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March 2 - Canada's oldest man dies in Saanich
5 of Sidney's best meals. Another Turner building fire. New Ladysmith mayor.
Capital Daily Team
March 02, 2025
Good morning !
Today we cover the death—and the life—of the oldest man in Greater Victoria, the Island, BC, and Canada. His story also highlights an often-overlooked part of Canadian history: the British Home Children, 100,000+ UK kids sent to Canada between the 1860s and 1940s (typically orphaned or from poor families).
Most were assigned to rural families and worked; in some cases they were mistreated, and in many cases they were never able to reconnect with their birth families or siblings. My partner's grandfather arrived in Canada this way—and so did the man profiled below, who lived a remarkable life for nearly a century afterward.
— Cam
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Today’s approx. read time: 5 / 8 minutes
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NEWS
Canada’s oldest man dies at 109 in Saanich
Photos via McCall Gardens Funeral Services + Broadmead Care
Born in 1915, Albert Stanley Middleton lived through two world wars and two global pandemics. He died last month just shy of his 110th birthday—an age that would have made him a senior citizen twice over. A celebration of life will be held on that day (March 11) at Broadmead Care’s Veterans Memorial Lodge, where he resided and was known for his friendliness.
Nearly a “supercentenarian"
Reaching 110 would have officially put Middleton in a category reached by only about 1 in 1,000 centenarians. These are mostly people who remain unusually healthy until the last several months of life.
Middleton did plenty of living, well into old age. Per his obituary, he retired from working in agricultural machinery in 1980, then left Ontario for London and traveled with his partner Constance until her death in 1996. He moved to Victoria almost 30 years ago, spending his 90s in James Bay before moving into Broadmead Care’s Veterans Memorial Lodge at 101.
Oldest of Canada's British Home Children & WW2 vets
Nearly a century ago, Middleton came to Canada from England at 14 as one of the British Home Children . Middleton spent three summers working on a farm to pay off the bill for his passage.
He returned overseas to serve in the Royal Canadian Air Force, receiving an honourable discharge in 1946 and buying a 65-acre farm in Brantford, ON through the Veteran's Land Act.
What's the secret?
For his 108th birthday, Broadmead wrote that Middleton's advice to his younger self was “Don’t smoke, it’s bad for you!” and that his secret to longevity was to “never give in, keep moving, keep going forward.” His daughter Darlene, celebrating the birthday, said he always recommended having “something to do, something to look forward to, and someone to love.”
Victoria lost another prominent centenarian last year
John Hillman, a WW2 vet known for walking laps to raise money for children, died at 105. The oldest living Canadian (Margaret Romans of Montreal) is 112—almost 113.
⚠️ Capital Bulletin
Mixed weather expected this week: Sun, cloud, some rain, & mild temperatures.
80th anniversary of death of Emily Carr is today.
Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google.
HISTORY
Salt Spring's first schoolteacher, & other local Black History to wrap up BHM
John Craven Jones and wife Almira in 1885. Archival image via BCBHAS
Last week we re-ran the story of Black American immigration to Victoria in the 1850s when Governor James Douglas invited hundreds of San Franciscans disillusioned by racism. We add a little more to that history today to mark the end of Feb.
Douglas intended to use these arrivals to counterbalance an influx of full US citizens in the gold rush. Most of the former San Franciscans began living in Victoria, the surrounding area, and Salt Spring; several dozen became the Victoria Pioneer Rifle Corps volunteer militia.
One prominent newcomer, Mifflin Gibbs, was elected in 1866 as the first Black person to serve on city council in Victoria—and only the third in elected public office in what is now the US and Canada. Gibbs was later involved in the planning and negotiations around BC’s entrance into confederation.
Also in the 1860s, the enslaved Charles Mitchell stowed away on a boat from Olympia, Washington, and was declared a free man by the BC Supreme Court upon reaching “British soil” in Victoria.
But few of these historic figures remained here into old age
Many returned to the US during or after the Civil War. Gibbs returned to Oberlin and later lived in Madagascar (briefly) and Arkansas. The Rifle Corps, increasingly disrespected and sidelined after Douglas’s retirement, were disbanded and many went back south. Mitchell disappeared from Sooke in 1878, likely dying on a canoe trip.
The Island’s first Black schoolteacher Emma Stark also died young. Stark, a member of one of the prominent Black families on Salt Spring, was one of just 32 public school teachers in BC when she was hired at 18 to teach in Nanaimo.
Salt Spring's first schoolteacher was John Craven Jones
He spent a decade teaching white, Black, and Indigenous children at the two schools on Salt Spring, routinely hiking the often dangerous 8km stretch between them. He did this for no money, receiving lodging and other support from local parents until they pressured the government into paying him. More on his story here.
Learn more about stories such as these at the BC Black History Awareness Society (BCBHAS).
