“My parents instilled in me a love of history by visiting historic sites on our vacations and telling me of the history they had lived. My life became enriched when I married the son of a naval officer.” – Helen Edwards
I have been writing since my elementary school days when I penned plays and short stories for my classmates; I have been producing copy ever since. I am a life-long historian and have written on a variety of subjects, but family history is one of my passions.
My next book will be a collection of articles I have written over the last 40 years about heritage buildings and the people who loved them. I will update the material and provide a current report on the site as many of the structures are no longer extant. I will also be able to include photographs that were not always possible in publications with limited space.
In “Dutchy’s Decades: Life as a Canadian Naval Officer, 1930-1950—and Beyond,” I document the life of John Crispo Inglis “Dutchy” Edwards during the second phase of his long career. I had binders and boxes full of information and photographs, but I had to organize them before starting writing. The best discovery was a typewritten documentation of his time spent on HMCS Prince Henry in the Caribbean during World War II that gave an insight into the realities of life on a ship that is never revealed in academic histories.
In “Dutchy’s Diaries: Life as a Canadian Naval Officer, In His Own Words: 1915-1929,” you can read verbatim transcriptions of journals kept by my father-in-law, as he served on different naval ships. They are rare first-person accounts of naval life enhanced by material that I researched and added to give context to the journal material.
My first book, “The History of Professional Hockey in Victoria, BC: 1911-2011,” was a thank-you to the many professional players who entertained Victoria citizens for over a century. It took almost eight years to research and write and now finds a home in the Hockey Hall of Fame Archives in Toronto.
There are unexpected connections between my books as my father-in-law (a world-class athlete) writes about going to hockey games in the 1920s and comments on the players; he then mentions hockey in a later era. He and his family were socially active and frequently visited heritage houses.
I am thrilled to share my stories with the world and I’d like to know what you think about Dutchy and his journey. Keeping in touch with me is easy – click here.