X-Nico

31 unusual facts about Victoria, British Columbia


Bruce Twamley

Bruce Richardson Twamley (born 23 May 1952 in Victoria, British Columbia) is a former Canadian international footballer.

Burnley Tunnel

One was Australian Olympic cyclist Damian McDonald, who won a gold medal in the road team time trial at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada, and also represented Australia at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

CCGS Bartlett

The homeport of CCGS Bartlett is CCG Base Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia.

Chuck Rayner

World War II interrupted Rayner's career, however, and he spent the next three years in the Royal Canadian Navy, where he played two seasons for naval teams based out of Victoria.

Darren Reisig

Darren Reisig (born March 23, 1968 in Victoria, British Columbia) is a former professional lacrosse player and was recently an assistant coach of the Victoria Shamrocks.

Fairfield, Greater Victoria

Fairfield is a neighbourhood of Victoria, BC.

Fernwood, Greater Victoria

Fernwood is a neighbourhood near downtown Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, bounded by the neighbourhoods of Jubilee, North Park, Fairfield, Downtown, Oaklands and Harris Green.

Gary Gait

Gary Charles Gait (b. April 5, 1967 in Victoria, British Columbia) is a Canadian retired lacrosse player and currently the head coach of the women's lacrosse team at Syracuse University, where he played the sport collegiately, and an assistant coach with the Hamilton Nationals in Major League Lacrosse.

George Pakos

He began work at the same time as a water-metre tecnnician for the city of Victoria, a job he continued for over 25 years.

George "Teddy" Pakos (born August 14, 1952 in Victoria) is a former Canadian international soccer player.

Joe Primeau

Born in Lindsay, Ontario, and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, Primeau moved to Toronto at an early age and began his professional career in 1927 with the Toronto Ravinas, an affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Joe Reekie

Joseph James Reekie (born February 22, 1965 in Victoria, British Columbia) is a retired Canadian ice hockey player.

Justine Priestley

Justine Priestley (born August 28, 1969) is an actress from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Lonnie Cameron

Lonnie Cameron (born July 15, 1964 Victoria, British Columbia) is a Canadian National Hockey League linesman, who wears uniform number #74.

Market Square, Victoria

Market Square is one of Victoria, British Columbia's oldest landmarks and also one of its most visited tourist attractions.

Maureen Milgram Forrest

Maureen Milgram Forrest, (born 1 February 1938, London, England; died 1 March 2013, Victoria, British Columbia) was the founder chair Leicesterherday Trust, Leicester, and the original project director for the BRIT (British Recording Industry Trust) School of the Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon, London.

Michael Perrin

Born 13 September 1905 in Victoria, British Columbia he moved to England in 1911 with his British parents, who sent him to Twyford School and Winchester College, and from there to study chemistry at New College, Oxford and the University of Toronto.

National Hockey Association

In that same off-season, the Patrick brothers built two arenas in Vancouver and Victoria and formed the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA).

Peter Ladner

He later worked at newspapers on Vancouver Island and was editor of the Victoria alternative weekly Monday Magazine from 1981 to 1986.

Ray Gillis Williston

He was born in Victoria, British Columbia, the son of Herbert Haines Williston and Islay McCalman, and was educated at the University of British Columbia and the provincial normal school in Victoria.

Rick O'Dell

Rick O'Dell (born on October 26, 1948 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) is a former NASCAR driver.

Rock Bay, Victoria

Rock Bay is a neighbourhood bordering downtown Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, whose borders are the Upper Harbour on the west, Bay Street on the North, Dowler Street on the east, and approximately Chatham City of Victoria Street on the south.

Rockland, Greater Victoria

Rockland is an historic neighbourhood of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, located just southeast of downtown and northeast of Beacon Hill Park, and comprising the northern portion of the official city neighbourhood of Fairfield.

Rod Beattie

Other productions include The Loveliest and Sylvia in Victoria, The Crucible and Blessings in Disguise in Manitoba, Oleanna at the National Arts Centre opposite Sandra Oh, and Love Letters opposite wife Martha Henry in an Ontario tour.

Ross Surgenor

Ross Surgenor is a former NASCAR driver from Victoria, British Columbia.

South Oak Bay

South Oak Bay is a neighbourhood located in the Municipality of Oak Bay, British Columbia, to the south of Oak Bay Avenue and lying east of the boundary between Oak Bay and Victoria, British Columbia.

Tom Marechek

Tom "Hollywood" Marechek (born August 25, 1968 in Victoria, British Columbia) is a retired professional lacrosse player.

