Item 994-061-003 - Navel Canteen Grounds

Maureen Duffus is a well-known local historian and author of several books and numerous articles about the history of Vancouver Island from the 1840s to the mid-20th Century. Maureen grew up on the waterfront on View Royal Avenue, born to two lawyers. She attended Craigflower elementary, but in the newer school, across the street from where her grandmother attended classes. Maureen was married to the late Dr. John Duffus, professor emeritus, former Dean of Science and Engineering, Royal Roads Military College. She has two sons, two grandchildren, and a great-grandaughter.

After graduating from the University of British Columbia she was a journalist at the Victoria Daily Times and the Ottawa Citizen. She spent several years in England where her occupations included secretary and driver for the touring Oxford and Cambridge Players theatrical company, a vibrant and eclectic group that foundered soon after its short run as a fringe show at the Edinburgh Festival. She returned to Victoria as a newspaper reporter, columnist and section editor, and produced an illustrated history of Victoria fashions for the Centennial Edition of the Daily Colonist. She later served as communications officer for the Institute of Ocean Science where she specialized in "translating science into English for non-scientists." In 2012, she was presented the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal by the Town of View Royal for her community work as an archivist and notable citizen. Some of the organizations she has volunteered at include the Victoria Music Festival, Esquimalt Silver Threads Society, and the View Royal Community Archives committee.

Maureen is also related so several early families of the area. Her great-grandparents, James and Mary Yates, after whom Yates Street is named, arrived in Fort Victoria in 1849. Another great grandfather, Philip Austin, was an Esquimalt Councillor in 1916.