Victoria’s ‘Pampered’ Louis the parrot ‘postponed push for people’
Contrary to legend, his daily tot of brandy was for ‘medicinal purposes only’.
One could write a book–someone probably has–about strange bequests. More than one last will and testament has bedeviled and bemused, and one in particular that intrigued Victorians for many years, was that of Miss Victoria Wilson.
At the time of her death in 1949, she owned an old mansion on some of the primest real estate in downtown Victoria.
Described as a “kindly if eccentric spinster,” she remembered the Royal Jubilee Hospital and the Red Cross Society in her will.
And her parrot, Louis.
Unfortunately, in the minds of some, the molly-coddled macaw came first
He was to live out his life in the big house on Courtney Street under the tender care of Yue Wah Wong, her longtime manservant; only upon Louis’s death were the property and remaining monies to be passed on to the Jubilee and the Red Cross.
The problem, for them, was that parrots can live for a very long time. Louis, at the time of his mistress’s passing, was thought to be a mere 87 years old–barely middle-aged.
Things really began to boil in November 1966
That’s when A.C. Wurtele, Royal Jubilee board chairman, publicly declared that he thought it wrong that a bird should come before people. Miss Wilson’s cash estate, originally almost $60,000, had diminished to little more than $20,000 since her death and it was costing $4,000 annually to maintain Louis in the manner to which he’d become accustomed.
“The point is, this money is being wasted,” said Wurtele, longtime reeve of Esquimalt. “The estate is being eroded by legal fees [this was incorrect and he had to apologise to Miss Wilson’s attorney–TW] and I am afraid there will be nothing left for the hospital.”
Surely, he thought, Louis should be cared for at another location, thus allowing the sale of the old house which had drawn several expressions of interest for development by prospective buyers. He admitted that an attempt by the hospital board to have the parrot moved to Vancouver’s Stanley Park had failed.
The board was treading dangerous ground, however, Miss Wilson having inserted a clause in her will that specifically disqualified any party that contested its terms. Nevertheless, Wurtele thought that “the legal gentlemen ought to look into this matter. It seems to me people are more important than parrots and Louis might well be turned over to the SPCA for action.”
Victorians were not amused
Victoria Daily Times columnist Arthur Mayse noted that Louis “is regarded…as a jewel in the city’s crown, and when [C]hairman Wurtele stopped by this morning to assure me he had spoken much more forcibly than he intended, his telephoned was still tingling.”
A chastised and humbled Wurtle, who’d had a distinguished naval career during the Second World War, knew when he was beaten: “The board of Royal Jubilee Hospital is most grateful to the late Miss Victoria Wilson and her executor… We agree most sincerely with the executor that the spirit and intent suggested in Miss Wilson’s will must be respected and adhered to rigidly.
“I regret that any statement made by me should convey any impression contrary to this.”
To which the amused Mayse appended, “No more fooling around with our Louis, see?”
All of which made Louis a cause celebre. Described in the press as drinking his way through a fortune because of his daily tot of brandy, and his age now given as 101, he next became the target of Victoria Alderman Robert Baird. He denounced Miss Wilson’s bequest to her parrot because the $20,000 cash remaining in her estate would buy a vital image-amplifier attachment for the Jubilee’s x-ray department.
“I feel some adequate provision could be made for this parrot and this money put to good use in equipping the hospital with this badly needed machine,” Baird said.
“I recently attended a special meeting of doctors at which an appeal was made for this equipment, and it occurred to me that almost the exact amount was available if this parrot could be taken care of elsewhere.”
Three weeks later, it was reported that Louis was…an impostor!
The real Louis, “former Victorian produce-promoter” Fred Hill claimed in a telegram to Wurtele, had died and the current boozing bird was a stand-in. Hill claimed to have “stolen” Louis in June 1964 and he passed away in June ‘66, five months before the public controversy over Miss Wilson’s estate even began.
Hill claimed to have buried the corpse “in the backyard” of an unidentified mansion. His friends, however, denied the whole story as a hoax and declared he’d never been in possession of any parrot let alone the exalted Louis.