Uplands, Greater Victoria

Uplands, Victoria (known locally as "the Uplands") is an upper-class neighbourhood located in the north east part of the Municipality of Oak Bay, an adjacent suburb of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and situated between the neighbourhoods of Cadboro Bay and North Oak Bay.

Victoria West, Greater Victoria

Victoria West, commonly called Vic West, is an historic neighbourhood of the city of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, located just west of downtown across Victoria Harbour, bordering on the Township of Esquimalt.

Whitney Myers

She won a gold medal at the 2006 Pan-Pacific championships in Victoria, Canada, in the 200 meter individual medley, just out-touching team-mate Katie Hoff.

Yutaka Katayama

At that time, he got a job as ship's clerk and assistant purser on the freighter Londonmaru, carrying a cargo of raw silk to Victoria, British Columbia and Vancouver, as well as 20 passengers to Seattle.


2010 Winton V8 Supercar Event

It contained Races 11 and 12 of the series and was held on the weekend of May 15–16 at Winton Motor Raceway, near Benalla, in rural Victoria.

Alexander Malcolm Jacob

He is best known for having sold the Jacob Diamond, which is the seventh largest diamond known in the world (previously known as the Victoria Diamond, Imperial Diamond, or Great White Diamond).

Annie Lim

Lim opened her first Canadian custom-cake shop, called "Chocolate Lover Cakes", in Richmond, British Columbia.

Antares

The Wotjobaluk Koori people of Victoria, Australia, knew Antares as Djuit, son of Marpean-kurrk (Arcturus); the stars on each side represented his wives.

Arthur Knight

Arthur George Knight (1886–1918), Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross

Australian heritage law

Australian heritage laws exist at the national (Commonwealth) level, and at each of Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia state levels.

Blue Ensign

Yachts belonging to members of certain long-established Canadian yacht clubs, such as, the Royal Cape Breton Yacht Club, Champlain Yacht Club, Montreal Yacht Club, Royal Canadian Yacht Club, Royal Kennebaccasis Yacht Club, Royal Lake of the Woods Yacht Club, Royal Newfoundland Yacht Club, Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club, Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, and Royal Victoria Yacht Club.

Brad Green

Braddon Green (born 1959), first-class cricketer for Victoria and Devon

Byres Road

During the period when Hillhead and Partick were independent burghs, Byres Road was known by its original name of Victoria Street.

Canlan Ice Sports Etobicoke

The arena is owned and operated by Canlan Ice Sports Corporation, of Burnaby, British Columbia.

Carol Windley

Born in Tofino, British Columbia and raised in British Columbia and Alberta, Windley's debut short story collection, Visible Light (1993) won the 1993 Bumbershoot Award, and was nominated for the 1993 Governor General's Award for English Fiction and the 1994 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.

Charlotte Grayson

In Reckoning, after a cold goodbye with her mother, she finds out that Victoria was a victim in a plane crash.

Constitution Hill, London

It was the scene of three assassination attempts against Queen Victoria—in 1840 (by Edward Oxford), 1842 (by John Francis) and 1849 (by William Hamilton).

Cunliffe-Owen baronets

Sir Philip Cunliffe-Owen, father of the first Baronet, was Director of the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) from 1874 to 1893.

Cutteslowe Park, Oxford

This linked Water Eaton and Oxford, and a short section of this path (at the bottom of Harpes Road, Islip Road and Victoria Road in North Oxford) is called Water Eaton Road.

Djargurd Wurrung

The Djargurd wurrung are Indigenous Australian people who traditionally occupied the territory between Mount Emu Creek and Lake Corangamite, extending to Mount Emu and Cressy in the North, and to Cobden and Swan Marsh in the South in central Victoria and are still represented in the region.

Edward Donald Bellew

Edward Bellew's Victoria Cross is believed to have been stolen from the Royal Canadian Military Institute, Toronto, between January 1975 and 22 July 1977.

Edward Stamp

Edward Stamp (1814–1872) was an English mariner and entrepreneur who contributed to the early economic development of British Columbia and Vancouver Island.

Edwin St Hill

Against Tasmania he had first-innings figures of four for 57 and against Victoria he took six wickets in the game.

Electoral district of Bass

It is covers a diverse range of terrority, from outer suburban Pakenham to the rural towns of Lang Lang and Nar Nar Goon to the coastal tourist centres of Phillip Island and Inverloch.

Environmental planning

The Environment Effects Act 1978 was the first environmental planning control in Victoria, and it assessed the environmental impact of significant developments via an Environmental Effects Statement (EES).

