Persona

Neiland, Lizzie

• Jardine, Lizzie (previous married name)
• Laidlaw, Lizzie (maiden name)

February 24, 1882 - December 9, 1984

Lizzie Neiland (nee Laidlaw and formerly Jardine) was a housekeeper and a Whistler resident from 1921 to 1943. She was born in Selkirkshire, Scotland on February 24, 1882. Lizzie and John Jardine met aboard the ship that brought their families from Scotland to Canada, and married a few years later. Lizzie married John Alexander Jardine on November 14, 1911 in Vernon, BC. Their first child together, Jenny, was born in Kelowna in December 1912. They would have three children together. John fought in World War I with the British Columbia Regiment of the Canadian infantry, while Lizzie and the children 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. Lizzie was living in Squamish when she found herself widowed and eight months pregnant with her third child. 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 the oldest, John Alexander (known as 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., 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 their home for the next 20 or more years. Lizzie was one of the early members of the Alta Lake Community Club (ALCC) in the 1920s. Tom Neiland Sr. lived at 34½ Mile until his death in 1949; Lizzie stayed on in Alta Lake for a few more years until it became too much for her and she sold the property and moved on. She lived to be 102, passing away on December 9, 1984.

Selkirkshire, Scotland
Vernon, BC
Squamish
Kelowna, BC
Vancouver
North Vancouver
Alta Lake
Whistler
Alpha Lake
Function Junction

Housekeeper

Lizzie is her legal name. Lizzie insisted her name was not the common nickname for Elizabeth.

Betts, Jenny Anderson (December 7, 1912 - August 1, 2003)

Jardine, Jack (July 27, 1914 - Spring 1999)

Neiland, Thomas Warren (Jr.) (July 29, 1922 - 1995)

Jardine, Robert "Bob" Laidlaw (September 26, 1918 - March 27, 2008)

Rutherford, Mary Jane (14 Sep 1889-27 Feb 1976)

Laidlaw, Jim (fl. 1880s-1939)

Neiland, Thomas (Sr.) (September 25, 1869 - March 1, 1949)

GB-NL001

RAD, July 2008 version. Canadian Council of Archives.

Catalogued December 2022.

1) Archival material
2) Family tree by Louise Smith
3) First Tracks, by Florence Petersen
4) BC Births, Marriages, and Deaths Index
5) https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/420502?wbdisable=true
6) https://blog.whistlermuseum.org/tag/thomas-neiland/
7) https://www.mountainlifemedia.ca/flipmag/cm/2018-winter-spring/pages/66/