Edgar George Baynes (1870 - 1956)

Born 13 Sep 1870 in Bocking, Essex, England

Ancestors

Husband of Margaret Anderson McAlpine — married 15 Apr 1899 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Died 5 Nov 1956 at age 86 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

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Biography

This biography was auto-generated by a GEDCOM import.^[1] It's a rough draft and needs to be edited.

Name

Name: Edgar George /Baynes/^[2]

Birth

Birth:

Date: 13 SEP 1870

Place: Bocking, Essex, England^[3]

Death

Death:

Date: 05 NOV 1956

Place: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada^[4]

Death:

Date: 05 NOV 1956

Place: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada^[5]

Found multiple copies of DEAT DATE. Using 05 NOV 1956Array

Occupation

Occupation: Parks Commissioner, City of Vancouver^[6]

Occupation: Partner, Port Haney Brick and Tile Co.^[7]

Occupation: Partner, Baynes and Horie Construction

Date: 1891^[8]

Occupation: Owner

Date: BET 1912 AND 1957

Place: Manager. Hotel Grosvenor, 1912-1957^[9]

Residence

Residence: Broxted Hall

Place: Dunmow, Essex, England

Residence: "Good Citizen"

Date: 1944

Place: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada^[10]

Note

Note: #N119

PHOTO

PHOTO @M216@

Object

Object: @M216@

Marriage

Husband: Edgar George Baynes

Wife: Margaret Anderson McAlpine

Child: Doris Lilian Baynes

Relationship to Father: Natural

Relationship to Mother: Natural

Child: Jean Hetty Baynes

Relationship to Father: Natural

Relationship to Mother: Natural

Child: George Edgar Baynes

Relationship to Father: Natural

Relationship to Mother: Natural

Child: Margaret Anderson Baynes

Relationship to Father: Natural

Relationship to Mother: Natural

Marriage:

Date: 15 APR 1899

Place: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada^[11]

Note: #N235

Husband: George Baynes

Wife: Harriet Amelia Staines

Child: Edgar George Baynes

Relationship to Father: Natural

Relationship to Mother: Natural

Child: James Baynes

Relationship to Father: Natural

Relationship to Mother: Natural

Child: Alfred Joseph Baynes

Relationship to Father: Natural

Relationship to Mother: Natural

Child: Kate Amelia Baynes

Relationship to Father: Natural

Relationship to Mother: Natural

Child: Hetty Selina Baynes

Relationship to Father: Natural

Relationship to Mother: Natural

Child: Lila Baynes

Relationship to Father: Natural

Relationship to Mother: Natural

Child: George Baynes

Relationship to Father: Natural

Relationship to Mother: Natural

Marriage:

Date: 1869

Place: Braintree, Essex, England^[12]

Sources

1. ↑ Baynes-233 was created by Steve Nunn through the import of Nunn tree_2015-02-05 private living.ged on Feb 5, 2015. This comment and citation can be deleted after the biography has been edited and primary sources are included.
2. ↑ Source: #S22 Data: Text: Date of Import: May 22, 2000
3. ↑ Source: #S22 Data: Text: Date of Import: May 22, 2000
4. ↑ Source: #S22 Data: Text: Date of Import: May 22, 2000
5. ↑ Source: #S1 Data: Text: Reg No. 1967-09-005283 BC Archives Film: B13283 GSU Film 2033859
6. ↑ Source: #S22 Data: Text: Date of Import: May 22, 2000
7. ↑ Source: #S22 Data: Text: Date of Import: May 22, 2000
8. ↑ Source: #S22 Data: Text: Date of Import: May 22, 2000
9. ↑ Source: #S22 Data: Text: Date of Import: May 22, 2000
10. ↑ Source: #S22 Data: Text: Date of Import: May 22, 2000
11. ↑ Source: #S22 Data: Text: Date of Import: May 22, 2000
12. ↑ Source: #S22 Data: Text: Date of Import: May 22, 2000

• Source: S1 Title: BC Archives - Vital Statistics - Death Indexes NOTESource Medium: Book CONT
• Source: S22 Title: Robert Cannon, Baynes info NOTESource Medium: Other CONT

Notes

Note N119Written by Bob Cannon Feb 12 2000

Edgar George Baynes left Essex in his teens, he had left home at 14, and at 18 or 19 he came with an uncle, Franklin, his mother's sister, and a cousin, to Canada in 1889. It was a year after the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and just after a fire had obliterated wooden Vancouver.

