From the BCWI News February 1982

Mar 4

Written By British Columbia Women's Institute

“WYNNDEL ANGRY

Members of Wynndel WI are very angry over the felling of their Coronation Oak tree by a Department of Highways employee to make way for a new sidewalk. The tree had been sent to the Institute by the British Government in 1934 and was from the Great Oak Forest in England, to commemorate the crowning of King George and Queen Elizabeth. Walter Copper, an experienced gardener, nurtured the small seedling for seven years. The tree was admired and written about many times and was an historical landmark. WI members in the Creston area are very angry over this needless destruction without a chance to work out a solution.”

I must make one small correction to this account of this unfortunate incident: King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (remembered by us all as “The Queen Mother” to Queen Elizabeth II) were crowned in 1937.

There were a number of Coronation Oaks planted at that time and some still grow in our province:

One in Sooke, there are some on Salt Spring Island and one growing in Slocan.

There are numerous other trees stretching across the lower portion of the province, many near Anglican churches and cemeteries. Similar oaks were planted in the interior, however the sometimes severe temperatures were more than they could survive. But the tree in Slocan still produces seedlings; the tree in Sooke has been designated as a Heritage tree and the one in Delta is now a memorial to a long serving President of the Delta Women's Institute. Trees also survived in Penticton, on Salt Spring Island, and I am sure other centres.

There has been one planted in Duncan in 2008. It is thriving in a city park and has been declared a Heritage Tree by the City of Duncan.

I should mention that the South Vancouver Island tree was obtained, as a seedling, from the Slocan tree, which was producing new seedlings each year.

The “Coronation Oak” trees are better known as British Oaks and are trees that have been know to live for more that 1,000 years. The tree planted in 2008 is now a very impressive tree, and we wish it a long and full life, and perhaps it will produce seedlings to grace more Canadian cities and long remind us of our links to the British monarchy.

Yours For Home and Country, Ruth Fenner, Provincial Historian, British Columbia Women's Institute