Frank V. Hobbs - "The Grand Old Man of Saanich" - was born in Bruton,
Somerset, England, in 1862. He came to Canada in 1889 and lived in the Lower Island
area for the next 70 years. In these 70 years, he played a fundamental role in
the shaping of our community of today. To tell of a man's life in a few hundred
words is usually a difficult task, and even more particularly so, in the case
of Frank Hobbs, because of the large number of his accomplishments and the variety
of his interests.
There were few settlers in the Cadboro Bay area when
Frank and his brother, Edwin, arrived here in 1889. Edwin bought land for dairying
in Cadboro Bay, (our present Hobbs Rd. bisects that land). Frank went further
Up-Island for his land, at the same time operating a furniture store in Victoria.
After he sold his furniture business and Up-Island land, he went on a tour of
Europe for a year. While he was overseas, the market for timber impressed him
and on returning to Vancouver Island, he acquired 4,000 acres of the Renfrew "tall
timber" land. Later he moved to Cadboro Bay on hearing that his brother,
Edwin, had been killed in an unfortunate farm accident.
On ten acres of
land in Cadboro Bay, he settled into a life of retirement on the proceeds of his
timber ventures. In his own words, Frank "began to get fat and lazy"
during the next few years. But things were soon to change. Frank was not one to
remain inactive for long. His daughter, Frances, finished school and told her
father that she would like to operate a small store and post-office in the district.
Frank bought it, and it was the only little store in the whole Bay district. New
stocks were laid in and they arrived just in time, for a heavy blizzard broke
in 1916 which dumped five feet of snow in the area and kept the people virtually
housebound in the area. The snows lasted for about a month, during which time
no one could make it to town to get extra stores. Food supplies fell so low at
this time that Frank had to ration out supplies to the residents, hoping the food
would last. In the ensuing years, Frank Hobbs entered politics at the municipal
level, serving two years on Saanich Council.
However, his greatest contribution
was to be made while serving as trustee on the old Saanich School Board for fourteen
years - serving as chairman for eight of them and President of the B.C. Trustees
for one. At that time, (1920's), any students wanting high school education had
not only to travel to Victoria, but pay $120 a year as well. He fought an up-hill
battle trying to convince the school board, council and the rate-payers that a
high school for Saanich was necessary. Twice by-laws for extraordinary expenditures
to erect a high school were defeated at the polls. In desperation Frank went to
see the Minister of Education to try to arrive at some sort of answer to the problem
of increasing education opportunities for the area. In their discussions of the
situation a solution was found. Instead of having just one high school for the
whole area, it was proposed that three be built in strategic locations in order
to give persons living in distant areas a good chance of sending their children
to the school and benefitting from the institutions. The whole problem seemed
to be that the residents in far out areas could see little advantage to themselves
in supporting one school to which they might never be able to send their children.
Frank Hobbs took the new plan back to the school board, got its backing and had
a new by-law placed before the people. This time the referendum was approved and
Mt. Douglas, Mt. View and Mt. Newton came into being. Only after he accomplished
these plans did he retire.
Frank Hobbs served as postmaster for 31 years
and was also a Justice of the Peace. Long overdue tribute came to Frank in November
of 1951, when he officially opened the school which bears his name. He was then
88 years old. During the ceremony Mr. Hobbs said; "This is an honor unsought
and in many ways undeserved - however, I do feel honoured." In April 1959,
at the age of 96, "The Grand Old Man of Saanich" died. He had lived
to see many of his school policies adopted, he had seen the day when an automobile
could go from the back of Shawnigan Lake to Port Renfrew - on of his fondest dreams
- and he had lived to see a living memorial in the form of a school built and
named after him.
