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1920: 1921 - Trewhitt Road East

Established in 1921, Trewhitt Road East branches off of Oyama Road and is named after John (Jack) Trewhitt.

John was born in Sunderland, England, in 1890 and at the age of 16 he emigrated to Canada. He worked in Manitoba and later bought a homestead in Alberta.

In 1914 Trewhitt joined the Army and went overseas. He became a Lieutenant and was presented with the Military Medal and the Military Cross for bravery by King George V at Buckingham Palace. Near the end of 1918 he was injured at the Hindenburg Line in Belguim and was sent to the Plymouth Hospital in England. One of his nurses there was Edith Symons. He married her in December 1918.

The following year John and Edith came to Canada and spent one year in Winnipeg; they then moved to British Columbia where they purchased two 10 acre lots of land and 90 acres of pasture land in Oyama. John planted orchards on both of the 10 acre lots. One of them was on Trewhitt Road East. He built his home on the other one. John and Edith raised two children there — Beryl, born in 1922, and Arnold, born in 1924. For many years John was a Director with the Wood Lake Water Company.

In 1943 Beryl and Arnold joined the Royal Canadian Airforce. Arnold spent most of the time as a flying instructor in Canada. When the war ended in 1945 Arnold and his wife, Gladys Dungate, bought the property from John and Edith when they retired and moved to Okanagan Landing (later to Kelowna).

John passed away in Kelowna 1983 at the age of 92 years. Edith passed away at Pleasant Meadows in Winfield (Lake Country) in 1988 at the age of 97 years.

Arnold and Gladys raised their family — eight girls and one boys — on the family farm in Oyama.

Source: Gladys Trewhitt, 2011.

NB: Gladys Trewhitt died on January 28, 2012.