TheColumbia Valley - Columbia Valley Pioneer

24 • The Columbia Valley Pioneer July 6, 2007
VALLEY PIONEER
Harold Forster murdered on his ranch
By Dorothy Isted
Special to Th e Pioneer
Harold Ernest Forster was a colourful character
who met his untimely death on his ranch near Wilmer
in 1940, one of the valley’s few murder victims.
Forster was born in
Ontario in 1869. Before
he was a year old,
both parents died and he
was raised partly by his
wealthy maternal grandmother
in Galt, Ontario;
and partly by wealthy
paternal uncles near Carlisle,
England.
In 1967 a newspaper
article entitled “Forster
of the Kootenays” was
published in Th e Daily
Colonist in Victoria,
outlining most of what is
known about him. Much
of this tale was told by
Forster’s widow Meda
Hume Forster.
Forster left a precious
legacy to the valley.
He gave Th e Dort Bible,
a leather-bound ornate
1613 second edition
King James Bible, to the
local Anglican congregation
earlier in the last
century. Th e Bible was
overlooked until 1925,
when a young woman
named Winn Weir discovered
it while cleaning
the church. It is now a
cherished possession of
the church, and kept under
wraps.
But how did it come
into Forster’s possession?
It has been said that
Harold Forster attended
Eton College, a prep
school for Cambridge
University, and he obtained both law and engineering
degrees. Yet Eton College has no record of him having
attended.
Before moving to the valley Forster spent eight
years in Kamloops, “during the 1890s a playboy settlement
for young bloods from the Old Country with
money to spend.”
After obtaining Firlands Ranch in 1898 through
foreclosure, Forster added bathrooms and a two-storey
wing to the existing house. He also used water from
a nearby spring by means of a hydraulic ram and a
Pelton wheel to drive a generator which furnished
the home with electricity, the fi rst electrically-lighted
house in the valley.
Once his 14-room home was completed, he had
sets of Royal Worcester and Minton china, two sets of
Georgian and Victorian silver, books and furnishings
shipped out from Hamilton.
Area resident Vera Wikman recalls visiting Firlands
once as a young girl and being startled to see a
stuff ed mountain cougar sitting on the fl oor of his big
game trophy room.
Harold Forster also owned the 60-foot sternwheeler
S.S. Selkirk, which he is believed to have
transported from Hope by a CPR fl at car. For many
years he was able to operate the Selkirk up and down
the river, bringing goods
and friends to stay.
In 1912, at the age
of 43, Harold married
Meda Hume, the 25year-old
daughter of his
ranch manager. Th ey
had six children but no
descendants live in the
Columbia Valley.
Th eir oldest granddaughter,
Helen Perry
of Kelowna, never met
Harold, but she remembers
Meda as a “typical
Victorian era woman, always
quite cultured. She
taught us all table manners
and made us sit up
straight. She played the
piano until she was 100
and lived to 103.”
Also in 1912 Harold
ran as an independent
FIRLANDS—Someone
member and won a seat
snapped this shot (above)
in the provincial legis-
of a 43-year-old Harold
lature. He held the post
Forster shifting into drive
for four years but did not
before wheeling off with
seek re-election.
his new bride, Meda, the
Stories diff er on how
25-year-old daughter of his
the Hume family came
hired man.
to be living on Firlands
Ranch. One account states
At left, the garden at Fir-
they were there when Forlands
Ranch near Wilmer,
ster acquired the property.
the home Mr. Forster built
However, Helen says her
after moving to the Colum-
grandmother Meda was
bia Valley.
born in Galt, Ontario and
Meda’s parents were Scottish
immigrants who met
Harold in Ontario and
accepted a job from him
to run the ranch.
As well as the Humes, the ranch supported an
English gardener, a chore boy, a ranch hand, a carpenter
and a Chinese house servant.
Meda’s mother ran the home like an English
country manor. Wealthy and connected friends often
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