sing a miner and asking him why he
t go to church, and, if he found one
jem in an act of brutality, he would
< nothing of fighting him. That was
reason why they crowded his church
‘ossland and elsewhere.”

is this Father Pat’s fine framed photo-
h that hangs in a place of honour on a
of the Synod office in the Province
ding, Vancouver. His name was the
Henry Irwin, and he was born in
nty Fermanagh, Ireland, in 1859, his
er being the incumbent of Newton,
ant Kennedy, his grandfather Precentor
Armagh Cathedral and chaplain to the
nate of Ireland and his great-grand-
er Archdeacon of Emly. When a child

sften said, “I am going to be a maission-

”

SHows His METTLE

\s a boy, he was sent to St. Columba’s
ool, which was intended to be a sort of
4 Eton, and of which Bishop Moberly
> uncle of Walter Moberly, famous
-ish Columbia explorer) was one of the
nders. From his earliest years he was
athlete and at Keble College, Oxford,
ere he took his degree, he rowed in the
hts and played in the College Eleven
| Varsity Fifteen, besides winning lau-
; as a boxer. He had a passion for the
n air. His first curacy was at Rugby

1885) where he became very popular
| was the recipient of a number of pres-
ations, including an illuminated address,
om his departure for British Columbia.
that time he showed few indications of
-sort of man he later became, for, though
| of high spirits, he was rather diffident
hough that did not prevent him, upon
> occasion, when he found a man beating
wife, from rushing in to separate them.
pulled off his coat and said, “If you
nt to fight anyone you can fight me.”
was at Rugby that he was first given the
ibriquet “Father Pat”.
He came to the diocese of New West-
nster, which was then about as large as
ince, and over the destinies of which
beloved Bishop Sillitoe and his equally
sular wife presided, and began work at
mloops. He had only been there a few
ys when a dramatic incident occurred
t showed something of the stuff of which

A.

ASPOL

he was made. Some of the rougher cowboys
thought it would be good sport to take a
rise out of the newcomer in his clerical
attire who, they concluded, might be some-
thing of a milksop. “Can you ride?” they
asked him. “I was bred in the saddle in
Ireland,” he replied. So they gave him a
very spirited young horse, a buck-jumper.
He had been able to stick on anything bare-
backed in Ireland but this was another
kettle of fish. Three times he mounted that
buck-jumper and tried to stay on and three
times he was thrown and the last time con’
siderably bruised. So they called it a day.
But the young man’s reputation for grit
was established so far as Kamloops was
concerned.

Two years later his sphere of service was
moved to Donald, a busy centre of the
newly-arrived C.P.R., lying between the
Rocky Mountains and the Selkirks, and
here, and in the wild neighbourhood cover-
ing hundreds of miles around, he established
that reputation for intrepidity, courage and
self-sacrifice that made his name a by-word
among the railroad construction men, pros-
pectors and miners who constituted the
very scattered population of those parts.
In those days he spent three-fourths of his
life in the saddle, often over most difficult
and lonely trails through the mountains,
sometimes covering as much as 500 miles
in one of his tours and thinking nothing
of traversing 30 or 40 miles a day on horse-
back or on foot.

HERCULEAN FEAT

Here is an authentic instance of the sort
of job he would tackle on his own initiative.
A report came to Donald that part of the
line was blocked by a snow-slide. The snow-
plow was sent out to clear the way. While
this was being done a second slide occurred,
in which Mr. Green, the conductor of the
snowplow, was killed. Mrs Green, the
widow, was wild with anxiety and her
husband’s body could not be brought in as
the line was blocked by masses of snow.
Father Pat resolved, if possible, to relieve
her anxiety—they did not know at the time
that Green was dead. He took a hand-sleigh
and, disregarding the danger of snow-slides
which threatened at every step, he made
his way to where Green lay, only to find
him dead. Single-handed he brought the

body to Donald on the sleigh. He was away
two days and a night, dodging possible
snow’slides. He spent a whole night with
the dead man at a desolate spot on the road.
Only a man of great physical strength could
have accomplished this feat.

While at Donald, where he built the
church—and at widely separated parts, such
as Golden, which he reached on horseback
—he did not forget his church at Kamloops,
to which he sent occasional sums of money
raised from construction men and others.
There are minute books in the Kamloops

church referring to these donations.
Eventually, he became pretty worn out

and was recalled to New Westminster,
where he became, for some years, curate
at Holy Trinity, the cathedral church, and
secretary to Bishop Sillitoe, with whom a
father and son relationship developed. This
was the only peaceful period in Father Pat's
hectic life and it was during that time that
he married Miss Frances Stuart Innes,
daughter of M. J. H. Innes, superintendent
of H.M. Naval Establishment at Esquimalt,
a most charming and gentle young woman
very much beloved. She only lived for a
year afterwards and died giving birth to
their child which died at birth. This was
the greatest blow of his life, for the pair
were devoted to each other. Despite his
subsequent strenuous and exciting years the
loss left a permanent mark upon him.

Writing of him during this period, Mrs.
Sillitoe observes: “Mr. Irwin always be-
lieved the best of everyone, but his character
was to strangers a misleading one. Though
impulsive and very Irish, he was so sweet-
tempered, so anxious to think others right
and to yield his own way, that people were
inclined to think he could be easily led and
influenced, and it was only when they were
brought up against his principles that they
found themselves face to face before a solid
wall round which there was no way of
getting.”

It was during this period that Father
Pat became actively associated with the
notable school for Indian girls at Yale which
subsequently became a very big school for
white girls also, under Sisters from Ditch-
ingham in Norfolk, England.

Passing briefly over his return to Ire-
land, (a visit due to his father’s illness and
death) a short sojourn there looking after

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