What's in a Name? Monks Islet near Tofino

Tofino history - What’s in a name? Monks Islet

by Adrienne Mason, Tofino

Like many young Englishmen in his day, Harold Monks Sr. looked to Canada for opportunities his homeland could not offer. Harold was working as an apprentice bookkeeper in the Lancashire area when he began to correspond with Harry Hilton, a distant relative who was homesteading on Vargas Island. To Harold, the adventure of coming to Canada and the prospect of owning land was irresistible.

Harold stayed put long enough to honour his parents' wish that he remain in England until he was 21, but soon after he was off to Liverpool to embark the Empress of Ireland. In April 1914 he arrived in Montreal and, via train and eventually the Princess Maquinna, he arrived on the wharf at Clayoquot. (Harold's timing was excellent. On May 29, 1914 the Empress of Ireland was outbound from Quebec City when it hit the Norwegian ship, Storstad, in the St. Lawrence River and sunk.)

Settlers on Vargas had high hopes for their land, but it was soon clear that farming, at least, was not going to be feasible on the low, swampy island. Undeterred, Harold pre-empted a half-section inland from the island's northwest corner. He built a platform, erected a tent, and then eventually a small shack. He helped build the corduroy road across the island, parts of which still exist, and also began to work on seine boats owned by the Clayoquot Sound Canning Company (KennFalls).

Harold didn't have much time to settle into the west coast before the First World War broke out. Many Vargas Island settlers enlisted immediately, but Harold had to wait sometime as he recovered from blood poisoning in his arm, the result of a rusty fish hook. He eventually signed in April 1917 and, after training in Petawawa, Ontario and in England, he served as a gunner and signaller with the 3rd Batallion of the Canadian Forces Artillery. (Again, Harold had good luck with his passage across the Atlantic. He shipped out of Halifax, October 22, 1917. About six weeks later, the Halifax Explosion rocked the same harbour.) Harold was stationed in both France and Belgium, and served until the end of the war in 1919. Harold survived the war, but several of his neighbours on Vargas did not.

On his return, Harold, like many others, chose not to return to Vargas. Instead he boarded with the Garrard family in town, at their home near where today's Co-op sits. Harold continued to fish for KennFalls, first as a crewman on the Annie H and eventually as skipper of the seiner Kennfalls. Harold fished through the 1920 and early '30s and also took on work as part of the Lifeboat Station's winter crew.

In 1929, a young schoolteacher, Catherine (Katie) Hacking, came to board at the Garrards. Both Harold and Katie became dear friends to the Garrards and were treated as part of the family. Katie worked as a teacher in Tofino and then at the one-room schoolhouse at Clayoquot. On weekends she would return to Tofino to visit with the Garrards and Harold. In November 1934 Harold and Katie were married.

In the past, Harold had occasionally filled in for the Imperial Oil agent, Cooper. After their marriage, the Monks took over the agency. They also purchased Cooper's home, on the bluff at the end of Grice Road. The agency sold a variety of fuels. Boats would pull up to the filling station, or, since there was no road into the station, people would roll stove fuel barrels along the wooden boardwalk that led to the station, or carry in their cans for coal oil or naptha. During the day, Katie ran the station while Harold worked at the lifeboat station.

The agency was all-consuming, but the Monks were content and active in the community. They raised two children, Harold Jr. and Lois, on what became known as Monks' Bluff, and developed beautiful gardens at their home. Harold Sr. was a founding member of the Legion and served on the Chamber of Commerce. He was also active with the Cemetery Society, which maintained Cemetery (now Morpheus) Island. Katie worked hard to promote the construction of a new hospital after the original facility was destroyed in a fire. She sold memberships to the Hospital Society locally, and to people living at Long Beach and Ucluelet, and helped fundraise for the hospitals' construction in 1952, and equipment in later years.
The Monks never owned a car, and neither ever learned to drive. The demands of the business meant they could never take time off together. In fact, they only left Tofino together twice: when Lois graduated from ubc and when Lois was married.

Harold Sr. retired from the lifeboat station (now the Coast Guard) about 1960, and after Imperial Oil sold the agency, Katie began to work in the laundry of the hospital. She also helped developed the gardens on the hospital property.

Today, Katie is remembered at a small park across from the Common Loaf Bakery on First Street. The Monks sold this corner lot to the village for $100 in 1949 when it was needed for a water tank. They had an option to buy the land back, but when the water tank was moved in the 1960s, the Monks donated it to the village. A flower garden and a plaque honouring Katie sit on the site today. Out in Clayoquot Sound, the Monks name was given to a small island -- Monks Islet -- which has a navigational light and is an important marker between Vargas and Flores islands. And, of course, in Tofino, the Monks' home remains as one of the community's older houses, sitting at the entrance to the harbour atop Monks' Bluff on Grice Point.

Adrienne Mason is a Tofino writer.