News Archive

The idea for the Museum grew out of Lance Bean’s deep affection for the School’s history. Lance worked at Shawnigan from 1974 to 1981 as a French and art teacher, band instructor, and housemaster. When he prepared to return in 2002, he shared with Headmaster and longtime friend David Robertson his vision: a museum that would show what life as a boarder once felt like – not only through photographs and stories, but through objects, spaces, and lived experience. The Head agreed, and allocated a portion of the basement in Marion Hall – which was being built at the time – to house the Museum.

Sir Percy Henry Noel Lake was born in Tenby, Wales, in 1855, to a British father and a Canadian mother. Commissioned into the British Army in 1873, he pursued a distinguished military career spanning continents and decades. Rising through the ranks, he served as a senior commander in the British and Indian Armies and the Canadian Militia, with postings in Afghanistan, Sudan, India, Britain, Iraq, and Canada, where he was Inspector General of the Canadian Militia. After leaving Canada in 1910, he served in India as Chief of the General Staff, was appointed Colonel of the East Lancashire Regiment, and later became commander-in-chief of the Mesopotamian Force. He returned to England in 1916 and, after retiring in 1919, settled in Victoria, B.C. In civilian life, he continued his service as the first president of the Canadian Legion. Since 1943, the South Vancouver Island Zone of the Canadian Legion has awarded the annual Sir Percy Lake Memorial Scholarship in his honour.

On April Fool’s Day in 1953, teacher Frank Duxbury was surprised to find his bicycle hanging from the flagpole (pictured above) – an early sign that Shawnigan has always taken its mischief seriously.

Back in the 1920s, boys were responsible for lighting the classroom woodstove. Two enterprising students discovered that adding coal dust to kindling caused a small, delayed boom! To discourage a teacher from monopolizing the stove’s warmth, they prepared a “special” fire. When it exploded, everyone jumped – except the boys who laughed. Case closed. The teacher never sat there again.