Object: Biographical notes for Leighton family

Date

1970-01-01

Biographical notes for Leighton family

Richard  Henry Leighton lived in the family home “Hillside” on Sargents Hill, Walsall. He was a sales representative for a local colliery (coal mine) and dealt for them on the Birmingham Stock Exchange. He married Abigail Drew of Litchfield Feb. 5, l877. They had 6 children, 4 girls and 2 boys. Henry Tongue Leighton was their eldest child.

Henry Tongue Leighton was born 1878 in Walsall.  (Harry) enjoyed the freedom of an excellent education when many had none. He became a mining engineer and when there was a need for mining employees on Vancouver Island he and his wife Florence and son Richard Henry emigrated to Canada. The mines of Vancouver Island were dangerous with angry miners on strike and so he spent his life building several farms. He was a dreamer and enjoyed trying new ways of farming and growing exotic plants. He always kept hives of bees until the bears found how good they tasted. He and Flo had two sons, Richard Henry (Dick) and James Leslie. 

Henry married Florence Daisy Ruffle Oct.25,1904. She was born 23 Mar. 1880, in Haverhill, England. Her father was a ‘gentleman farmer’ and she had a wonderful education in finishing schools. She could draw and paint and make anything with her hands. She loved to play the piano, which she had purchased on her trip across Canada. When a forest fire threatened their farmhouse, they buried the piano along with some of their other treasures to keep them safe. She had a second son, James Leslie, who was 15 years younger than Dick. Life on a small farm in rural BC was not easy for her. She died in Nanaimo, BC Jan.6 1963

Richard Henry Leighton (Dick) was born in England Oct. 27, 1906 and emigrated to Canada with his parents at age 8 – 10 just before the world war of 1914-1918 began. He had very little formal schooling and so the education he had was mostly of his own doing. He worked in the logging camps of Vancouver Island from the time he was 13 years old and knew everything there was to know about logging. In his last years in the logging industry, he supervised the building of all the mountain roads that the logging trucks used to bring logs out of the woods. He loved music and played a lovely old banjo he bought when he was a young man. He was a gentle man with a wonderful sense of humour and a twinkle in his eye. He married Eva Baldwin of Union Bay, August 2, 1931, and they had twins, Evelyn and Harold, in l939. Dick and Eva lived their last years on the shores of Nanoose Bay where they built a small home on the beach. Dick died Jan. 17,1999.

Evelyn Beatrice Baldwin (Eva ) was born Feb. 5,1908 in Erdington, near Birmingham. She emigrated to Canada from Aberdare, Wales with her parents in 1912. She was an excellent student until her father had a serious accident and she was required to work to earn money for the household. She owned an early Ford and talked often about driving it across a railway trestle so she could get home when the road was closed. Her life was like that: nothing was too difficult for her to do or make. If it was needed, she did it. She sewed beautifully, loved to garden and played the piano with great love and enthusiasm.

Eva died Nov.7, 1996.

We have little on Edward George Baldwin beyond the fact that he was born in a “poorhouse” in southwest England in the late 1800s.