– by Valerie Green –
According to the Georgian calendar, September is the ninth month of the year. On the old Roman calendar, it was the seventh month. Interestingly enough, through the years, September has sometimes had 29 days and sometimes 31 days; but, since the time of the Emperor Augustus, it has had only 30 days.
On the Saanich Peninsula, the biggest September event is, of course, our historic Saanich Fair which occurs on Labour Day weekend every year. It started in 1867 when ten pioneer farmers on the peninsula wanted to show off their farming skills to the rest of the province, so they formed the North and South Saanich Agricultural Society and the following year they staged a Fair to showcase these skills. The Fair was first held at Robert Brown’s farm in 1868 and Brown was also the first Fair President. The following year the Fair was moved to the farm of William and Margaret Thomson known as “Bannockburn” which became its home for many years with William himself as President. It operated on that land until 1992, at which time it moved to its current site on Stelly’s Cross Road. This year the Fair will run from September 5 through September 7.
Displays, exhibits and added attractions have steadily grown through the years. Exhibitors still proudly show off their year’s efforts in the form of prize animals, baked pies, preserves, flowers, and a wealth of vegetables throughout the acreage.
Another very auspicious September event happened on September 10, 1910, when an attempted flight was made by a man called William Gibson in his homemade airplane at the Lansdowne field between Richmond Road and Shelbourne. This was deemed to be the beginning of Canadian aviation history, despite not being very successful! Much later, on September 1, 1937, Trans-Canada Airlines made the first international passenger flight from Vancouver to Seattle.
Back in 1898 on September 11 a fire destroyed a good section of New Westminster. On September 12 even further back in 1846 adventurous sea captain John Franklin’s two ships the Erebus and Terror became firmly locked into the ice north of King William Island and Franklin’s own plight was thereafter unknown.
September will also always be remembered for the catastrophic events of 9/11 in 2001 when the worst terrorist attack in US history occurred. Four large passenger jets were hijacked, two of which were piloted into the Twin Towers in New York. The third hit the Pentagon building in Washington and the fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. The eventual death toll on that tragic day in history was approximately 3,000.
On a happier note, on September 13, 1981, the very first Terry Fox Run was held in 800 Canadian communities across the country. It continues every September to this day with more than $650 million raised for Cancer research.
Valerie Green is an author/historian and can be reached at valgee@shaw.ca