Edgar kept diaries all his life, and these have been preserved. Several copies of the account of his trip across the country on the CPR exist.

Anyway, EGB and the others came directly to Vancouver where the uncle and he were involved in construction. In the mid 1890's EGB formed a partnership with others that initially built houses, and later larger buildings in Vancouver. By 1920, he was a very successful businessman in Vancouver - contractor, hotel owner and member of several boards of directors. Between 1920 and 1940 he served several times as an elected Parks Commissioner (a big deal in Vancouver), and in 1944 was named the cities good citizen.

His sister, Hetty, came to Vancouver sometime after the death of her parents. I knew her, and knew from her features and much of her demeanor that she was very much my grandfather's sister. She was a nurse. I do not know to what extent she practiced in Vancouver. She was a highly social, warm woman.

Another sister, Kate, also lived in Vancouver. Her husband had been a member of the RCMP (retired as a sergeant I believe). I know that he died in Vancouver after his retirement, but I do not know where he worked as a policeman.

The uncle, incidentally, was an alderman of the City of Vancouver during the 1890's.

Three of EGB's children graduated from the University of British Columbia. Education was important to EGB and his wife. University attendance and graduation was not common during the late 1920's and early 1930's, and it may have been to some extent due to EGB's own financial success that his children were able to attend.

Anyway, the eldest daughter, Doris attended both UBC and the University of Toronto. The University of BC became independent of McGill in Montreal during her time there, and she was very active in the formation and development of the University. She eventually married a plant pathologist she met in Toronto, and they made their family home British Columbia's Okanagan valley where they raised three children.

The eldest of Doris's Children, Jane, is also a graduate of the UBC. She studied Home Economics, and taught in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. In the 1960's, she lived for a few years in Malawi working for one of the Canadian Overseas Development Agencies, teaching home economics and helping the gov't of Malawi establish curriculum. She was particularly interested in developing curriculum that related to Malawian culture, food etc., and not dependant upon the Cambridge model that the country was using at the time. Jane currently lives in Alberta and is the Western Regional director for an organization that brings exchange students into Canada. Her two children are also University graduates. One teaches in Alberta, and the other makes films in Ontario.

Doris's second oldest son, Neil, has had a career somewhat like his grandfather. Upon finishing University, he worked at and eventually managed the Douglas Lake Cattle Company. Douglas Lake is one of the largest cattle companies in the world, and to be its manager is no small cachet. Neil was president of the Canadian Cattleman's Association during his tenure with Douglas Lake.

As an aside, Neil's wife wrote an excellent history of the ranch, and it should be available at your better Library...Nina Woolliams, Cattle Ranch, Douglas and McIntyre.

In the 1980's Neil and family left the ranch and moved to Australia where they owned and ran a station for five years. In the late 1980's, Neil and family returned to Canada, and Neil now owns and runs a trucking company which ships goods literally between the Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico (in other words just about the whole continent). He is president of the Canadian Truckers Association. Neil is actually president of a lot of things. He has this capacity.

Two of his children have completed post secondary education. His son, a computer programmer, is married and has a young daughter, his daughter has a degree from UBC, a diploma from the BC Institute of Technology and is currently working on a Masters degree in Community planning. She is an accepted student at UBC's Green College, a special residential school for postgraduate/postdoctoral students at UBC.

Neil's other two boys are still in school. One will finish high school this year (and go study architecture, he says) and the other is finishing his second year towards a BSC in Engineering. He is studying in Ontario.