Footprints Recruiting

Footprints Recruiting is an ESL teacher placement agency headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Francis Newton Parsons

His Victoria Cross is displayed at The Essex Regiment Museum, Chelmsford, Essex, England.

Frederick Illingworth

After his resignation from the Legislative Assembly in August 1907, he must have returned to Victoria, for he died at Brighton, Victoria on 8 September 1908, and was buried in Melbourne Cemetery.

Grevillea aquifolium

In Victoria the species is found in the Grampians region and northwards to the Little Desert as well as near the south coast at Kentbruck Heath near Portland.

J. S. Woodsworth

He died in Vancouver, British Columbia in early 1942, and his ashes were scattered in the Strait of Georgia.

James A. Smith

James Alexander Smith (1881–1968), British soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross

Japanese submarine I-26

In the evening of 20 June 1942, while patrolling two miles off the coast of British Columbia, I-26 surfaced and shelled the lighthouse and radio-direction-finding (RDF) installation at Estevan Point.

John Wallace Pringle

The survey's findings confirmed that the caravan route to the Great Rift Valley was the best path for the line, followed by the easiest gradient to be found over the Mau Escarpment and down to Lake Victoria.

Jon Hume

In May 2012 Hume was featured on the Hook N Sling song "Surrender," which he co-wrote from his studio in rural Victoria (The Stables Recording Studio).

Jubilee clock

In 1897 the village of Thornford decided to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee by erecting a Jubilee tower clock and incorporating a water tap at its base.

Lewis McGee

As a sergeant in the Australian Imperial Force, McGee was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in the Battle of Broodseinde—part of the Passchendaele offensive—on 4 October 1917.

Linking and intrusive R

Other recognizable examples are the Beatles singing: "I saw-r-a film today, oh boy" in the song "A Day in the Life", from their 1967 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, at the Sanctus in the Catholic Mass: "Hosanna-r-in the highest" and in the phrases, "Law-r-and order" and "Victoria-r-and Albert Museum".

Lucy Meacock

She then moved to Australia, where she attended the independent Morongo Girls College in Geelong, Victoria.

Maelstrom

Skookumchuck Narrows is a tidal rapids that develops whirlpools, on the Sunshine Coast (British Columbia), Canada.

Old Gippstown

It is currently used by a number of local groups, and is one of the newest Masonic Lodges in Victoria.

One Special Night

This was Garner's and Andrews' third film pairing as romantic leads, after Paddy Chayevsky's The Americanization of Emily (1964) and Victor/Victoria (1982).

Pantages Theatre

the McPherson Playhouse in Victoria, BC was originally opened as a Pantages Theatre in 1914

Peter Rouw

The Victoria & Albert Museum holds a medallion in pink wax on black glass made by him of Prince Lucien Bonaparte (1814), the Duke of Wellington (1822) and posthumously in 1814 of Matthew Boulton, the partner of James Watt.

Saint-Pal-de-Mons

It was the birthplace of the missionary bishop, Paul Durieu, O.M.I. (1830–1899), first Bishop of New Westminster in British Columbia, Canada.

Scopula frigidaria

It is found from Fennoscandia to the Kamchatka Peninsula and in northern North America, where it occurs across the boreal forest region, from Alaska across the Northwest Territories and Nunavut to Newfoundland, and in the mountains south to southern Wisconsin, Alberta and British Columbia.

Sophie Atkinson

Taking advantage of Canadian Pacific’s free passes to artists and writers, she travelled from British Columbia through Canada to Calgary, Ottawa and Montreal.

Stone sheep

Stone's Sheep are primarily found in Northern British Columbia and can often be seen by travellers licking minerals along the side of the Alaska Highway in areas such as Summit Lake, Stone Mountain Provincial Park and Muncho Lake Provincial Park.

Swedish Royal Family

HRH Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland (the King's son-in-law, husband of Crown Princess Victoria)

Ten Mile Point

Ten Mile Point, British Columbia, a residential neighbourhood in Greater Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Thomas Austin

After farming near Ouse, Thomas and his brother James crossed Bass Strait in 1837 and settled as pioneer pastoralists in the Western District of the Port Phillip District (now called Victoria).

Victoria Park, Cardiff

The park was created as a municipal recreation ground by Cardiff City Council through a city charter between 1897 and 1898 to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee marking her record sixty years on the throne.

William Tricker

He introduced a water lily with 6-feet pads from South America, which he named Victoria trickeri, although it is now known as Victoria cruziana.

Wingan Inlet

On the return trip, the party encountered marooned sailors along the Victorian coast from the wreck of the ship Sydney Cove south of Victoria at Preservation Island, Tasmania.