McDiarmid, Angela Aurelia (Allison) “Angie”

Aurelia Angela Allison was born on February 26, 1889 in Similkameen, BC. She was the thirteenth child of  John Fall Allison and Susan Louisa (Moir) Allison. She was born in the Allison’s big house and store which was afterwards washed away by the river in 1894 or 1895. She married Charles Henry McDiarmid (of Pictou, Nova Scotia) on August 26, 1908 in Hedley, BC. She died on May 27, 1982 at the Princeton General Hospital. She is buried at the Castle Rock Cemetery (Allison Family Cemetery).

She was the daughter of John Fall Allison who came to BC in 1858 from California to Victoria and worked for James Douglas of the Hudson’s Bay Co. He was sent with a surveying party into the Similkameen and came through the mountains from Hope by way of the Pass which now bears his name.

She was educated in Victoria and lived with Edgar Dewdney and Jane Shaw (Moir) Dewdney (her mother’s sister).

She made her home in Princeton. The McDiarmid’s had nine children: Jean (Francis), Hugh, Bruce, Jack, Alan, Frida (Francis), Alister, Dick, and Beryl (Plecash).

Angie McDiarmid wrote some of her memories in a book published in 1978, entitled When Great Great Grandma Was a Child. (Only 200 copies were printed.) She also edited a book of her father’s letters home to his family in New York, Times of John Fall Allison.

She was interviewed by Imbert Orchard for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in 1964. This interview is available from BC Archives. Princeton Museum also has the recording available.

She was awarded the Provincial Centennial Pioneer Medallion in September 1971.