Doris's third son is also a UBC graduate (why not). He runs a bookkeeping practice in Salmon Arm, B.,C., and recently received a mayoral commendation for work done after a major forest fire devastated a good part of the forests in vicinity of Salmon Arm. David also has three children, all, also university graduates. The eldest studied at Carelton in Ottawa, now works in personnel management for Weston Foods (I think he hires and fires everybody); Brian, his second eldest, was a Rotary scholar, and lived in Belgium for a while. He flies planes, has a degree in archeology, and recently returned to BC from Montreal to go back to school and qualify for teaching. Anne, David's youngest, will marry in August. She has a masters degree in Audiology, and is currently working in Alberta's "outback" (or better said "north") at a place called Grand Prairie. She studied at McGill, Dalhousie and Vanderbilt in Tennessee.

Ted, EGB's only son, followed his father's footsteps, and formed a construction company after he graduated from UBC with a BSc in engineering. He built bridges and hospitals and sewers and what ever throughout British Columbia and Alberta. Ted's connection with UBC has always been important to him and he was president of the UBC Alumni Association for a number of years, and served on committees at the university and for the City of Vancouver that were dedicated to gaining and preserving parkland. Ted is six foot or so, and loved playing rugby when at university. One of his proudest moments was when his granddaughter, Anna, was award a UBC "Big Block" sweater for athletic accomplishment. He and she proudly posed for photographs, each wearing the sweaters they had earned. Ted also served, if I remember correctly, for a while as an alderman in the community of West Vancouver, where he lives.

Ted's oldest son, Duncan, is also an Engineer. He worked for a while for an engineering company in Hamilton Ontario, and in Pakistan. For the past 10 years or so, he has run his own cattle ranch, outside of Williams Lake BC. Women who visit him get cows named after them. Duncan does some engineering on the side for logging companies in the area. He is about 6'4", husky (an ex rugby player), and looks more like forty than his age. He reminds of EGB a bit because of his energy, and his enthusiasm for people (Dunc gets asked to a lot of parties).

Ted's oldest daughter, Eleanor, attended UBC too (why not), but never finished school. She married an engineer instead who became a vice president of the British Columbia Gas company (which supplies natural gas to all British Columbia communities). Her husband, Geoff, has recently retired, and together, she, Geoff, and their son Colin (who is a genius doing things with wood) built a magnificent home on Okanagan Lake. The house, which Geoff and Colin designed, has beams made from logs peeled and prepared by Geoff, and also has a lot of one of a kind woodwork. Eleanor's eldest son, Paul, works in Squamish (near Whistler) for BC Gas. He is married and has two school aged children. Colin lives in Whistler where he designs and builds houses made of logs. He has his own construction company, and the houses he builds are very expensive. He has done some work designing houses for people in Japan as well. As I said, earlier, Colin is a genius at working with wood. He is married with one daughter, and a second child expected this month.

Ted's second daughter, Margaret, has a UBC degree in English. She taught school for a while and then married a lawyer who became the chief crown prosecutor for the province, and who is now a provincial court judge. After raising her family, Margaret returned to the work force and worked for the provincial government training management staff in communication skills. Currently, she edits documents for various departments. She says they desperately need it.

Margaret has two children. Her son Cameron is a University of Victoria graduate in geography. He works for the provincial ambulance service and himself has twin girls. Her daughter, Megan, attended McGill on full scholarship, and recently graduated from UBC with an LL.B.. She and her husband are lawyers in the Yukon.

Ted's youngest daughter, Jeanette, went to school at Neufchatel before completing a BA at UBC. At the moment, she and her husband are farming in the Pemberton Valley of BC. Doug was an accountant with a Vancouver Brokerage house. A few years ago, he decided to stop being a broker, and he and Jeanette moved to a family property near Pemberton. There, they raise organic potatoes and other crops which they in turn market to local restaurant's, organic food stores, and farmer's markets. In the winter, Doug, when not practicing for his old times hockey team, does accounting work for other Pemberton Farmers.

You probably will know nothing of Pemberton, so I will tell you a little. Pemberton is in a narrow valley about 30 miles north of the ski resort of Whistler. It is in many ways quite isolated by high mountains from other agricultural areas. Pemberton also gets very hot in the summer. It also has a very fertile valley bottom. These things make Pemberton an ideal area for raising seed potatoes. The potatoes grow quickly there, and the isolation keeps the seed potatoes free from disease.

