It was a traumatic experience to say the least arriving in Deep Cove the September of 1948. Her father Thomas Chalker and mother Ruby brought 15 year old Vivienne and 12 year old Maureen to Deep Cove all the way from Bombay, India. Thomas was Embarkation Commandant for the British India Army in Bombay in 1948 and was forced to leave when India gained independence. Friend and colleague Jack Villiers had already arrived in Canada and wrote to him that Deep Cove was the only place in the British Commonwealth to be!
So without delay the family boarded a freighter (which was picking up scrap metal from around the Pacific) and they travelled via Ceylon, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Manila to Los Angeles. From there it was a train ride to Vancouver and a taxi ride over the railway bridge and along a dirt road to Deep Cove. It was quite devastating for these two teenagers finding themselves in this small summer resort with only summer cottages, a cafe, dance hall and Doctor Miller’s Boys Camp.
The Society acknowledges that the land of the Seymour Communities is the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. We continue to learn and celebrate the culture, history, stories, and people of the Tsleil-Waututh.
