Matthew Henry Richey was born on 10 June 1828 at Windsor, Nova Scotia, the son of Rev. Matthew and Louisa M. (Nicholls) Richey. He was educated at the College School in Windsor as well as Upper Canada College in Ontario. He was called to the bar in 1850 and practiced law in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He married Sarah Lavina Anderson in June 1854. He served as an alderman on the Halifax City Council (1858-1864) and was twice elected mayor (1864-1867, 1875-1878). He was a member of the first board of School Commissioners for Halifax when the public school system was introduced by the Government of Nova Scotia. Richey was a Conservative politician and in 1878 was elected to the Canadian Parliament, where he served until 20 June 1882. On 4 July 1883 he was appointed the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia and served a five year term. He died on 21 February 1911.
Rev. Matthew Richey was born 25 May 1803 in Ramelton, County Donegal, Ireland. He was a Wesleyan minister who immigrated to Nova Scotia. He earned an MA degree from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut in 1836 and was awarded an honorary doctorate of divinity from the same institution in 1847. Matthew Richey married Louisa Matilda Nicholls on 31 July 1825 and had the following children: Mary Augusta, b.11 August 1826; Matthew Henry - b. 10 June 1828; Matilda - b. 13 May 1830; Louisa Matilda - b. 12 January 1833; James Arnimus - b. 3 July 1837; Theophilus Stinson - b. 11 May 1840; William Black - b. 17 April 1846. Rev. Richey died in 1883 at Government House in Halifax while his son was serving as Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia.
Prior to 1879 local government in Nova Scotia was the responsibility of the appointed Court of General Sessions of the Peace, which was composed of all those who held commissions as justices of the peace within a particular county. Richmond County was created in 1835 when Cape Breton County, which encompassed the whole island, was divided into three counties. The Richmond County Court of General Sessions of the Peace began in approximately 1847 when the boundary with Cape Breton County was confirmed by Statute. Prior to 1847, it was referred to as the Second or Southern District of Cape Breton County. Meeting two or more times a year at Arichat, the court had both administrative and judicial functions. It was empowered to appoint local officials who had been nominated by the Grand Jury; levy county and poor tax rates; exercise control over roads, bridges, prisons, hospitals, and other public works; regulate animals, weeds, fires, taverns, and the inland fisheries, and perform other duties assigned by statute. It could also act as a court of justice, with limited criminal jurisdiction, using the Grand and Petit Jury system from England. The Grand Jury decided whether a charge should proceed to trial. The Petit Jury decided on an accused’s guilt or innocence. Jury members were selected by lot from a list of male residents who either owned land or held a minimum amount of personal wealth. The passage of the County Incorporation Act in 1879 replaced the administrative functions of the Court of General Sessions with an elected municipal council. Its judicial function was assumed by the Supreme Court on County Circuit.
Elizabeth Stewart Ritchie was born in 1941, the daughter of Hon. Roland Ritchie, former Judge of the Supreme Court of Canada, and Mary (Wylde). She was descended from a long line of prominent Nova Scotia families, including the Ritchies, Almons, Stewarts and Byles. She was educated at McGill University and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and completed a doctorate at the Sorbonne in Paris and did post-graduate studies there. She was an art history professor for many years at the University of Ottawa. She died on 9 December 2001 at the age of 60.