Because of its proximity to the developing Whistler ski resort, Pemberton has also experienced considerable population growth in the past 30 years. It serves as a major "bed" suburb to the resort. There are a large number of hotels and eateries in Whistler and the quality of Doug and Jeannette's produce is such that there is a demand for it at many of the upscale places.

Doug and Jeanette have three daughters. Anna, the eldest, after graduating from (where else) UBC went to work for Capers, Vancouver's major Organic Food outlet, and manages there. Jenni is a licensed massage therapist and paramedic. She currently lives in the Baynes' family summer cottage on the Okanagan Lake, near Summerland, B.C. Lisa, the youngest has some kind of degree from the University of Northern, B.C. She works in wildlife management, and has spent the past few summers on Salmon enhancement projects. All of Jeanette's kids are outdoorsy - they ski, rock climb, run tens of kilometers etc., etc., and are all very, very self reliant.

EGB had a second daughter, too. Her name was Jean. She developed high fever during childhood which caused some brain damage. Family stories are that before her illness she was the brightest of EGB's children, but after the illness, she had some significant difficulties. Her husband was also a very bright man, but also a bit of a social misfit, who suffered badly from asthma. He and Jean could argue brilliantly, and interminably and must have driven their only daughter, Donna, nuts.

Donna, has inherited both of her parent's sharpness. She is a graduate of the University of Manitoba and of UBC and has a masters in geography. She is currently a senior director of planning for the Ministry of Housing and Human Resources (or something like that, the name keeps changing) for the province of British Columbia. Donna is BRIGHT. Donna, and her husband, Ian McCririck (who is an honors math, plus graduate from UBC, and who works for a subsidiary of British Columbia Hydro and Power that has something to do with Power Grids and stuff) are genealogy buffs, and they have done quite a bit of the research into this stuff. I believe you have heard from Ian, or maybe from Donna (their email address reads Ian Mcririck).

Donna has two kids, both UBC graduates (like, did they have any other choices?). Neil, who studied political science and then attended the BC Institute of Technology, designs and crafts furniture for his own business, and Andrew is a steel buyer.

My mother, Margaret, was EGB's youngest daughter. She too, graduated from the University of BC in Applied Science (Nursing). She was very proud of her first class honors degree. She was left handed, and had suffered horribly in the public schools because of it. She went to school when forcing or beating kids so that they would write with their "right" hands was in vogue. Consequently, she wrote with either hand, in an indecipherable script.

My mother worked as a public health nurse for a couple of years before marrying my father, who was an M.D. My mother showed a lot of similarities to her brother, Ted, to my cousin Neil, to her father and to her grandfather. She was an excellent business person and an excellent manager and was involved as president of a number of organizations and businesses.

I am my parent's oldest son. I, too, have a couple of UBC degrees. I specialized in counseling and worked for a number of years in the school system and with community agencies that dealt with at-risk-children. I worked at a number of levels and was involved in line work, and in supervision and training of people working in counseling fields. I retired last summer.

My three children have all done post secondary training. My eldest son, Chris, is quite entrepreneurial and has a graphic design company which does stuff for advertising companies. I don't quite understand it all. The work is quite technical, and involves a lot of computer stuff, but I do see the end results sometimes...magazine ads, advertising displays, packaging, television ads, etc. Chris has an IQ that is way up there and is extremely creative as well as being entrepreneurial. Chris studied graphic design and business management at local colleges (a weird combination) and has always been involved in setting up businesses of one kind or another. I think his goal is to be a multimillionaire yesterday.

My daughter, who is a legal assistant to a Vancouver Law Firm, married last May. In many ways she is like my mother - highly efficient, highly organized and highly goal oriented, and also extremely competent. I also think she is a sweet heart. Her husband is currently completing a business management program at the BC Institute of Technology. He aims to work in financial management.

My youngest son is the most empathetic of my children. Like all the others, he too, is ambitious, but he had a tough time in public school because he also is dyslexic. He completed a diploma in Hotel Management after graduation and has worked for various hotels around Vancouver. For two years, he worked for Princess Cruise Lines in their pursers department, and is currently back in Vancouver working for a local hotel. He is forever changing positions, and pushing himself up the management ladder.

