| In 1939, Kelowna like the rest of the world woke up to the Second World War. Again the men (and later many women) went off to fight and the folks at home tried to cope with the orchards and the work of pruning, spraying, irrigating and harvesting that still had to be done.
But this, too, passed, and in time the boys' and girls' came home.
The government of British Columbia had given considerable thought to the resettlement of the returning veterans.
One of the members of the Resettlement Committee was the man destined to be B.C.'s outstanding Premier, W.A.C. Bennett.
Lands and homes were made available to the veterans, many of whom returned with a whole new outlook, having seen the world outside. |
Major General Rodney F.L. Keller - C.B.E., Croix de Guerre Permanent force commission in the P.P.C.L.I. and Commander in Chief of the Second Canadian Division overseas/WW2.
Born in Kelowna, son of Dr. and Mrs. Herman Keller (Dr. Keller was the second physician to arrive in Kelowna, in 1900).
General Keller served as a Kelowna alderman following WW2, and was Honorary Colonel of the B.C. Dragoons until his death in 1953. |
