24 • The Columbia Valley Pioneer
July 6, 2007
VALLEY PIONEER
Harold Forster murdered on his ranch By Dorothy Isted Special to The Pioneer Harold Ernest Forster was a colourful character who met his untimely death on his ranch near Wilmer in 1940, one of the valley’s few murder victims. Forster was born in Ontario in 1869. Before he was a year old, both parents died and he was raised partly by his wealthy maternal grandmother in Galt, Ontario; and partly by wealthy paternal uncles near Carlisle, England. In 1967 a newspaper article entitled “Forster of the Kootenays” was published in The Daily Colonist in Victoria, outlining most of what is known about him. Much of this tale was told by Forster’s widow Meda Hume Forster. Forster left a precious legacy to the valley. He gave The Dort Bible, a leather-bound ornate 1613 second edition King James Bible, to the local Anglican congregation earlier in the last century. The Bible was overlooked until 1925, when a young woman named Winn Weir discovered it while cleaning the church. It is now a cherished possession of the church, and kept under wraps. But how did it come into Forster’s possession? It has been said that Harold Forster attended Eton College, a prep school for Cambridge University, and he obtained both law and engineering degrees. Yet Eton College has no record of him having attended. Before moving to the valley Forster spent eight years in Kamloops, “during the 1890s a playboy settlement for young bloods from the Old Country with money to spend.”
After obtaining Firlands Ranch in 1898 through foreclosure, Forster added bathrooms and a two-storey wing to the existing house. He also used water from a nearby spring by means of a hydraulic ram and a Pelton wheel to drive a generator which furnished the home with electricity, the first electrically-lighted
house in the valley. Once his 14-room home was completed, he had sets of Royal Worcester and Minton china, two sets of Georgian and Victorian silver, books and furnishings shipped out from Hamilton. Area resident Vera Wikman recalls visiting Firlands once as a young girl and being startled to see a
stuffed mountain cougar sitting on the floor of his big game trophy room. Harold Forster also owned the 60-foot sternwheeler S.S. Selkirk, which he is believed to have transported from Hope by a CPR flat car. For many years he was able to operate the Selkirk up and down the river, bringing goods and friends to stay. In 1912, at the age of 43, Harold married Meda Hume, the 25year-old daughter of his ranch manager. They had six children but no descendants live in the Columbia Valley. Their oldest granddaughter, Helen Perry of Kelowna, never met Harold, but she remembers Meda as a “typical Victorian era woman, always quite cultured. She taught us all table manners and made us sit up straight. She played the piano until she was 100 and lived to 103.” Also in 1912 Harold ran as an independent FIRLANDS—Someone member and won a seat snapped this shot (above) in the provincial legisof a 43-year-old Harold lature. He held the post Forster shifting into drive for four years but did not before wheeling off with seek re-election. his new bride, Meda, the Stories differ on how 25-year-old daughter of his the Hume family came hired man. to be living on Firlands Ranch. One account states At left, the garden at Firthey were there when Forlands Ranch near Wilmer, ster acquired the property. the home Mr. Forster built However, Helen says her after moving to the Columgrandmother Meda was bia Valley. born in Galt, Ontario and Meda’s parents were Scottish immigrants who met Harold in Ontario and accepted a job from him to run the ranch. As well as the Humes, the ranch supported an English gardener, a chore boy, a ranch hand, a carpenter and a Chinese house servant. Meda’s mother ran the home like an English country manor. Wealthy and connected friends often Continued on next page...