18 • The Columbia Valley Pioneer
September 25, 2009
A man of vision: Randolph Bruce On the occasion of the 95th birthday of Pynelogs Cultural Centre, Dorothy Isted examines the myths and mysteries of its builder, Randolph Bruce. By Dorothy Isted Special to The Pioneer Robert Randolph Bruce was born in 1863 in a church manse in Scotland, the son of a Presbyterian minister and his wife, the third of 13 children born to the couple. In spite of the large brood, there was money enough to educate their offspring. Randolph graduated from Glasgow University with a Bachelor of Science degree. Two of his brothers became doctors and one was a lawyer. After arriving in Canada around 1887 with a sum of $60 in his possession, most of which he had borrowed from his older brother, Randolph found employment working as an engineer on railroad construction. Records also show he earned a civil engineering degree in 1887 in Montreal. From 1888 to 1893 he worked in camp jobs, surveying areas from Quebec to Saskatchewan. In November 1892, he partnered with Canadian Pacific Railway President Mr. Van Horne to develop an immigration scheme and toured throughout Scotland encouraging emigration to Canada. June 1893 found him in Calgary. Randolph Bruce was an accomplished photographer and the McCord Museum of Canadian History has more than 70 of his photographs, which can be viewed online. By this time he was associated with a group of young men known as the Pack of Western Wolves and the Glenbow Museum pictorial archives has an intriguing picture of young Mr Bruce with a friend, captioned ‘Romulus and Remus, Calgary, 1894.’ During this time he began his interest in mining by forming a partnership and investigating mines at Red Deer, Three Hills and Rosebud, Alberta. In his capacity as a surveyor for the CPR, Mr. Bruce arrived in the valley in 1895. In 1896, he travelled to Montreal and earned a degree in mining engineering from McGill University. Then he formed an association with mining brokers in Toronto and returned to the valley in 1897. His associates provided $3,000 in capital and Bruce prospected for half shares. He made mining deals with old-timers like Billy Taynton, Baptiste and Frank Morigeau, Paddy Ryan, Celina Kimpton, Kinnie, Brown and Munn. The turn of the century was a big year for Randolph Bruce. He completed the plans for Peterborough, now Wilmer, and he signed the bond on the Paradise Mine. Bruce lived in Wilmer from 1901 to about 1914. Paradise
Mine made Mr. Bruce a rich man but robbed him of his eyesight. The chemicals he used to assay the ore caused diminished sight, and he travelled the world looking for a cure. It was during this time he met Lady Elizabeth Northcote and brought her back to the valley as his bride. There were many lords and ladies who attended the nuptials, performed by a bishop. Their wedding gifts ranged from items you’d expect, like crystal and silver, to the complete works of Robert Louis Stevenson and even an electric walking stick. The wedding cake was four feet high and weighed 500 pounds. Their marriage in January 1914 caught the attention of the newspapers and articles were written in Toronto and England describing the wedding in great detail. Lady Northcote was from a place in England called Upton Pynes. The timbered home they started building on the shores of Lake Windermere was aptly named Pynelogs. While the home was under construction the couple lived on their houseboat, moored nearby on Taynton Bay. Before it was completed, Lady Elizabeth died unexpectedly, in the second year of their marriage. At first the plan was to ship her body back to England for burial and frantic cables flew back and forth over the Atlantic. The decision was that Lady Elizabeth’s final resting place be on the shore of the lovely lake she had so enjoyed, and her grave can be viewed today at Kinsmen Beach. The grief-stricken man at firstdid not want to live in the home, but felt compelled to finish as he was reluctant to put men out of work. Randolph Bruce was a man with an eye to the future. He foresaw the need for a BanffWindermere highway and worked tirelessly to bring it about, petitioning both the provincial and federal governments to build both the highway and a park enclosing it. Not only did he correspond but he made many trips to Victoria and Ottawa to complete the plan. One mystery surrounding Bruce was his appointment in 1926 as Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. By this time, he was almost completely blind. He had never been politically distinguished, nor was he extraordinarily wealthy, two circumstances that usually preceded this type of assignment. Two of his nieces from Scotland took on the role, in different years, as hostess of Government House in Victoria. While there he entertained the Prince of Wales and Winston Churchill. Continued on next page . . .
Above: Robert Randolph Bruce photographed around the late 1920s. The bottom photograph shows the Victoria home of the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, a post that Bruce was awarded in 1926. He later married again, to Edith Badgley Molson of the Molson family. Photos courtesy of the Windermere District Historical Society