Robert Parker Associates Limited, a Halifax-based architectural firm, was incorporated in 1987. Previously the firm was known as Parker Truitt Associates (1974-1980) and G. Robert Parker Associates (1980-1987). The firm's founder and president was G. Robert Parker, an American born and educated architect/planner who had accumulated extensive local, provincial and international experience in the disciplines of environmental, urban and regional planning, and in community development architectural projects. He was a prime consultant for restoration projects such as St, Michael's Russian Orthodox Church, Sitka, Alaska, (1958-1959); in Nova Scotia these included Historic Properties, Halifax (1970-1973); McCully House, Halifax (1989-1992); Stella Maris Church, Pictou (1990-1991); the Junior Ranks Mess at CFB Greenwood, (1993); and a century-old sea captain's house on Paddy Head. His large scale master planning projects included the Mainland Common (Halifax), the Dartmouth Waterfront Development Project, and the TUNS-Infirmary Site Redevelopment Proposal. In the field of heritage planning his projects included the production of an urban design study to determine the impact of future development on the Halifax Public Gardens and a Peggy's Cove planning and development strategy. He also developed projects in the United States, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Besides his work as an architect, he was also an associate professor at NSCAD, and presented professional papers widely across Canada and the United Kingdom. He was awarded several fellowships and research grants to undertake studies in "self-help" housing and was the recipient of a number of awards, including the Governor-General's Award from the Canadian Housing Design Council in 1985 for outstanding work in the restoration of a Victorian house at Indian Harbour, Nova Scotia, and an environmental award from the Nova Scotia Department of Environment in 1983. Upon his retirement in 1997 his firm was dissolved.
Marion Robertson (nee Doane), teacher, researcher, folklorist, and author, was born in Massachusetts in 1910 and spent most of her life in Shelburne, N.S. She attended Mount Allison Ladies' College in Sackville, N.B. and Normal College in Truro, N.S., where she graduated with a teacher's certificate in 1942. In 1944 she married Donald Robertson (d.1981) of Shelburne. She served as secretary of the Shelburne County Historical Society from 1947-1975 and became the author of seven books and numerous articles, primarily on the early history of Shelburne County. She received the Centennial Award from the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society for her publication, Kings Bounty: A History of Early Shelburne, N.S. (1983) and was inducted into the Order of Canada in 1993. She died on 3 October 1998.
Hazel Alice Leone (Robinson) Haydon was born June 10, 1905 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, the eldest child of George Frederick Robinson and Mabel (Wournell) Robinson. She had 4 sisters: Ruth b.1907, Olive b.1909, Muriel b.1912 and Edna b.1915. Her father, George Robinson, worked as a railroad mechanic for Canadian National Railways at their railway yard in the Richmond area of Halifax and lived nearby, on Union Street, with his family. Hazel’s maternal grandparents, Charles and Alexandra Wournell, lived not far away on Albert Street with their youngest daughter Beryl, son Victor, married daughter Clara Langille and granddaughter Dorothy Langille. Hazel’s paternal Aunt Tilly Robinson lived next door. Hazel lost four family members in the Halifax Explosion of December 6, 1917: her sister Olive, her Aunt Clara, Uncle Victor, and Aunt Tilly. Hazel survived, married William Clifford Haydon on December 17, 1925 and had two children: Victor and Margaret. In 1949 they moved to Elmsdale, Nova Scotia. She died there on November 10, 2004.
Roger Belanger, photographer and film maker, was born in Nouvelle, Quebec, Canada in 1935. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) as a photographer and was posted in Europe until 1960, when he was transferred to R.C.A.F. base Greenwood, Nova Scotia, Canada. In 1965 Belanger retired from the R.C.A.F. to join the Photographic Division of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Halifax NS. During his time at the Bedford Institute Belanger did some film work, in addition to his work as a photographer. He worked on several documentary productions, including "Hudson '70" (co-production with the National Film Board of Canada) and a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary about a hydrographic survey expedition to the Canadian Arctic. Belanger became involved with the Nova Iceboat Club, founded by Richard Vine, one of Belanger's friends during his time in Halifax NS. Roger Belanger retired from the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in 1991. His death date is unknown.
John F. Rogers was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1904. He married Ada Duggan, and they had two sons and one daughter. He worked for the Halifax Herald and Mail as a shipping reporter and later as city editor. He then worked for the Halifax Chronicle as shipping reporter and following that as their news editor. He was active in the St. Mary's Young Men's Society and the St. Mary's Boat Club. He died in Halifax on 17 November 1965.
