Notes:

Died:
SNELL, James Frederick
We announce the death of James Frederick Snell on July 25th, 2013. He was the course marker, the com­pass, the road less travelled, the one with the quiet competence, to which others turned. He was a one-off and quiet leader in so many ways. A man of \'action\' and few words who was so beautifully attuned to nature, the woods and trees, the ocean and animals that he embodied what most people only aspire to with words he did in life: the \'spiritual\'. He did this pragmatically by demon­strating a quality of oneness with his surrounding and resources. In Wentworth Valley on his woodlot he very early on practiced sustainable woodlot manage­ment and experimented with growing species not na­tive to Nova Scotia. In total he planted almost 100,000 trees. In a continuation of his interest in forestry he used wood to build houses. In 1975 when the container port was built in Halifax and the Cana­dian government was lamenting that we must be­come more than just \'hewers of wood and drawers of water\', he was of like mind, and working through the Federal Government and the Nova Scotia Agent Gen­eral’s office in London he formed Habitations Inter­national (Interhabs). This company specialized in building architecturally designed, affordable, conser­vation award winning timber houses that are now standing in 28 areas of the world, from Chile and Argentina, from Europe to South Korea. He also ap­preciated historic buildings as well as new, and be­came one of the first and remained one of the longest-tenants of the Halifax \'Historic Properties\'. Anyone who knew James would recognize that he loved nature and animals and trod on this earth with precision and grace whether he was soaring over the Annapolis Valley in his glider or hiking and exploring nature with his dear dog Britta; swooshing down a mountain on his skis or artfully judging the winds in a race on his beloved sailboat. Born 1933 in Montreal, the first 10 years of his life were spent mostly in New Richmond on the Bay de Chaleur, Gaspé Peninsula, Que., from where his father exported timber from Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, to the United Kingdom and North Africa. In the 1940s when Frederick W. Snell became associated with R . A. Jodrey of Hantsport, in the export of east coast Canadian lumber to help rebuild war-torn Europe, the family moved to Nova Scotia and James went on to boarding school in Rothesay (RCS), N.B. He loved all his years so much at RCS, he did not want to leave to take Engineering at Dalhousie. For over 40 years he served first as fleet captain, rear, vice and then full commodore at Bedford Basin Yacht Club, and then president of Nova Scotia Yacht Racing Association. From then on countless provincial, national and in­ternational sporting committees, notably 1972 co-chair with Hume Wells of Canadian Olympic Trials (HOTSAIL) in Halifax for Kiel Germany, at which Sol­ing crew from British Columbia won Canada’s first Olympic sailing medal. He was also a long-time member of O’Keefe Sports Foundation, Toronto, which funded coaches for all sporting disciplines in the whole of Canada. After his housing project \'Yachtside One\', designed by internationally re­nowned architect David Forsythe won the Canadian Multiple Housing Design award in 1974, James was invited to become a member of the Canadian Hous­ing Design Council in Ottawa. He later went on to be one of the three-person national award selection jury. For 12 years (1982-94) he served as government ap­pointee to the Board of Saint Mary’s University and was chairman of the building committee recreation and fitness centre. In 1984 he was the first Nova Sco­tia member of Progressive Conservative Canada 500 club; a founding member of Halifax World Trade & Convention Centre; in 2000 a member of the Nova Scotia Business Development Corporation in John Hamm’s Government. A small service is to be held on August 9th in the chapel of Rothesay Netherwood School, much beloved by James and arranged by his lifelong friend, John Warburton Bate. A stone will be placed in Hampton, N.B. beside those of his grandfa­ther and father.

James married Elizabeth Churchill Tolson. Elizabeth (daughter of Richard Frederick Rider Tolson and Elsie Margaret Churchill) was born in 1935; died on 5 Sep 2019 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Died:
SNELL (Tolson), Elizabeth Churchill

Announcing the death of Elizabeth Churchill Tolson Snell on September 5, 2019, she lived a full life with a nature that was theatrical, patriotic, intelli gent, exuberant, magical, passionate, and compassionate. She and her three siblings were born into a family that imbued history, business and writing, brought up in historic Scott Manor (Bedford, N.S.), by their father Richard F. R. Tolson, a local businessman and their mother, Elsie Churchill Tolson, mother of four, a keen amateur historian, author and latterly newspaper columnist. Within that environment, it was natural for Elizabeth to pursue a higher education, earning a B.A. in English and History (Dalhousie University, Halifax), Theatre studies (Stephen’s College, Columbia, Mo.), and then Journalism (University of King’s College, Halifax) of which she was proud, it being the oldest university in the British Commonwealth outside of Britain. Completing her university education Elizabeth joined the Halifax Mail-Star in 1958 and within a year had secured her own column, Pease Porridge Hot, writing on diverse subjects from fashion and society, to wheelchair access \'Steps Urged to Eliminate Steps\' and indigenous issues \'Native Indians Want Their Full Citizenship\'. A natural researcher, documentarian and archivist, she maintained exacting written records of everything that mattered to her, from family matters to financial records, historical papers and politics - following political leaders that piqued her interest at all levels of government, at home and abroad. She supported her mother in research with the publishing of a local history book, The Captain, The Colonel and Me, in 1979 and in 1994 researched and wrote her own book, The Churchills: Pioneers and Politicians England, America and Canada. It was published in the West Country, Devon, U.K., where Elizabeth explored the early beginnings of the Churchill family. Elizabeth was the 11th generation of her family in North America. In 1959, Elizabeth married her beloved James Snell with this reflection of their courtship: \'James drove past me at Dalhousie in his red convertible MG, then stopped and said that he would pick me up if I liked and go on a date after he had run an errand. I walked back to my digs thinking he wouldn’t turn up, but 10 minutes later he appeared and asked me to jump into his car. I didn’t jump out of his car again until he passed away in 2013.\' Community-minded, Elizabeth and James were involved in early efforts to clean up Bedford Basin upon which they sailed. In this, she supported James in his role as co-chair of the Canadian Olympic Trials in 1972, and as later president of the Nova Scotia Yacht Racing Association. She was also an active fundraiser and Board Member at the Halifax Bengal Lancers. She would later be a driving force, along with many others, in having Scott Manor become a museum which came to fruition in 1992 when it was bought by the Town of Bedford and is today a registered provincial and municipal heritage property. A service for Elizabeth will be held Friday, September 20th at 1 p.m. in All Saints Anglican Church, Bedford. Her burial will follow with a reception in Scott Manor at 2:30 p.m., the rest of her remains to be buried at Riverbank Cemetery in Hantsport at 4:30 p.m.

Richard married Elsie Margaret Churchill in 1934 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Elsie (daughter of Randolph Winston Churchill and Elsie Edwina Armstrong) was born on 23 Oct 1911 in Hantsport, Hants, Nova Scotia; died on 22 Jul 2000 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Randolph married Elsie Edwina Armstrong. Elsie was born on 30 Apr 1886 in Saint John, New Brunswick; died on 17 Aug 1965 in Saint Stephen, Charlotte, New Brunswick. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]