After completing a degree in commerce at Western Washington University, my brother, Peter, returned our family community in the Fraser Valley, where he ran his own construction and development company. He built subdivisions and complexes there. Currently, he is an executive with Rugby Canada, and travels quite frequently to Europe and throughout North America doing Rugby things. Peter has always been involved in sport as a player, and as a manager and as an executive. Rugby has been one of his passions.

Each of his three sons has played the game. The eldest, Mark, lived for a while in New Zealand, on some kind of Rugby exchange program. He too, is dyslexic, and lives in Alberta while playing for some rugby team there, and working. Tony, his second eldest, is finishing a degree at the University of Victoria. He plays rugby for UVIC, and has spent the past few summers working in New York at some kind of program for disadvantaged kids. Tony will eventually teach. He has specialized in kinaesthology (sort of combining the medical interests of his grandfather, and his father's interest in sport) and in teaching. John, Peter's youngest, is at Camosun College in Victoria. He has been a member of Canada's under 17 and under 21 rugby sides, and was in contention for Canada's seven man squad. I don't know if he made it or not, nor if the squad has yet been picked. Peter felt he had an excellent chance of being capped. He has played in a couple of age appropriate World Cups for Canada, the most recent being in France last year. There is a Rugby Canada program in Victoria, and John is involved in that. Peter and his wife, Jane, who teaches mathematics at the University College of the Fraser Valley, spend a lot of time going to games. Some weekends, when all three sons are playing, their life seems pretty hectic.

My sister, Betty, lives on Vancouver Island. She is a registered nurse, and works in home-care in the community where she lives. She practiced for years in Vancouver, both in hospitals, and in community care before she and her now ex-husband moved to the island. Her son, Travis, is still in high school. He is another 6 footer, athletic, and according to Betty, is doing very well academically.

Enough, I think....

[Baynes2.FTW]

Arrived in teens from England with Uncle Franklin; was trained as carpenter and worked in construction in Vancouver before establishing his own company with W. Horie.

First contract included construction of lighthouse at the entrance to Naniamo Harbour.

Named "Good Citizen of Year" in Vancouver (1944) for services to community.

Kluckner, Micheal, "Vanishing Vancouver", Whitecap Books Ltd, Vancouver, 1990, pp 23

"Edgar George Baynes, (1870-1956) was born in Bocking, Essex, apprenticed to a builder there at the age of 14, came to Vancouver when he was nineteen and was one of the first homesteaders in the Squamish River Valley, then organized his partnership wim W.M Horie two years later in 1891...Their firm, Baynes and Horie also completed a number of major paving contracts and was carried on after the founders retirement by their two sons.

During the year that his firm was building the Craftsman house illustrated here (1912) Baynes was building the Hotel Grosvenor on Howe Street...which he both owned and operated. ..He was a member of the Vancouver Parks Commission from 1924 until 1940, and was Vancouver's "Good Citizen" of 1944...

Baynes's own house at 1200 West Broadway was something of a landmark until its recent demolition (1987)..."

Note, the Baynes family home was given to the YWCA by Margaret McAlpine Baynes after the death of E.G. Baynes with the proviso that it not be sold until twenty years after her death. The property was sold, and the house demolished in 1987. During the YMCA occupancy, the house served as an Indian Social Centre, as a Centre for Hungarian Refugees, and as a Woman's Shelter.

Kluckner's book also contains a photograph and article on the Hotel Grosvenor, 840 Howe Street. (pp 39).

The Hotel Grosvenor was demolished in 1983.

Kluckner, Micheal, "Vancouver, The Way It Was", Whitecap Books, 1984, also contains photographs showing the Hotel Grosvenor, pp47, 114,

Name: EDGAR GEORGE BAYNESEvent Date: 1956 11 5 (Yr/Mo/Day)Age: 85Gender: MaleEvent Place: VANCOUVER Reg. Number: 1956-09-012004B.C. Archives Microfilm Number: B13230 GSU Microfilm Number: 2033146

From Family Tree prepared by George Baynes (2000):

Edgar George BAYNES ( / /1870- / / ) Born at Bocking ESS (1870/3-Braintree-4a/408) ; 1881 Census - Edgar G BAYNES aged 10 with parents at Hall Farm Stisted ESS (PRO RG11/1806/f101)