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In honour of Remembrance Day, join Kate Humble for a walk through the streets of Saanich when it was a largely rural community, and hear the stories of individual women during the First World War who contributed to the war effort in myriad ways while their husbands, brothers, fathers and sons fought in the trenches.

Supported by historic photographs drawn largely from the Saanich Archives, you will recognize many of the names and places, but likely few of the personal, touching stories of the women who inhabited them. From a woman whose fundraising dog got to meet the Prince of Wales, to the nursing sisters whose family home survives today and whose graves are visible at St Luke’s churchyard, Wartime Women highlights the unsung heroes of this quiet community during Canada’s gravest hour.

Kate Humble is a historian by training, and after a career in museum and historic site curation and management, including at the Royal Armouries Museum in the UK, the Maritime Museum of BC, Craigdarroch Castle, and Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse, in 2021 she became the Superintendent of Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, where today she oversees 70 employees engaged in ecological and cultural heritage management.

Born and raised in the territories of the Lekwungen-speaking people in Victoria BC, she did her graduate work in medieval history at the University of Toronto. She is also known for her work with Discover the Past as a historical and ghostly tour guide haunting the streets and graveyards of the city.