The experience Alexander George Bowie received in the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals during the Second World War served him well while operating a repeater station in 150 House.
Bowie was born in 1903, in Paisley, Scotland right on the border between Scotland and England near Edinburgh. His family moved to Canada, at the time still a dominion, when he was three years old, settling in the small town of Hillcrest, Alberta - right at the Crowsnest Pass. Tragedy struck the Bowie family not long after their arrival in their new home, however.
"My grandfather was killed in a mine explosion. And then his widow and five children moved to Edmonton," said Ian Bowie, Alexander's son. The move was sponsored by the United Church, according to Florence "Flo" Evans - another one of Alexander Bowie's children.
In Edmonton, Bowie began to be trained in delivering telegrams, starting when he was just five-years-old. In the 1920s, after Bowie had grown up, he became a full-time worker with the Dominion Government Telegraph. According to a 2021 blog post by Caitlin Webster for the Library and Archives Canada Blog, Dominion Telegraph Service was responsible for providing a telegraphic service in British Columbia as part of a condition for the province joining Confederation in 1871.
The service had several lines that had been established at the time, including a line from Bella Coola to 150 Mile House, according to Doug Gent's History Pages.
On Sept. 1st, 1939, Adolf Hitler, with dreams of a massive Third Reich, invaded Poland kicking off the Second World War. On Sept. 10, 1939, Canada declared war on Nazi Germany.
Bowie would enlist with the Canadian military two years later in September of 1941 joining the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals. They were a component of the Canadian Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Branch, which had seen a "tremendous increase in the size and scope of operation for communicators from the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals and the Royal Canadian Air Force telecommunications and radar operations" according to a history webpage from the Canadian Military Communications and Electronic Network.
While Bowie served throughout the war, he never saw active duty. Bowie was stationed on the West Coast and spent his days in the military in Canada, though he came close once to deploying overseas.
"Colonel Leopard (his commanding officer) was away doing something, and somehow or another, Dad got permission to go overseas. And as I understand it, he got on the train, they had a party for him - a going away party," Ian recalled. "He made it as far as Calgary - and Colonel Leopard had caught up with them, and got them off the train and shipped him back to Vancouver."
After the end of the war, Bowie was sent to Little Mountain in Vancouver.
"He had to exercise all the veterans that came back to Europe, and he felt quite badly about standing up there with a microphone making all the veterans march back and forth for exercise," said Ian.
Following his discharge from the army, Bowie and his family moved to 150 Mile House to operate a repeater station for Dominion Government Telegraphs. He learned how to operate the station from Royal Canadian Air Force members who had been stationed there during the war.
Elliott said the family lived in what was originally a dormitory for the RCAF personnel stationed there.
The experience running the station was stressful for Bowie, his children recalled. The repeater station had to be active 24 hours, seven days a week - with Bowie having to teach new people how to run the entire repeater station.
"He never, ever did get a full crew," said his daughter Marg Elliott said. Ian added they did eventually, but that came after Bowie had retired.
Bowie's children share several memories about the repeater station. They recalled how cold winter would be with temperatures dropping to -45 C some days. Thankfully, the repeater station had its own furnace.
"We were very lucky. We had a cool furnace at the repeater station, but everywhere else it was woodstoves," said Elliott.
Secondly, the children remember having to commute from 150 Mile House to Williams Lake for school was a challenge.
"When we were driving back and forth in with half nights - we had to stand down on the road when it was so blinking cold, waiting for him - and then we had to walk down the streets in Williams Lake," said Elliott.
In 1951, following a nervous breakdown, Bowie retired from telegraphing. He would eventually move to the Skeena River, where he worked as a logger. Bowie died in 1971 in Kelowna from a heart attack.
Remembrance Day is important to remember for Bowie's children, so that they "don't get into a ruddy war again" remarked Marg. They expressed concern about the current state of the world: they have specifically cited the actions of the Russian Federation as one of the reasons why.
"It seems like the world is trying to do now, but no one wants to see their kids go off to war," said Elliott.
As for the repeater station that Bowie once ran, it still stands in the 150 Mile House. It's now been converted into a staining workshop for Smith Timber Works.
Owner Brock Smith bought the property in 2018 and lives in one of the original homes built at the time the repeater station was in operation.
During a tour of the property, Smith said the building that housed the repeater station was built very well.
"It has 14-inch walls and had hot water heat," he said.
Eventually the federal government sold the building to BC Tel and then in 1965 Nester Johnson purchased it.
"My father and I had Cariboo Towing and Auto Parts there," said Nester's son Rennie Johnson.
Smith purchased it from the Johnsons.
With files from Monica Lamb-Yorski
