St. Francis-in-the-Wood
Somehow it seemed appropriate that Squadron Leader Phillip Edward Meric Leith (1914-2006), who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for commanding a squadron of obsolescent Wellington bombers over Germany during World War II, was Aide-de-Camp to Princess Alice and the Earl of Athlone (Governor General of Canada during the war), and was great great grandson of General Leith, KCB, who fought with Wellington in the Peninsula War, should be memorialized at St. Francis-in-the-Wood.


I was fortunate to be invited. It was my first visit to this West Vancouver architectural treasure, a small Anglican Church tucked away in what some call Tiddly Cove. I felt that, with S/L Leith’s passing, so too passed another exemplar of a more genteel era of West Vancouver’s history.

 The church was packed. Music was provided on the Steinway grand piano (a gift from S/L Leith I later learned.) I met his cousin who had flown in from South Africa for the occasion.


A tableau of his life was laid out for all of us to see. Fine English homes. Garden parties. Ladies in splendid gowns – and men in military uniforms. It was a glimpse into a world which this East Vancouver kid could only dimly imagine, and a lesson in how the British Empire became what it once was. (In my grade school class, somebody once declared that the largish portions coloured in red on the roll-up wall map of the world was “what we own”, .)

 Under the thoughtful guidance of the Reverend Dr. Angus F. Stuart, Rector, St. Francis-in-the-Wood. Anglican Church holds fast to the old traditions. Loyal parishioners come from near and far to share in…. Since the church is smallish, parking overload problems never pester the neighbourhood.

At the end of the service, over tea and scones, I was tempted to break into a few bars of “Rule Brittania” but that would have been out of place. So I thought to myself simply, “God Bless Squadron Leader Leith, and God Bless St. Francis-in-the-Woods.”
  

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