Just two months after the Wurtele-Baird contretemps, it was reported, reliably this time, that Lois had been moved from the Wilson manse. This came from Mrs. Yue Wah Wong, wife of Louis’s appointed custodian, who would only say that he was no longer residing on Courtney Street. She promised that “when things are settled” the full story would be told.
Coincidental to the parrot’s being moved, it was reported that the Royal Jubilee and the Red Cross were to receive the balance of the Wilson bequest immediately. Wah Wong’s death, a month later, suggests what did happen behind the scenes.
The Wilson manse in downtown Victoria, better known, until its demolition, as The Parrot House.
The weathered white mansion bit the dust in 1967 and, for years, the Parrot House Restaurant, part of the subsequent development, marked the site of Louis’s home.
The Hallmark Society of Victoria, which was born of the loss of the Wilson mansion, has since instituted the Louis Award for notable examples of heritage preservation.
There followed years of speculation as to Louis’s continuing state of health and his whereabouts, public interest being in no way dampened by the estate’s lawyer’s declaration that Louis’s daily tot of brandy was “a hell of a good yarn… Truth is, Louis might have consumed a mickey in the past four years–for medicinal purposes only–when his feathers have been ruffled. It’s a good medicine for any bird.”
Louis is supposed to have passed away, aged 115 years, in 1985.
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What a truly remarkable story!! I knew of the Parrot House Restaurant noted in this article, but had no idea at all of it’s origin!
Which is precisely why I research and write this historical trivia. Otherwise it just disappears into the ether as if it never happened, as if these wonderful characters of old who built this country never even existed.
We need to remember our heritage and to pass it on; anything less is abject failure. –TW
I walked by that house everyday that I walked home from Central Jr.High to my home in James Bay. It was my mom who told me about the parrot who owned the house until he died. Tell me that a story like that doesn’t light a fire in a young mans mind when he is all of 13 years old. Story is told that upon inspecting the house when it was ready to be torn down there was an old Electric car in the basement. Such a shame that such a beautiful place such as that had to be torn down, but that was progress in those days, just as it is now.
Thank you, Brian. I did hear of the disposition of the electric car years ago but I can’t remember now. The house had been grand in its heyday but by the time of its demolition, its white-painted exterior looked pretty bad. That said, however, the house probably was structurally sound, having been built of the best of materials on solid rock.
You know, when I wrote my column, ‘Capital Characters,’ in The Victorian in the 1960s, Victoria was a city of characters, including, in Louis’s case, of the feathered variety!
There also were the likes of Harry Haigh, Bill Scott, Anna Banana and many whose names I never did know but whose appearance and eccentricity I can recall all these years later. They were, for good or bad, standouts, in other words.
Today, on those rare occasions that I absolutely must go to Victoria, I see street people. The homeless,lost souls beset by mental illness and addictions, many of them. Nothing like the days when I, as a teenage copy boy at the Colonist roamed the streets with mental notebook in hand. Watching, always observing and trying to fix it all in my mind for future reference.
Ah, the good old days. As I like to say, they’re not making them any more! –TWP
Loved that old house! Loved the story and loved the Parrot House! I had lunch at Victoria Janes in the Hotel a couple of weeks ago and remembered all the old stories about the property at that time.
Thank you for commenting. From the late 1960’s through the 1970’s Victoria lost many a fine old mansion to “progress”. But the story of Miss Wilson and her electric car–and Louis the parrot–will ever be a part of Victoria folklore.
I actually lived in the estate prior to its demise. There were three of us that had rented the aviary section of the house while attending school. This space is where “the chinaman”, Mr Wong, lived along with the birds.
I did have an opportunity to meet some of the spinsters that lived in the mansion which at the time had been converted to rental units.
It was a shame to see the tenants, ourselves included, be displaced after living most of their lives there.
I had an opportunity to go up stairs in the mansion to look out of the turret to have a view of the downtown area.
It would be interesting to know of the whereabouts of the car. I was told that she was one of the first ones to own such a car in Victoria.
Hi, Jim: I don’t know where your email has been for four months–just turned up. Thank you for your email. You’ll have been one of the few to look out from the tower, I bet. I once read where the car got to; I’ll have to look into it. Cheers, TW