It was indeed an "outpost of the empire" as one might intuit from the community name: Queen's Bay. Its creation was largely due to the orchards. There were two lords of an Irish peerage. They were the Lords Kenneth Aylmer and Basil Aylmer. The latter at one time played for the Ottawa Roughriders in the 40s. I would direct those who are interested to two publications for further reading. They are "Lost Orchards" by Joan Lang and a comprehensive local history book of the area entitled "Kootenay Outlet Reflections."

One story that was told to me dealt with an advertisement that was sent to the U.K. to encourage persons to come to Canada to seek their fortunes in fruit production. This effort was enhanced by the device of pinning apples to pine tree boughs to induce would-be entrepreneurs to cross the ocean and seek their livelihood in the orchards of British Columbia. Gladys Hirst and her daughter added greatly to the cultural milieu of the community. Many valued their instruction in dance and ballet. They were also staunchly Anglican.

Others were Ted and Geraldine Mahood. Ted was the son of the first vicar of Kokanee, the Rev. J. S. Mahood, who wrote The Hymn of the Kootenays. Geraldine immortalized herself as a young girl by tying onions to the pulpit at harvest festivals. She and her friend, Kay Hughes, wanted to see the vicar cry when he preached.

A bell tower and bell were added by the Ough family in memory of a son who died while serving in the army.

In later years, one Haroldine Copp came to the community. She exercised a high degree of devotion to the little church. On a number of occasions one might see her in "mufti," armed with paint buckets or some other tools of maintenance, headed for the church. She would stain the siding and mend the roof when she was well into her retirement years. In the mid-90s we gathered with the Right Rev. David Crawley for the de-consecration of the church. We carried out the altar, the lectern, the pulpit, the font, and all the other accoutrement of worship. The altar and the font were taken to St. Francis in-the-Woods, Lake Country, which was a new church. The diocese sold the building to the Queen's Bay community for the sum of one dollar, on condition that they maintain it. When we had finished our tasks of de-consecration, someone announced that it was October fourth: the feast of St. Francis. No one had planned this.