Oswald Anderson Rogers was born 20 July 1888 in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, the son of Rev. Anderson Rogers and Annie (Flemming) Rogers. He was educated in New Glasgow, NS and at St Andrew's College, Aurora, Ontario. As a young man he went to New York and appeared on the stage there and in stock theatre touring American cities. Retiring from the stage, he studied civil engineering in New York and later practised in Winnipeg and Halifax. In Halifax at the time of the Explosion of 1917, he joined the Relief Commission staff and was associated with that work for over two years. He joined the staff of Sun Life in 1925 and retired in 1932. Rogers married Anne B. Wilkins of Antigonish, with whom he had one daughter, Yvonne.
James Henry Rolf was born on 24 January 1848, the son of John and Catherine (Brown) Rolf of Walton, Hants County. He sailed with a relative, John A. Rolf, on the schooner W. Starratt and in later life worked as a prospector and preemptor in the vicinity of Naramata, British Columbia. He died in 1937.
Helen Lorna Jones was born in Ithaca, New York on April 16, 1895 and was the first child of Howard Parker Jones and Elizabeth Isabel (Ridd) Jones. In 1907, Helen moved to Halifax with her family when her father was appointed chair of Modern Languages at Dalhousie University. On June 26, 1917 she enlisted as a nursing sister in the Canadian Army Medical Corps. Prior to this, she served in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), providing nursing services in the Gifford House Hospital and Leicester Base Hospital. On February 4, 1920 she married Richard Edward Graham Roome, a jeweller, in Dartmouth.
R.E.G. Roome was born on May 1, 1892 in Woodside and was the son of George Nathaniel Roome and Florence August (Graham) Roome. In 1915, at the age of 23, he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force. During World War I, he served with the Royal Canadian Artillery and the British Royal Field Artillery. He was also a member of the Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force. After the war, Roome returned to Halifax and co-founded Harris and Roome Ltd. He was also involved in forming the 87th Field Battery in Dartmouth in 1921. Reg Roome also served in World War II and, in 1942, was promoted to brigadier. In 1943 he was appointed Deputy Adjutant General in Ottawa. Reg and Lorna had two children, Howard born in 1924 and Lorna born in 1927. R.E.G. Roome died in August, 1985 at age 93.
Brigadier Richard Edward Graham Roome was born on 1 May 1892 to George and Florence Roome in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. His early education took place in local public schools and he attended Halifax County Academy for secondary school. In 1913 he began a Bachelor of Arts program at Dalhousie University, but left in 1915 before completing his degree, to join the 2nd Heavy Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery. In England he was commissioned with the Royal Field Artillery of the British Army in September 1915. During World War I Roome saw action first in France, where he was wounded, and later in India and Mesopotamia.
After the war Roome returned to Canada and co-founded Harris and Roome Ltd., a wholesale distribution company specializing in electrical items, hardware, and batteries. He served as vice president but remained active in the local militia, most notably helping to form the 87th Field Battery in Dartmouth in 1921.
With the onset of World War II Roome returned to active duty, training troops and visiting training camps across Canada. He organized the CANLOAN program, which enabled surplus Canadian officers to serve in the British Army, which by 1943 was suffering from a serious shortage of younger infantry officers. From 1940-41 Roome was posted overseas as the Commanding Officer of the 5th Field Regiment of the Royal Canadian Artillery. In 1942 he returned to Canada, was promoted to brigadier, and placed in command of the Artillery of the 7th Divisions based in Eastern Canada. Roome’s stay in Eastern Canada was short; in 1943 he became Deputy Adjutant General for Officers and posted to National Defense Headquarters in Ottawa, where he also became chairman of the Officer’s Selection, Promotion, Reclassification and Disposal Board. In 1945 he was awarded the Commander of the British Empire medal for his service. Roome remained in Ottawa until the end of the war when he retired from active service.
In 1946 Roome returned to the Halifax area where he resumed work at Harris and Roome Ltd. and began commanding local militia units. He retired in earnest in 1951, but maintained his interest in military history, researching and writing a series of articles on the American Civil War for the Canadian Gunner.
Roome died in August of 1985 at age 93. He is known to have had one daughter, Lorna, with wife Helen (Jones).
