the flames in vain.

 

The Headmaster when Mr. Manning entered Shawnigan was Mr. Peter Kaye – namesake of Kaye’s House. It was a rule at the time that all boys had to wear a tie off campus. Once, Mr. Kaye was driving Mr. Manning and another student to the nearby train station, but Mr. Manning had misplaced his tie. They hurried to the Commissary – located then where the Brown Family Health Centre is now – and acquired a new tie. Unfortunately, Mr. Manning had never learned how to tie a tie; he had his tied once and kept it hanging in his closet, pre-tied for when he needed it. He found himself sitting in the back of the Headmaster’s car, embarrassed that he didn’t know what to do with his newly obtained garment, and Mr. Kaye was aghast.

There were, obviously, no cell phones at the time, and students didn’t have access to landlines either. Communication with their parents was almost exclusively through letters. Those sent home by Shawnigan students were perfunctory, but letters received at the School were cherished – and care parcels even more so. Students typically didn’t have any contact with their families other than mail for three and a half months at a time. When Mr. Manning asked current Grade 8s which of them speaks with their parents every day, well over half the students raised their hands.

 

Travel to and from the School was largely done by train – with a steamer trunk in tow. In Mr. Manning’s case, he caught a train from Edmonton to Vancouver, spent a day in Vancouver, then took a ferry to Nanaimo, where the school bus picked him up. Mr. Manning recalled one fellow student getting off the train in Jasper, Alberta and selling his ticket to Vancouver for pocket money, then hitchhiking to the ferry.

 

Sports at the time included rugby, basketball, cricket, and track and field against other schools and clubs, rowing, and inter-House swimming and boxing. Among Shawnigan’s opponents that Mr. Manning remembers were St. George’s School, University School (part of St. Michaels University School since 1971) and Brentwood College School.

 

As harsh and disciplined as the School was in those years, the students did get quite a bit of free rein during their time off. The Commissary was just for school supplies and some uniform pieces, so students had to walk to Mason’s Store for any snacks, which they could do between the end of classes and dinner time. They also had Sunday afternoons off, when they could ride their bikes – usually nearby or around Shawnigan Lake, although Mr. Manning mentioned once riding all the way to Duncan for a foot-long hot dog. The boys would also ride or walk the short distance to what was then Strathcona Lodge School to visit the girls.

 

Thanks again to Mr. Manning for returning to the School to share some memories with our current Grade 8s!