Occupation: James Alfred Dawson Lowe

As noted in other posts, James Alfred Dawson Lowe was born in 1894 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. In the 1911 census, James Alfred (JA) was 17 years old and living with his parents at 37 Chatham Street, which is in Bradford, a suburb of the city of Leeds.

In that census, JA was listed as a worker at a cocoa factory. When he wed two years later in 1913, the occupation shown on his marriage registration was 'chocolate maker.' JA was still living with his parents at 37 Chatham Street in the Bradford area of Leeds. Since there were few public transportation options, most people worked within walking distance of where they lived. The only cocoa and chocolate manufacturer listed in the Bradford Post Office Directory of 1912 was John Tordoff & Son, Limited at 46 Kirkgate. That address is just over a mile from where the Lowe family lived and would have been less than a half hour walk.

John Tordoff began as a tea merchant in 1820 with locations in Bradford and in London. The company’s premises in Bradford was the oldest tea establishment in the city and included a retail shop and a tea warehouse. By the 1880s, the firm also manufactured cocoa and chocolates. Records show that it continued in business until at least 1914.

Advertisement for Tordoff's Cocoa published in 1895 in a trade publications called the Nursing Record & Hospital World

At some point after he left the army, JA moved to the town of Halifax in Yorkshire. Family stories tell that they moved to Halifax from Leeds to help with their application to settle in Canada. There were fewer applicants from smaller towns than there were from large cities, so this may have moved them up the list. But we don't know for sure if this is true.

What we do know is that he worked as a crane driver at the Campbell Gas Engine Company in Halifax. This occupation was shown on the birth certificate for his son James Edward in March of 1920 and on the census, which was taken in June 1921. Another record shows that he also worked as a wheelwright while the family lived in Halifax, which could have been for the same company.

The Campbell Gas Engine Company is famous for producing machinery that was distributed all over the world. Many Campbell machines have survived the years and are in many museums and private collections. Hugh Campbell was a Scottish entrepreneur, who moved to Halifax when his father took a job in the town as a carpet designer in 1889. Hugh set up a workshop manufacturing gas engines. Locals impressed with his workmanship funded Hugh's expansion into a business, which he named the Campbell Gas Engine Company. The business expanded several times in the early part of the 20th century and employed between 600 and 800 workers and exported throughout the world.

Cover of the 1920 Campbell Gas Engine Company catalogue

During the First World War, the company manufactured munitions with 1500 employees. After the war, Hugh hired many ex-servicemen, including James Alfred Lowe. But during the early 1920s, labour disputes over the servicemen he employed caused disruptions for the business. Hugh refused to let the workers go, and in 1927 the business closed.

Machine built by the Campbell Gas Engine Company circa 1927
For more images of Campbell machines, visit: https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Campbell_Gas_Engine_Co

Coincidentally or not, JA took his wife and four children to Canada in 1928, not long after the Campbell Gas Engine Company closed. They had been accepted into a settler program and their passage was paid for by the government. Again, we don't know when they applied and if they had moved to Halifax as part of that process, or if the loss of his job prompted the move.

JA later received a soldier’s land grant, built a cabin near Dawson Creek and farmed the land for several years. At the end of the mandatory contract, he sold the farm and relocated to Vancouver in 1936 or 1937. (For more information on the family settling and farming in Dawson Creek, see separate post called Homesteading.)

In the 1936 British Columbia directory, JA was shown to be a tailor in Vancouver. Both his father and grandfather had been tailors, and James Alfred learned the occupation from his father while growing up. Then in the 1937 directory he was listed as a cook, but there are no family stories or documents to indicate how he came to be in that occupation. Although the 1938 and 1939 directories do not show his occupation, we know from a letter in his service record that he was working as a tailor for several different military regiments and had his own shop on Robson Street in downtown Vancouver until the beginning of World War II.

Unfortunately, that area of Vancouver has been completely redeveloped, and I have been unable to find any photographs of the building that stood there before WWII. The address would have been near the corner of Robson and Broughton. The following photo from the Vancouver Archives shows that area of downtown in 1945. Since most of the regiments had armouries in downtown, this would have been convenient for his military tailoring business.

When the Second Word War started, JA volunteered for active service. However, he was discharged six months later for medical reasons due to having been gassed in the First World War.

In a letter in his Canadian World War II service record requesting employment as a tailor, JA wrote the following about his experience working as a tailor for the Duke of Connaught's Own Rifle regiment (DCOR).

This is a type-written version of his handwritten letter that was in his military files; it's possible that the army had the letter typed for official purposes.

Puttees were strips of cloth that were worn wrapped around soldier's lower legs, typically in a spiral pattern, from the ankle up to below the knee. They were designed to provide ankle support and to prevent debris and water from entering the boots or pants. Not only did they help protect soldier's legs from damage, if they could prevent water from getting into their boots, they could prevent trench foot. Apparently, James Alfred had created his own version of a puttee that had a zipper in it. This would make it much easier to take on and off. Below is a newspaper article confirming the story.

From The Province newspaper 27 June 1939

Between 1940 and 1945, he worked as a tailor in the ordnance office and at the Boeing plant in Vancouver, possibly utilizing his tailoring skills as an upholsterer for airplane seats.