Writer and illustrator Vita Rordam, daughter of the Danish poet Valdemar Rordam and his wife Margrethe, was born in Denmark in 1912 and educated there. She arrived in Canada in 1953 and lived and worked in Alberta, Ontario, and New Brunswick before settling in Nova Scotia in 1975. Her works include Payuk and the Polar Bears (1981) and "Journey to Canada" published in the Chronicle Herald (1983).
Rosemary MacAulay, visual artist, was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1935. She was educated at Dalhousie University and the University of King’s College, earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1956 and a Bachelor of Science in 1958. In 1982 she obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD), all in Halifax. Subsequently, she worked as an instructor in the Continuing Education Department at NSCAD 1986-1993 and at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia 1990. She served on the executive of Canadian Artists’ Representation / Le Front des artistes canadiens (CARFAC) Maritimes 1985-1990, co-chaired the NS Printmakers Association in 1990 and the NS Women Artists’ Network 1990-1992. She is a member of Visual Arts NS and facilitator for Tantramar Seniors’ College in 2012. She mounted solo exhibitions of her work from 1997 to 2017, and participated in group exhibitions/visual screenings from 1975 to 2011.
Captain William Ross arrived at Sherbrooke (now New Ross), Nova Scotia, on 7 August 1816. He was appointed deputy surveyor of lands in 1817 and in 1819 was granted a section of the Sherbrooke grant, which became known as New Ross. He held various offices and acted as chief administrative officer of the New Ross settlement until his death in 1822. He married Mary Williams and they had five children: Mary (born 30 September 1806 in Cork, Ireland), William Henry (born 12 December 1810 at Fort Amsterdam, South Armenia), Edward Irlam (born 3 January 1813 in Sunderland, England), George Lockhart (born 9 September 1815 at Fort Coteau de Lock, Canada), and Charles Henry Lawson (born 2 February 1818 in Sherbrooke). The family home in New Ross was known as "Rosebank". Edward Ross assisted his brother George with the family farm and operated a small store. He was appointed justice of the peace in 1838. He died in New Ross in 1894.
Anna (“Nan”) Tufts Ross was born August 9, 1905 in Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada. She lived with her parents Herman B. Ross, a jeweler, and Bessie F. (Graham) Ross, younger sister Jean, grandmother and elderly great aunt and great uncle. At the age of 17 she was diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB), a disease affecting breathing, and sent to the Nova Scotia Sanatorium (“The San”) in Kentville, NS in the fall of 1922 for treatment. She lived there, with periodic trips home to Pictou, until the summer of 1926. She trained as a nurse, graduating from Eagleville Hospital and Sanatorium in Eagleville, Pennsylvania, United States in October 1928. For the next 20 years she worked at the Prince Edward Island TB sanatorium in Charlottetown, PE, and at Sutherland Memorial Hospital in Pictou, NS until health issues in her lungs appeared again. She died April 5, 1950 on the train to Kentville.
Sally Ross is a writer, French translator and researcher specializing in the history and culture of the Acadians of Nova Scotia. She was born in Halifax in 1941 to Dr. Edwin F. and Phyllis Ross. She holds a B.Sc. (1962) and M.A. (1967) from Dalhousie University and a Licence ès Lettres (1966) and Doctorat de 3e cycle (1970) from the Université de Tours in France. She taught the history and culture of French Canada in the French Department at the University of Western Ontario (1970-1974) and Dalhousie University (1975-1983). For over 10 years, she worked in various capacities for the non-profit Société Promotion Grand-Pré (at the National Historic Site) and from 2009 to 2012 was their media relations person. She co-authored with Alphonse Deveau the prize-winning book The Acadians of Nova Scotia (1992), and her book Les écoles acadiennes en Nouvelle-Écosse, 1758-2000, was published by Université de Moncton in 2001. In 2003 she received funding from the Nova Scotia Museum to conduct a field survey of the Acadian cemeteries in Nova Scotia in order to select, document and photograph grave markers of particular cultural and historical significance. Articles based on this research were published in Markers XXII: Annual Journal of the Association for Gravestone Studies 2005, Port Acadie 2007 (Université Sainte-Anne), the Journal of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society and on the bilingual website Encyclopedia of the French Cultural Heritage of North America / Encyclopédie du Patrimoine Culturel de l'Amérique Française. She is a member of the Commission de l’Odyssée acadienne, devoted to the commemoration of the Deportation. As of 2013, Dr. Ross is semi-retired and lives in rural Nova Scotia.
