February 12th, 2020
Considering the date, - which marks the anniversary
of the birth of my beloved husband,
here are a few words to mark
his extraordinary contributions to all those things
he became involved in
during his life here in this valley.
Charles Lincoln Finch
February 12th,
1924 – November 16th, 2012
A Tribute
In the first
decade of the 20th century a number of Yukon gold miners and
entrepreneurs heard of land being sold in the beautiful Okanagan Valley for
$100.00 dollars an acre, and sight unseen they invested, with the intention of
planting orchards.
Vincent Finch arrived
from the Yukon in 1910 and was soon joined by his son Albion. In 1913 Sidney Finch was persuaded to leave
Hoodsport and the family business at Finch Creek to help for a few weeks on the
newly planted orchards, but his stay was extended for almost seventy years when
he also bought orchard property. He
married Violet Hunter, but within two years she died from tuberculosis.
In 1920
Sidney married Mabel O’Callaghan, a young widow with two children, Hazel and
Tom. Their first son, Gordon, was born
in 1922, and Charles, their second son, on February 12th, 1924. A daughter, Wenonah, completed the family two
years later.
Despite the
economic difficulties the depression brought it was a wonderful place to raise
a family, with the lake close by, the surrounding hills where one could hike
and hunt and fish, and a community of young farming people in a similar
situation with young families and friendships that have continued throughout
their lives.
Charles took the bus into
Penticton for his schooling, along with other Benchland children. He attended his last class reunion in June of
2012, but they had been held annually since the 40th anniversary in
1982.
There was music
in the home. – violin, fiddle, piano and tuba (which Charles played in the
School Band) which was to instill in him
a great fondness for music and singing.
In the home in which his own children were raised there were two very
large speakers which carried phonograph music through open windows into the
orchard (where everyone was picking or hoeing or planting) and fostered this
appreciation in his own children.
At the age
of eighteen Charles enlisted in the RCAF, and while undergoing training at ITS
in Edmonton met his future wife, Hildred Thompson. He went on to High River, and then to Curry
Field in Calgary, where he was awarded his wings
On arriving
in the UK Charles received further training on heavy aircraft, and eventually with
his crew joined an RAF Squadron, # 170, at Helmswell where he was a Lancaster
Pilot carrying out operations over Germany.
His half brother, Tom had died in the Falaise Gap, and In March of 1945
his second brother was killed at a Battle in the Hochwald Forest. Charles was withdrawn from duty and arrived
in New York on the 1st of May, a few days before the war ended. He and Hildred were married in Edmonton on
May 12th. 1945.
After five
years in Penticton, and three children later, the family moved on to the
Cawston Bench and the Fairview Heights Irrigation District, a VLA project for
Veterans. Charles worked with PFRA
setting up the project and then acted as Secretary-Manager and Bailiff for a
few years, after which he joined with many of the other veterans working in the
logging industry and in local sawmills until the orchards they had planted came
into production. The younger three children of the family of six were born
during this time.
Charles had
a clear vision and a keen sense of awareness of the consequences of actions and
events, as well as a serious commitment to his citizenship, and these qualities
lent themselves well to a leadership role in many of the activities he became
involved in, - the Cawston Board of Trade, as Chair of two Centennial
Committees, ten years as School Board Chair and a driving force behind the
formation of Okanagan College in which he spent six years as a persistent Chair
of the College Council in the face of the many parochial difficulties they
dealt with in establishing the College.
In the field
of Agriculture he became active in the B.C. Federation of Agriculture, and
because of augmenting the orchard income with a large flock of sheep he spent
some years as Chair of the B.C. Sheep and Wool Commission, the B.C. Sheep
Breeder’s Co-operative and as a Director on the Canadian Co-operative Wool
Growers.
He was
active in the Canadian Legion and was twice President of Branch 192 in
Keremeos, with a Lifetime membership award.
He will be sadly missed as the strong voice who called out the names of
The Fallen in two World Wars at Remembrance Day Services in Keremeos.
For a while
in the 1980’s Charles went adventuring as an Independent Trucker in a wonderful
old Kenworth, but in 1987 he and Hildred retired to Keremeos and a life of
weaving (to which he contributed wonderful and innovative additions to the
looms) golfing, camping, bridge and fishing with old friends.
They took advantage of the leisure time to
visit England, France and Holland for two Squadron reunions and to visit
Charles’ brothers’ graves in Europe.
During the
war the crew who flew with Charles had formed a strong bond, as was the case with
so many other men who faced danger in the skies together. In 1997 they traveled to Canada for a reunion
in the West, motoring from Calgary through the Rockies to Keremeos and on to
Vancouver.
In the early
1990’s Charles spearheaded renewed activity in the Similkameen Branch of the
Okanagan Historical Society and during this time, while he was President, the
Annual OHS picnic was held at the Pow-Wow grounds on First Nation’s land in the
Ashnola River Valley.
Shortly
after the family moved to Cawston Charles had suffered polio in probably the
last of the great epidemics before the Salk Vaccine, and this came back to
haunt him in his final years when he was stricken with neuropathy, greatly
affecting his mobility. He found some
solace in his involvement with the Senior Singers at the OAP in Keremeos, where
I am sure his quirky smile, his endearing way of putting people at ease and his
nice tenor voice are missed, - there and by those who loved him so.
