My last name is "Owen", which is Welsh, but my blood is mostly Gaelic (Scottish and Irish).
My great great great great great grandfather (on my mother's side), was Samuel Bell. Samuel was a Scotsman, who volunteerd for the British Army, to fight for the King against the Americans, at the time of the American Revolutionary War. Samuel is recorded as being in Halifax from 1769 through 1776. In August of 1781, when land grants in Nova Scotia were being made to Loyalist volunteers, Samuel received 200 acres on Windsor Road, near Halifax. He moved there, with his wife Ann Cross, and son, Hugh Bell, in 1782. Hugh, born in Ireland in 1780, was about two years old at the time.
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Hugh Bell |
Hugh Bell was not only Mayor of Halifax from 1844 to 1845 but, much more significantly, he was a member of the first cabinet in Joseph Howe's "Responsible Government". Furthermore, Hugh lobbied for, and realised, improved mental healthcare for the mentally ill, and founded the Mount Hope Asylum for the Insane, which later became the Nova Scotia Hospital.
.oOo.
Again on my mother's side (but not a descendent of Bell) is my great grandfather, Alexander Robinson. Alexander was born and raised in New Brunswick, then studied the classics at Dalhousie University in Halifax, and moved to British Columbia in the late 1890's, to become Principal of Vancouver Highschool.
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Alexander Robinson |
He, together with his friend W. C. Brown QC, pioneered the "moving picture business" in Vancouver. By 1899, he was the Provincial Superintendent of Education, and was responsible for huge changes and improvements to education in British Columbia. He was instrumental in the establishment of the University of British Columbia.
.oOo.
My grandfather, Cecil Angus Milloy - who married Alexander Robinson's daughter Prudence - was the first Canadian soldier of the 16th Battalion wounded in action in WWI. In 1914, he was sent back to Canada, but volunteerd again, and was sent back to Europe. Amazingly, he also joined the Canadian Forces in WWII.
