Jardine, Jack

• Jardine, John Alexander (Jr.)

John Alexander "Jack" Jardine Jr. was a logger and long-time resident of the Sea to Sky area. Jack was born on July 27, 1914 in Kelowna, BC to parents John Alexander and Lizzie Jardine (later Neiland), both Scottish immigrants to Canada. His father fought in World War I with the British Columbia Regiment of the Canadian infantry; Lizzie and the family remained in Kelowna. The family moved to Vancouver after John was wounded in Mons, Belgium and sent to Vancouver General Hospital. When he was released, John found work on the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE) and the family settled in Squamish. John was involved in a deadly speeder accident while working on the Squamish rail line for the Pacific Great Eastern (PGE) Railway. As a result, John died August 28, 1918 in Squamish, BC, and was buried in Lynn Valley Cemetery, in North Vancouver. Jack, his older sister Jenny, and his mother, Lizzie, were living in Squamish when Lizzie found herself widowed and eight months pregnant with her third child (Robert). She packed up the house in Squamish and made the long journey to Kelowna, BC to live with her parents. She and her young family: Jenny, Jack, and the new baby Robert, stayed in Kelowna until Lizzie found work keeping house for her husband’s old friend, Tom Neiland, in North Vancouver. Tom worked for the PGE railway as a conductor, but he had always had dreams of working for himself. He bought some land and, in May 1921, moved the whole family up to Alta Lake (known today as Whistler) to start his own logging camp. Lizzie and Tom were married on May 2, 1922. This marriage was of huge financial significance to the Jardine family, as Lizzie lost her widow’s pension of $35 a month - a significant sum at the time. At first, the family lived at the Alta Lake townsite, but in January 1922, they moved down to Thomas Neiland’s first venture at Alpha Lake, where he was harvesting cedar logs to be exported to Japan. In July 1922, the export log prices of cedar logs collapsed, and so did Thomas Neiland’s business; he had to file for bankruptcy. The family moved back to North Vancouver. Later that month, Lizzie gave birth to their son, Thomas Neiland Jr. (Jack's half-brother), at the age of 40. For three months, Thomas Sr. looked for work in Vancouver. Eventually persuaded by both a lack of employment and his wife’s desire to return to Alta Lake, he gained financing under her name. The family returned to their Alpha Lake cabin, and in 1923 they moved into an old loggers cabin at 34½ mile (present day Function Junction area) that was being sold by the crown, and this became the family's home for the next 20 or so years. Jack started working on the family business of logging when he was only 10 years old. He took lessons by correspondence, but found little time to do so with all the work to do at home. He was enrolled in the first school at Alta Lake in 1932, but he only attended occasionally. His enrollment was likely to make up the numbers to ten children, (the number required to open a school). Jack Jardine left the Whistler area about 1940 to fight in World War II. When he returned, he worked as a logger in various places. On July 27, 1946, he married his wife, Irma, and built a house across the tracks from but on the same lot as his mother at 34 1/2 Mile (Tom Neiland had died in 1948). Jack and Irma had two sons (Tom and Donald) and a daughter (Cathy). Jack worked at a small logging outfit that was located within walking distance. In 1950, Lizzie Neiland sold the property and Jack and Irma moved to Squamish, where they remained until 1980, when they retired to Qualicum Beach, BC on Vancouver Island. Jack passed away in the Spring of 1999.

Kelowna, BC
Vancouver
Squamish
North Vancouver
Whistler
Alta Lake
Alpha Lake
Function Junction
34 1/2 Mile
Squamish
Qualicum Beach, BC

Logger
Soldier

RAD, July 2008 version. Canadian Council of Archives.

Catalogued November 2022.
Revised December 2022.

1) Archival material
2) Family tree by Louise Smith
3) Letter to Florence Petersen from Louise Smith, Spring 1999
4) First Tracks, by Florence Petersen
5) Email from Louise Smith, January 13, 2012
6) Email from Louise Smith, January 25, 2012
7) https://blog.whistlermuseum.org/tag/jack-jardine/
8) https://squamishlibrary.digitalcollections.ca/uploads/r/squamish-public-library/1/6/16631/19761118_Squamish_Times.pdf
9) https://squamishlibrary.digitalcollections.ca/uploads/r/squamish-public-library/1/7/17256/19790620_Squamish_Times.pdf
10) https://squamishlibrary.digitalcollections.ca/uploads/r/squamish-public-library/1/9/19104/19860819_Squamish_Times.pdf