THE ELVERSON FAMILY HISTORY
Charles Gordon Lee Elverson was born in England in 1885 and went to Canada in 1904, and started ranching in the Calgary area He later moved to the Maple Bay area of Vancouver Island. In 1910 he married Kathleen Royce, who was the grand-daughter of Charles Stanley Monck, 4thViscount Monck the first Governor-General of Canada. She died in 1911 as a result of a miscarriage. On the outbreak of war, he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force and went with them to Salisbury Plain, where he transferred to the Royal West Kent Regiment, which he had been with when in the Militia for the South African wars. He went with them to Mesopotamia.
After the war he returned to Canada where he met Constance Evelyn Nancye Croker who was a 2nd cousin of Kathleen Royce. They were married on 5 January 1920. After a honeymoon on Santa Catalina Island they bought a bungalow in Sturdies Bay on Galiano Island from the Hills family. Charles Ronald Croker (Punch) Elverson was born on 26 November that year having been brought back to England for the birth. Ann Francis Elverson was born on 13 June 1922 in Victoria and Cerise Theodora (Cherry) Elverson was born on 13 December 1923.
At Nancye’s insistence in 1924, the family moved back to England but in 1926 they then moved back to Galiano on condition that he built a more substantial home. Whilst the new two-story house “Dunromin” with six bedrooms was being built on the foundations of their old house, they rented the Enke house nearby. “Dunromin” was later destroyed by fire in April 1951, but now provides the site for Galiano Lodge. They employed Mr and Mrs Perry who lived in the Cottage (see pictures)
He was a keen stonemason and used to go on expeditions to carve out stones to take home in his boat “Guess Again”. The top of a sundial that he carved still remains in the grounds. Punch went to school at Shawnigan Lake School while Ann and Cherry went to Queen Margaret’s School, Duncan. In 1937 they left Galiano and returned to live in England.
