Thomas Reginald Birch (1884 - 1980)

Born 9 Nov 1884 in Port Hill, Prince, Prince Edward Island, Canada

Ancestors

Died 19 Oct 1980 at age 95 in Lot 13, Prince, Prince Edward Island, Canada

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Jane Dyment [send private message]

Biography

As one of the oldest residents of Lot 13, Reg was often interviewed and quoted in local histories of the area.

Reg went to work for Senator John Yeo as a store clerk at the age of 16. He also loaded ships with oats. The hours were long and the work hard, but "I guess it didn't hurt me", said Reg.

After marrying Mary Adams in 1924 ^[1], he lived on her farm in Tyne Valley. According to Reg, he "hauled many the load of mussel mud from the river bed between Low Point and Bird Island, and spread it by hand on the fields to improve them." On a 1928 map of Lot 13, Reginald Birch is shown on 100 acres on the bank of Trout River, in roughly the same spot occupied by the Humphrey Dyment Sr. farm in 1878.

Mary died in 1944, and the farm went to her sister. Three years later, Reg married Lulu Yeo, the daughter of John Edwin Yeo and Mary Jane MacKay. Reg and Lulu lived in Northam on her father's farm, and later they moved to Tyne Valley. I remember hearing that Lulu was an old sweetheart of Reg's. Lulu Yeo and Reg Birch had been the bridesmaid and best man at a family wedding in 1912.

Reg died at the age of 96. Other than losing his sight, he had a keen mind and memory in his later years.

Sources

1. ↑ Prince Edward Island Marriage REgisters, RG19/s3/ss6: Marriage registrations, 1924

• Leaves from the Birches of Avoca by Jeanette Birch