Babcock, Reginald S., 1892-1978

Reginald "Reg" Stephen Babcock was born in 1892 in Sidmouth, Devonshire, England. In 1910, he immigrated to Canada. He lived in Montreal and worked as a waiter aboard the CN railway until the outbreak of the First World War. He joined the Royal Montreal Rifles and was wounded in action overseas. He was recuperating in a Halifax hospital at the time of the Halifax Explosion in 1917. After the war, he moved to the United States, where he was engaged as a golf pro at courses in Philadelphia and Massachusetts. While in Boston, he met his wife, Jennie May McConnell from Torbrook, Annapolis County. He spent the 1920s moving between his work at the United States golf courses and his wife's family homestead, where they operated a fox farm. Between 1932 and 1934 he was engaged as golf pro at the newly-opened Digby Pines resort. Around 1935, he moved to Halifax where he was golf pro at the Gorsebrook Golf Club until 1944. He was owner of Babcock's tearoom in Halifax from 1945 to 1950, when he moved to Wolfville and operated Babcock's restaurant until his retirement to Kingston in 1973. He served as Chairman of the Greens Committee at Ashburn Golf Club (1945-1950); and during the 1950s he was Chairman of the Greens Committee for Ken-Wo Golf Club. Babcock began taking home movies in the 1920s and his films reflect his interests and family life. By the 1950s, however, he was becoming more involved with still photography and more specifically slides. By the 1960s he had stopped film making and was doing 35mm still photography only. Reginald Babcock died in Berwick, Nova Scotia on 9 August 1978.