The Rotary Club of Halifax was established on 5 May 1913 as a member of Rotary International. Its founder, John C. Gass, served as the first president. The club has participated in several fundraising activities for various charities, including an automobile show at the armouries in the 1920s; the "Ice Cycles" show from 1947 to 1959; the Easter Seal campaign beginning in 1952; and the Centennial School project from 1968 to 1982. The Halifax club also assists other clubs both nationally and internationally with its participation in general programs such as Adventures in Citizenship and the International Youth Service.
The Halifax Centre of The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) is dedicated to the advancement of astronomy and allied science. The Halifax Centre of the RASC is an active association of over 200 amateur and professional astronomers. It is located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, but many members live in outlying communities and other parts of the world. The roots of the centre date back to 1951 when, with the help of Father Burke-Gaffney of St. Mary's University, the Nova Scotia Astronomical Society (NSAS) was founded. The NSAS became the Halifax Centre of the RASC in January 1955. The RASC educates the general public about astronomy. Its public programs include lectures, public stargazing nights, and activities during special astronomical events.
The Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial relations was established by the federal government on 14 August 1937 to "re-examine the economic and financial basis of Confederation and the distribution of legislative powers in the light of the economic and social developments of the last 70 years." More commonly known by the names of its successive chairmen, N.W. Rowell and Joseph Sirois, the 3 volume report and recommendations of the commission was tabled in the House of Commons on 16 May 1940 and published as Sessional Paper No. 45, 1940.
The Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo is one of the world's largest annual indoor shows. First staged in 1979, when Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, opened the original Nova Scotia Tattoo, it became the Nova Scotia International Tattoo in 1984. On the occasion of her 80th Birthday in 2006, the Queen, Elizabeth II, changed the name to the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo. Typically, the show features over 2,000 world-class Canadian and international military and civilian performers in a two-and-a-half hour family show featuring music, dance, acrobatics, drama and comedy in a number of innovative acts
The Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron traces its beginnings to the Halifax Yacht Club formed on 19 August 1837. The club was incorporated in 1860 and was presented with the Prince of Wales Cup during a visit from HRH Edward, Prince of Wales. The Prince became the club's patron in 1861 and its name changed accordingly to the Royal Halifax Yacht Club. The Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron (established 1875) merged with the Royal Halifax Yacht Club in 1880 to form the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron (incorporated 1888). The squadron co-sponsors the biennial Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race and was the club-of-record for the "True North" America's Cup challenge in 1984, and for "Canada II" in 1987.
William Norman Rudolf was born on 27 January 1835, the son of William Rudolf (1791-1859) and Anna Matilda Oxner (1811-1886). His father was a successful merchant in the West India trade and served in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly (1826-1838) and subsequently on the Legislative Council until his death. W.N. Rudolf began his working career in Pictou as a clerk for the Bank of Nova Scotia in 1853 and subsequently took on the responsibility of running the office of W.M. McKay. He married Catherine “Cassie” Matthews Dawson on 15 November 1859; she was a daughter of Robert Dawson and related to Sir John William Dawson, Principal of McGill College 1855-1893. Rudolph became a partner in the firm Primrose and Rudolf of Pictou, Nova Scotia, from 1864 until the business was dissolved in 1870. In 1866 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace for the County of Pictou. He moved to Great Britain in September 1870 and established a general commission business in partnership with Alexander Scott in Glasgow, Scotland, under the name Scott, Rudolf & Co. In 1875 the Rudolph family moved to Rock Ferry, Birkenhead, England and Rudolf established a partnership with Crow, Bogart & Co., later Crow, Rudolf & Co. of Liverpool, England (established 1883). This enterprise primarily related to the timber trade with North America and Rudolph was recorded as a merchant seaman in census information from that time period. He died on 17 December 1886 at his home in Liverpool, England.