Historical survey marker to become headstone

Carol and Scott Lee and their children Kristen and Graham with a historical survey marker that will be transformed into a headstone for a distant relative. Photo by Peter Mallett, Lookout. Bottom right: Colonel Josiah Greenwood Holmes (right) with Major James Peters at Work Point in 1909.

Peter Mallett, Staff Writer ~

A 19th Century granite survey marker, placed by Dominion of Canada surveyors to establish the bounds of Work Point Barracks in 1887, will become a tombstone for the Deputy Adjutant General of Military District # 11 appointed in 1883.

Descendants of Colonel Josiah Greenwood Holmes were at the Work Point Barracks site June 6 as workers from Mortimer’s Monumental Works dislodged the massive granite marker from the ground and hauled it on to a flatbed truck with a mechanical arm.

The marker had been cast aside following the demolition of the Work Point’s Officers’ Mess in 2006.

“It’s terrific to see this stone finally being pulled from the ground,” said Carol Lee, great-granddaughter of Col Holmes. “This process is helping myself and other family members rediscover our military heritage, and someone who played such an important role in the history of Victoria and Canada.”

Col Holmes was born May 28, 1845, in St. Catharines (Upper Canada). A graduate of Royal Military College, he worked as an adjutant (administrator to a senior officer) of A Battery in Ontario from 1872 until his promotion to the Commander of Military District # 11, including ‘C Battery” and the Canadian School of Artillery in Victoria -Esquimalt.
He had previously served in the Fenian Raids in 1866 and 1870. He eventually retired in 1909 and passed away at his home in Victoris in 1928.

C Battery was gazetted in 1883, and arrived in Victoria in 1887, established to shore up coastal defences to protect Victoria and Esquimalt harbours from possible sea borne attacks, and also to oversee the formation and training of a militia in the years following Confederation.

The marker will be converted into a headstone for Col Holmes and his other immediate family members who are buried in unmarked graves at Ross Bay Cemetery.

Col Holmes and his wife’s original headstones were destroyed by vandals several years ago.

Carol Lee and her husband Scott came to the site with their two children Kristen and Graham to oversee the stone’s removal and its eventual restoration.

Carol credits her husband, who works as a water taxi operator and tour guide in Victoria’s Inner Harbour, and Jack Bates from Victoria’s Organization for the Preservation of Victoria Military Heritage, in rekindling her interest in military history.

Bates, who has spent several years documenting Victoria’s military history, knew the stone had been left on the property and told Lee about its location. They then sought approval from the Department of National Defence to take the stone.

Stone workers will work to smooth the rough surface and jagged edges and transform it into a tombstone to mark the graves of Col Holmes and his wife Elizabeth. The Lee family and Bates hope to have the stone placed at Ross Bay cemetery in the coming months once their request meets the approval of City of Victoria staff.