Profiles

The legends of Peter Manson’s dynamic energy continue to be repeated in the corridors of Ladner Downs. They say his voice can still be heard haunting the word processing rooms after midnight, although he departed that scene in 1976. In that year, he joined the legal department of Cominco Ltd. Ultimately to become its head and general counsel ... 

Stanley Harold Winfield was born and raised in Calgary, along with his three older brothers. Unable to enlist at the start of the Second World War, Winfield was accepted to the Royal Canadian Air Force shortly after his 18th birthday in August 1941. He wanted to be a pilot but was unfortunately assigned to administrative duties due to the discovery that he was colour blind. He served assignments in Newfoundland and London before being shipped to direct large Allied forces through Holland and into Germany.

Born on Aug. 27^th, 1923, in Salmon Arm, BC, Vince Reid’s path to UBC Law was a humble one. He was educated in a one-room country school for eight years. Before completing school, Reid enrolled in the armed forces as a mechanic and as a tank driver, and served on the front lines in Normandy, as part of the First Canadian Armoured Battalion. Wounded during the assault on the Rhine, Reid spent most of the next year recovering in hospital. While in the hospital, he was visited by a Major, who suggested that he go to university.

Dr. Constance Isherwood, QC passed away on January 26, 2021 at the age of 101. For more information, read a Times Colonist article about her remarkable life and work as the province's oldest practicing lawyer. The following profile was created by the law school as a monthly alumni feature in 2011.

The Court of Appeal soon learned how stubborn Marv could be. Both Ken and others told me of Marvin's reaction to being overturned by the Court of Appeal. In sentencing two impaired drivers, Marvin referred to the increase in the number of impaired drivers in Salmon Arm. Instead of imposing the usual $500 fine, he imposed fines of $2,000. After finding that Marvin had erred, the court again fined the offenders $500. The next week Marvin again imposed fines of $2,000.

Last year marked the 25th anniversary of Big Rock Brewery and for Ed McNally, it was the perfect excuse to throw another beer bash. Ed founded Big Rock Brewery in 1985 after decades of practicing law, farming and raising cattle. An Alberta native, Ed attended UBC Law in the army-hut days of the 1950s before there was a brick-and-mortar facility. “It was one of my smarter choices in life, going to UBC,” he says wistfully, recalling the dark foggy campus nights, an “interesting” roster of professors and classmates, and the formidable University President and law scholar Norman Mackenzie.

George Stewart Cumming (also known as George S. Cumming, George Scumming and X. Xumminf, Esq. (see page 61)) will become Master Treasurer January 1, 1983. George was born in Vancouver, B.C. in 1928. George’s father was with the Bank of Montreal which resulted in the family moving to Victoria, B.C. where George attended Oak Bay High School. There he excelled scholastically and as a rugger player. It is reliably reported that on a fairly regular basis he was separated from his rugby shorts both before, during and after rugger games ... 

A lawyer who graduated with him from UBC in 1950 told me: “I never would have gone through law school without McEachern’s notes.” That voluntary confession, apart from its refreshing candour and expression of gratitude, illuminates not only the note-taker’s generous spirit but also his instantaneous comprehension and ability to record unfolding events quickly in legible hand. Those skills have come in handy ever since ... 

UBC was saddened by the passing of one its most distinguished faculty members, Dr. Charles Bourne, on June 25, 2012. Dr. Bourne completed a B.A. from the University of Toronto in 1945, an LL.M. from Cambridge in 1947 and an S.J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1970. After several years at the University of Saskatchewan (College of Law), he moved to UBC in 1950 to join Dean George Curtis at the rapidly expanding law school. In 1957, Dr. Bourne was named a full professor. Dr.

On November 20, 1997, the B.C. Branch of the Canadian Bar Association presented Allan Bate, Q.C. with the prestigious Georges A. Goyer Q.C. Memorial Award for Distinguished Service. At a Bench and Bar Dinner hosted by Kerry Lynne D. Findlay, president of the B.C. Branch, he was surrounded by friends, colleagues and his family …

Richard Fraser Gosse, Q.C., known across Canada as Dick Gosse, was a lawyer of many careers, all of them pursued with flair and verve. He died in Vancouver on November 18, 2008. Few have had a legal career filled with such adventure, changing positions and new challenges, all of which were characterized by enthusiasm, delight in novel circumstances and great success.

“What in hell is the Jokers Club?” reads the first line of a Ubyssey article published in October, 1945. “A club for all nitwits, screwballs, and zanies,” was the answer of Alan Beesley, founding member, Noise Joker and club publicity man. “We are lunatics at large.” The Jokers Club is the first thing Beesley mentions now when asked about his years at UBC. “I was so busy I had to take every second day off from my studies,” he deadpans.

Brian William Ferriman McLoughlin was born October 4, 1927 in Victoria. He attended St. Michael’s School and Oak Bay High School where it is reputed he lost some of his innocence and most of his hair. After graduating from U.B.C. Law School he articled with Lawrence & Shaw where he has remained since his pre-Sputnik call to the Bar in 1950 ... 

Meredith J. is now the senior puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia having been sworn in on April 27, 1973. He was born in Vancouver in 1922 and was the son of the late Elmore Meredith, Q.C., a well known Vancouver lawyer, who, in his time, had been a Bencher and Treasurer of the Law Society ... 

For the first time since the early 1950’s (when William Haldane served as Master Treasurer), a Master Treasurer will hail from Victoria. This is not an insignificant feat when one considers that to lay claim to this office one must serve long and sufficiently well to achieve re-election at least three times over, and perhaps most importantly, if from Victoria, must survive many years of almost weekly round trips in the not so friendly skies of what was until recently known as “Scare-West”! ... 

Diana M. Priestly, who has served as Law Librarian and a member of the Faculty at both of the Province’s law schools, will retire from her position at the University of Victoria on June 30, 1987. Her association with the law and the legal profession in British Columbia began in January, 1946 when she enrolled in the Special Veteran’s Class at the U.B.C. Faculty of law. Prior to enrolling, she had served in the Womens’ Royal Canadian Naval Service from 1943-46 …

As lawyers, we like to tell “war stories.” We usually mean some court room drama, or perhaps a deal that went sideways. At 89 years of age, Don Easton has lots of war stories, gathered over a remarkable life and career. With 61 years at the bar, he has plenty of lawyer “war stories” from his time as a solicitor working at the heart of our province’s business community. He also has some other war stories, of the literal kind …

On Thursday, August 4, 1983 Louis Allan Williams, Q.C. was dealing with the routine of filling out an application to the Secretary of State for External Affairs for a new passport. Accompanying his application would be the green passport issued to him as a provincial Cabinet Minister and Provincial Attorney General. He was thus giving up one of the last perks which came to him as the 33rd Attorney General of British Columbia ...

Leslie Peterson grew up on a farm outside Viking, Alberta, and recognized the value of education at an early age. At fourteen, he moved away from the family farm to go to school, and paid for a small housekeeping room by doing part-time janitorial work.

Mr. Peterson served in the Canadian Artillery during the Second World War, and graduated from law school at UBC in 1949 alongside many other veterans.

On November 14, 1993, the kindly face that graces the front cover of this edition of the Advocate completed a quarter of a century of useful service on the Court of Appeal of British Columbia. He joins a select group of only five Justices of Appeal who have served that long …