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Page 5 West Vancouver Historical Society January 2004 Executive Report In the November newsletter all too brief a mention was made of the West Vancouver Rotary contribution of $2,500 to the decontamination of the Point Atkinson clockworks. A sad as- pect of an otherwise happy occasion was that Don Graham did not live to have the honour of receiving it on behalf of the Society. The happy aspect was that I was given the the pleas- ure of attending a weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of West Vancouver to receive the members’ cheque. As is customary, the meeting was preceded by dinner, which was preceded by a tankard’s worth of ale, courtesy of Rotarian and fellow board member Hugh Johnston. Congratulations, all be they overdue, are due Lois Enns our archivist. She is faced with the monumental task of going through Rupert Harrison’s photograph collection to identify the best pictures and then to do research on matters of copy- right. If clear copyright is not held by the archives, then Lois will attempt to contact the original owners by mail, and later by telephone. It would be impossible for her to do the job alone: she needs assistance. By dint of hard workâ€"mainly writing letters-she will get it, in the form of a $25,000 grant. Congratulations are also due Darrin Martens, our acting mu- seum curator. He is well on the way to getting funding for costly, yet (in my view) indespensible software and training to enable the museum and archives to achieve optimum pres- ence on the world-wide web and also to create a readily ac- cessible and comprehensive website. The archives now have close to 5,000 items. The collection will grow very rapidly beyond that number. It is important that accessibility to them via the web be universally and conveniently available The ease of accessibility by our schools is just one of the many advantages of the new software. Longtime Caulfeild Resident and Revelstoke Native Reaches Milestone We apologize that this news should be three months late! One of our members, Mercia McPherson, celebrated her nine- tieth birthday on Saturday, October 11th. It could be called the celebration of celebrations. Mercia’s fans, friends and neighbours packed her house and spent five hours that passed like five minutes. Present were more than eighty people. The hi-lite of the gathering was the presentation made to her by her children. The eloquent presenter was her son Glen Jr., who reflected on Mercia, not only as a mother, but also as a friend, athlete, and all-round remarkable soul. The feisty, de- lightful celebrant, all the while Glen was making his speech, was reaping the reward of wisdom: she was smoking-even brandishing-a cigar which must have been created in one of the tabacaleras de Cuba. But the presentation-the gift-was the high point. Mercia, in the course of her life as the wife of Glen McPherson, founder of Okanagan Helicopters, was fa- miliar with helicopters and helicopter travel.. The gift was more helicopter travel: it was of another, still magnificent kind. She and her family, including grandchildren, were taken on tour in a modem, very large French-made machine which took them from the Van- couver International Airport, up the Fraser Valley, over the north shore mountains, up Howe Sound, and beyond to Whistler. Never, Mercia reported, had she ever expe- rienced a more thrilling adventure. It was the gift of gifts, the birthday of birthdays. The November General Meeting Our last meeting of 2003 featured Hermann Knell, who gave a most interesting talk on his recently published book A City Destroyed. Hermann’s city was Wurzburg, which was literally de- stroyed in one night. It contained little of strategic or military value. The only German city to suffer greater destruction during the war was Dresden. Of course, the attitude of the Allies at the time was to destroy the en- emy whatever the cost. Expressions like “total war” and “unconditional surrender” were seen and heard almost daily. Masterminds of the Dresden raid were not reluc- tant to call it “terror bombing”. I discussed with Hermann how war conducted from the air was depersonalized war. The crew in the Lancaster or Mosquito bomber could not see the enemy. All they saw was a map-like configuration thousands of feet be- low them. They could see the explosions on the ground and hear terrifying shell bursts close by. But they could neither see nor hear the suffering being inflicted so far below. Hermann’s book speaks eloquently of what went on be- low. It is a compelling, albeit disquieting, account which is objective and non-judgmental. What his family and others suffered is unimaginable. He reaches beyond the agonies they endured, and presents unembellished facts and statistics (borne of ten years of research across the world) which will surprise most readers, especially those interested in the history of the war. A City Destroyed concludes by saying “ ...that the losses and destruction were unnecessary and do not represent a leaf of honor in the annals of mankind. They cannot be excused. The best one can do after so many years after the wars is to analyze and assess them, despatch them to history, and hope and pray that they will never happen again.” The book makes for compelling reading. Much like a novel. As a reference book it will have immense value.