A CLOSER LOOK
/KING GEORGE ARCHIVES
Connecting Today’s Students To Their School’s History
FRONT PAGE 1929 EX-KING GEORGE BULLETIN (Joseph Planta photo)
by John Streit
(click images to enlarge)
When most high school students graduate in B.C., the connection to their former high schools usually ends. Whether you’re off to college or university, a job or travel, your educational home for five years is suddenly in the rear mirror.
It was a different story back in the early 1900’s when former students very much carried the pride and respect of their former school into the next phase of their young lives, often through sport or business and much of it reported in print.
King George Secondary School was the recent recipient of an extremely generous donation, including original monthly alumni newsletters dating back to the 1920’s. Named the ‘XKG Bulletin’ or ‘Ex-King George Bulletin,’ this was described in an editorial as “the most practical way of keeping in touch with the old school and former classmates.” Editor in Chief F.C. Pilkington goes on to write “leaving the classrooms does not mean severing all connections with King George High. Former students will always retain pleasant memories of their high school days that will serve as a bond of association in years to come.
A CHEEKY EDITORIAL IN THE XKG BULLETIN (Joseph Planta photo)
Subscription rates in 1928 were 50 cents, or free to X-King George Club members. The editorial address was 1746 Haro Street, the same block as the present-day West End Community Centre (right around the corner from the current King George High).
‘PERSONALITIES’ was a Facebook-like section of the The Ex-King George Bulletin, which offered mini-updates about the lives of alums. “Victor Southey (class of 1926) has returned to Winnipeg after spending a few weeks in Vancouver. He is taking a course in engineering at the University of Manitoba.” “Miss Ruth Fraser (class of 1921) won second honour in the school of Household Science at McGill University.” Malcolm McGregor (class of 1926) is spending the summer on the S.S. WhiteHorse, which maintains a service between Dawson and White Horse Y.T.”
The June 1928 edition of the XKG Bulletin features a front-page article about KG (originally located on Burrard near Smithe) securing a new gym. “At its last meeting, the Vancouver School Board went in favour of granting the sum of $4,000 for the purchase of the Wesley Church Gymnasium on Burrard Street. If all goes well, the gymnasium will be moved from its present site to King George High School grounds during the summer holidays and will be ready for use when school re-opens in September.”
Sports including hockey, badminton, track and field and rugby were a big deal in the XKG Bulletin. An article titled ‘PUCKCHASERS MAKE A SPLENDID SHOWING” is about the alumni ice hockey team which played at Denman Arena. “Meeting particularly formidable opposition this year, the X-Kings have more than held their own, and although it is now too early to prophesy, there is every indication that they will come out on top at the end of the season.”
A former teammate also got a mention in the newsletter. “The X-King George hockey team was very glad to see Hazel Nolan, if only for a few minutes, at the opening hockey game against the towers. He’s greatly missed this season but the club wishes him every success in his drug store business which he has established in Vernon, B.C.”
ADS IN XKG BULLETIN (Joseph Planta photo)
Advertising fills the sides of the bulletins, including Capitola Pharmacy on Davie and Bute, Brown Bros. & Co Ltd. “Florists, Nurserymen and Seedsmen” Love’s Café at 925 Granville Street “A Delightful Dining Place with a Distinctive Appeal”, along with the Duffus School of Business on Seymour and Pender.
While the content is almost 100 years old, the story of how it ended up in the hands of Jesse Coombs, founder of the King George Archives, is very 2024.
Coombs is a retired staff member from KG, where he taught for about 20 years, having taught 30 years altogether in the Vancouver School District. Coombs maintains the archives with a team of other archivists, including Jim Bradbury, KG alumni class of 1961.
“In 2013, there were some boxes of historical stuff in the back room of the school library but never displayed. I’m a lover of antiques and history and became a sort of hoarder of the school furniture that was being thrown out, and that included year books and memorabilia. It just sort of amassed into a big haul and I needed to store it somewhere, so I took over a room. And that’s how the little archives of KG was founded. And as we grew closer to the 2014 100 Year Anniversary of King George, I put it all on display for everyone to see,” Coombs says.
Asked about favourite items in the archives, Coombs hardly knew where to start.
“I just love the whole room, everything about it. I guess it’s the essence or presence of such history steeped in all sorts of artifacts and pictures. We have these giant composite pictures that were from the first original KG school back in 1914. We have school rings from Birks from the ‘60s and ‘70s. We have the B.C. Girl’s Grass Hockey Team championship stick from 1916. There’s so much stuff. So do I have a favourite? No, my favourite is the KG Archives,” he says emphatically.
Joseph Planta is a local podcaster who has conducted interviews with people over the last twenty years. “That doesn't pay the bills, so I am employed by a local towing company,” he says.
Back in August, I saw Planta post on Facebook about a recent estate sale find in North Burnaby involving King George items, including a large KG Class of 1927 photo, and asked if he’d ever consider donating it to the school, as I knew Jesse was always on the lookout for new items (my oldest son went to KG, my youngest is currently in KG and I’m grad of ‘89).
“But funnily enough, simultaneously, a friend from Heritage Vancouver also suggested I contact the archivist at King George. I didn't know high schools had archivists, though apparently none except King George has one. And after thinking about it for half a minute, as I really don't have the room for a framed photo of a high school class from the late 1920s, nor have I a connection to the school. It was really through conversations with Jesse over email that I was satisfied it would be proper for these things to go back to King George, especially as the archive didn't have most of these items,” Planta tells The West End Journal.
