Dr. Frances Kelsey grew up in the Cowichan Valley

If you don’t recognize Frank Trevor Oldham or his wife Katherine Booth Oldham, perhaps you know of their illustrious daughter, Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey, who just celebrated her 100th birthday.

The senior Oldhams take their rest in the little cemetery of St. John the Baptist, Cobble Hill, where Frances was born, July 24, 1914. A few miles away, at neighbouring Mill Bay, Frances Kelsey Secondary School takes its name from this locally born scientist who, as director of scientific research for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the early 1960s, blew the whistle on Thalidomide after linking the “morning sickness” medication with severe birth defects, world-wide.

A tiny planet on the far side of the sun has also been named after her

Lt.-Col. Frank T. Oldham, 1869-1960, didn’t quite make it to seeing his daughter Frances achieve international acclaim. Australian-born, he became a career soldier in the British Army, serving in Indian and in China during the latter’s Boxer Rebellion and retired in 1910. He and wife Katherine (Kitty) Oldham moved to 30 acres at Cobble Hill where they supplemented his army pension by living off the land and growing prize-winning produce.

He returned to active service in the First World War. Again retired, this time for good, both he and Kitty were active in the community.

In the two full pages of his book, Imperial Vancouver Island: Who Was Who, 1850-1950, that J.F. Bosher dedicates to F.T Oldham, he quotes G.E. Mortimer who, in a 1959 Victoria Colonist article, described the kindly and considerate Oldham as “one of the last specimens of a nearly extinct kind of gentleman”.

Katherine Oldham predeceased her husband on Aug. 12, 1950, aged 68. There were four other children besides Frances who, obviously, comes from noble pioneer stock.

–Excerpt from Tales the Tombstones Tell: A Walking Guide to Cemeteries in the Cowichan Valley; Firgrove Publishing; T.W. Paterson