Stirling (family)

Charles James Robert Stirling (C.J.R. Stirling) was born in 1857 in Bath, England. In 1874, at the age of 17, he was commissioned in the Imperial Army and joined his regiment in India where he served for a number of years. After returning to England, he emigrated to Canada in 1881 and involved himself in various business ventures in Ontario and Montreal. In 1885, he married Miss Frances Strathey (b. 1860) of London, Ontario. We know that one of their daughters, Ethel Marie-Louise, was born in Montreal in 1892. The family returned to England in 1900 and remained there for ten years, but in 1910, Mr. Stirling emigrated once again to Canada. This time he headed to British Columbia and eventually settled in Salmon Arm where he bought the original McGuire Ranch, but soon sold it and bought the Barr Fruit Ranch on Lakeshore Road. It wasn't until 1913, when he was settled in Salmon Arm, that Mrs. Stirling and the children joined him. Although they travelled back to England for extended visits, the family made Salmon Arm their permanent residence. Their children were Elvira, Ethel (Mrs. R. Belli-Bivar), Mrs. Luard Carveth-Wells, Mrs. John Freeman, and an only son, Gordon, who was killed in WW I in France.