Scots in early twentieth-century British Columbia

During the first half of the twentieth century, many travellers remarked that of all the Canadian provinces British Columbia appeared to be the most “British.” This perception was reinforced by the presence of large numbers of retired military officers and colonial administrators, along with a sizeable number of ‘gentleman’ immigrants - particularly on Vancouver Island and in the interior of the province. Scots figured prominently among this group as they did among the province’s early industrialists. All of these elites were united in their conspicuous loyalty to the British Empire. This chapter will examine how other immigrant Scots either challenged or reinforced the province’s publicly proclaimed imperial identity. It will explore the criticism of empire implied by participation in international trade unionism and membership in the Canadian Communist Party. Scottish members of the CCP were very active in British Columbia, as they were across Canada, and were insistent that all workers needed to unite across racial and ethnic lines. Other labouring Scots, however, participated enthusiastically in the anti-Asian agitations that were found across Britain’s Pacific world. By exploring in detail Scottish participation in anti-Asian debates, especially between the world wars, the chapter will place in context Scottish immigrant ideas about race and identity. The generally hostile attitude towards Chinese and Japanese fellow immigrants in British Columbia will be contrasted to the favourable attitude of several Scots, from various class backgrounds, toward the original inhabitants of the province. While many Scots undoubtedly contributed to the dispossession of the First Nations, others were more sympathetic and sought to modify the effects of colonization or to build working class alliances with native organizations. Despite these more positive relations, from the earliest days of the colony there had been regular demands that more single ‘white’ women be sent from the homeland in order to provide an alternative to settler alliances with indigenous women. Nevertheless, the masculine nature of the social world in both Scotland and British Columbia has often resulted in these women’s contribution being overlooked. The chapter will examine, in particular, the rhetoric surrounding the notorious1924 murder of Vancouver housemaid Janet Smith, “the Scottish Nightingale,” in order to highlight both the anti-Asian attitudes of Scottish fraternal societies and the fact that single female Scottish immigrants were an important part of imperial settlement in the early twentieth century. The chapter will then place the Scottish women’s British Columbian experience, which ranged from coming as domestic servants in the inter-war period to emigrating as war brides after World War Two, in its broader Canadian and imperial context.

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