1927 KING GEORGE GRAD CLASS PHOTO (Joseph Planta photo)
After the easiest networking ever, Joseph and Jesse met at the school.
“Joseph is passionate about archives, a grad of Sir Charles Tupper Secondary School in Vancouver. He collects a lot of cool things himself. He came across this estate with a whole bunch of King George memorabilia. There were several year books, class photos, King George alumni pamphlets and something to do with a teacher named Miss Barton. She was the longest standing teacher to ever teach at KG. She taught at the old school on Burrard Street and the new school here on Barclay Street. So, I think it was a total of around 41 years.
“It’s a great score and it’s great to meet people like Joseph and he’s going to be looking out for us for any more memorabilia or artifacts that come across his path,” Coombs says.
JOSEPH PLANTA (left) AND JESSE COOMBS (Jesse Coombs photo)
Planta has a keen eye for collectibles. “Political buttons are a particular favourite of mine. I'm a member of the American Political Items Collectors, a great group founded in 1945 for numismatics and art collectors of politically themed items, campaign buttons making up one the larger groups of collectibles. I also have a collection of busts, mainly of American presidents, though I have one of John Diefenbaker on my desk at home, and a nearly four-foot statue of Sir Wilfrid Laurier in the hall in my office at home,” Planta says.
He explains why the KG collection caught his eye that day back in August. “I like looking at yearbooks, especially of schools in and around Vancouver, so when they come up for sale, as rarely as it happens, I like to grab them. At auction a couple of years ago, I got the entire life and career of one teacher in yearbooks, from her junior high school to college years (UBC used to put out an annual, Totem), through to her eventual career as a teacher, something like thirty consecutive years of yearbooks from the two high schools she taught at, including mine, Sir Charles Tupper. Like the King George materials, I paid a ridiculously low price which made it worth the purchase,” he says.
Planta paid $30 for the KG collection and, as is normal in estate sales, didn’t ask who might have owned the stuff or its provenance.
He talks about the day he donated the items to the school and meeting Jesse for the first time in person, describing his enthusiasm as “infectious.”
“When I went down to King George, he met me on Denman and as we walked to that great room where all is kept, he knew a guy on the street and invited him to have a look. He was excited to show us both everything they had managed to find, salvage, and keep. I think all high schools should have a repository like the one King George set up. It would make a lot of us feel connected to the places where we went to school,” Planta explains.
Sample Pages from the XKG BULLETIN (Joseph Planta photo)
Coombs tells the TWEJ why he loves what he’s doing part-time as a volunteer in retirement.
“Well, it’s like anything, history is very important. It’s where we came from, it’s where we’re going, the future. But the past helps us connect the future in the present. At any high school, I don’t care where you come from, we all came of age. So King George is my passion. The history there is so important, and it shapes young people as they’re growing up. Preserving the history of a school is very important because if it’s gone, it’s gone.
“Thank goodness we’re lucky enough to have so much history. We have all the KG yearbooks consecutively going back to around 1940. We have so many artifacts including clothing. Donations that we’ve received from various school departments including math, science and English. We have poetry and books that kids have written. This is all people’s lives and hugely important to preserve,” he says.
So what other historical items is the KG Archives looking for? “We are really fortunate enough to have a huge body of work and volume of material, artifacts and items pertaining to KG. But we’d also like to go back further and find items for some of our feeder elementary schools like Lord Roberts and Dawson (which was before Lord Roberts). Before Dawson, it was called West School in the West End. Central School was another KG feeder. These were just location schools, but the first schools in the late 1800’s early 1900’s. Any old class photos from Lord Roberts or the other feeder schools, we don’t have any of those. It’s hugely important to catalogue that into our King George Archives because they just dovetail so easily with our brothers and sisters,” Coombs tells TWEJ.
For Joseph Planta, it’s important that vintage items like these are seen and experienced.
“Over the years, several people have suggested I donate things I have to archives or institutions. One example is several political buttons I have of one political candidate. The Royal BC Museum has political buttons in their collection, as does SFU and the City of Vancouver's archive, but they're not easily accessible to the general public. As a collector, I've wondered what'll happen to whatever it is I've collected over the years. I would hope it would go to other collectors, because that's how I've managed to build my various collections over the years, from purchases from other collectors, from garage or estate sales online or in person. If things can't be properly displayed, then they belong to collectors who'll appreciate this stuff, rather than end up in banker's boxes in some cold, inaccessible storage room,” he says.
Jesse Coombs maintains Planta’s gift to the school is in good hands at the KG Archives.
“It’s just a magical little room that we have that looks like a little antique store/museum in KG down in the foyer. We found out recently in the foyer there’s a brick pillar – and inside there’s a class of 1978 time capsule. It’s so cool to know that. Elsie McGill, the first female nautical engineer, was in the KG class of 1921. The Royal Canadian Mint created a Loonie two years ago in her honour. She’s called Queen of the Hurricane. We have Agnes Martin, a famous artist. Sotheby’s sold one of her paintings in 2017 for $17.7 million dollars,” he says.
“As I’ve said to many students and families over the years, this is the people’s archives. This is not my archives, I’m simply the curator. For now, I hold such an honour to take care of it with the others. The past, present and future King George students and their families. It’s a piece of living history that’s always changing.”
By the way, if you’d like to donate something to the King George Archives, contact the school at 604-713-8999.