In the 1946 directory, JA was working as a baker at a chain of bakeries in Vancouver called The Woman’s Bakery, which had 10 locations in the city. That same year, he was issued merchant marine identification and a card that recorded crew engagements on ships in Canada.

Click on images to enlarge.

His Merchant Marine Certificate of Discharge card showed that JA was engaged as a baker on the cable ship C.S. Restorer from 29 August 1946 until 25 October that same year. He appears on a ship’s crew manifest for that vessel, which had left from the port of Victoria, B.C. via deep sea cable repair and Bamfield on Vancouver Island before arriving in Seattle on 25 September 1946. The ship had likely returned to dock after finishing its cable repair work when he left it.

Cable Ship Restorer (Photo courtesy of the Vancouver Archives; no date or location)

I'm guessing that the income must have been good, because JA continued working on boats for years afterward. His next engagement was as second cook on the H.M.C.S. Prince David out of Vancouver from 13 January to 24 March 1947. This vessel was launched in 1930 by CN Steamships to operate as a small luxury liner on the west coast of Canada. In 1939, it was converted for war service by the Canadian navy. After it was decommissioned at the end of the war, in September 1946 the ship was purchased by the Charlton Steam Shipping Co. In February 1947, the Prince David was reported to have been in Britain undergoing conversion back to a passenger ship. Based on those dates, it would appear that JA was hired for the voyage from Canada to Britain. As the ship went to Australia after conversion, it is likely that he returned to Canada directly from England via some other method of transportation.

The HMC Prince David in 1930. (Photo from Wikipedia with credit given to the Canada Science and Technology Museum Corporation's web site.)

Following that, JA served on a sternwheeler called the ‘Keno’ registered in Dawson, Yukon Territory. He joined this passenger/freight vessel as Chief Cook on 26 July 1947 and was discharged 13 October 1947. The SS Keno was constructed in Whitehorse by the British Yukon Navigation Company in 1922.

The Keno on display in Dawson City (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia; no date)

From Wikipedia: “For most of its career it transported silver, zinc and lead ore down the Stewart River from mines in the Mayo district to the confluence of the Yukon and Stewart rivers at Stewart City… to be able to navigate Stewart River, BYN Co. construction foreman A.E. Henderson specifically designed SS Keno for shallow water operation. As built, she was 130.5 ft (39.8 m) long, with a beam of 29.2 ft (8.9 m)... in service the Keno's draught was typically only between two and three feet (0.6 to 0.9 m), and with a light load as little as 21 in (53 cm). Her hull was constructed from wood, carvel-built, and her superstructure was arranged in a three deck configuration typical of sternwheelers. The lowermost deck, the main deck at gunwale level, was the freight house. Above this, and approximately the same size, was the saloon deck, carrying much of the vessel's passenger accommodation and facilities. Uppermost was the smaller, punningly titled 'Texas' deck, carrying larger staterooms for the captain, senior crew and first class passengers… the Keno's gross tonnage was 553.17 tons.”

The Keno was retired from commercial service in 1951, reportedly due to a lack of need because of the extension and improvement of the Klondike Highway. In 1959 the ship was donated to the government and is now in Dawson City as a museum and national historic site that is open to the public. (For more information visit: https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/lhn-nhs/yt/klondike/culture/lhn-nhs_sskeno)

On 25 May 1949, JA signed on to a freighter called the S.S. Islandside in Vancouver, again as Chief Cook. The Islandside was a cargo ship built in 1944. He left the boat in Halifax on 3 October 1949, likely after travelling down the west coast, going through the Panama Canal and up the east coast. (Unfortunately, no photographs were found online of the Islandside.)

JA must have returned to the west coast as a passenger on a boat or train, because the next engagement shown on his merchant marine card was in Vancouver on 15 May 1950 as cook on the M.V. Gulf Wing, listed as a coastwise passenger vessel. This boat was reportedly built for the Canadian Navy in 1944 but was sold by the government in 1946 and used as both a freighter and a passenger vessel, and most recently as a charter yacht (2020). At the time when JA was on it, the ship must have been used as a passenger boat along the coast. He worked for only two weeks on the ship, so it is possible he was replacing the regular cook who was on leave.

The Gulf Wing (Photo courtesy of www.nauticapedia.ca; no date or location)

JA's conduct for all of the engagements was shown as “Very Good” on his certificate.

Although there are no more entries on the existing merchant marine card, JA continued working on boats in the Vancouver area for the next few years. It is possible that he had later merchant marine cards that have not survived, but there are other records available to track his career. A crew manifest shows JA working as a cook on a tugboat called the Projective that arrived in Blaine, Washington on 26 August 1952 from the port of Nanaimo.

The Projective (Photo courtesy of www.nauticapedia.ca; no date or location)

In the 1953 British Columbia directory, JA's employer was shown as the M.R. Cliff, which was another tugboat.

M.R. Cliff tugboat (Photo courtesy of www.nauticapedia.ca; no date or location)

JA continued working on tugboats in the Fraser River until around 1955, when he changed careers and became a bartender. He was over 60 by then and may have wanted a less strenuous job.

JA tended bar at the Quadra Club, a posh and exclusive private drinking establishment in downtown Vancouver. The Quadra Club was on the upper level of a two story building on Seymour Street.