A Williams Lake dormitory grad, Philis Welch loves Prince George

Philis (Bambrick) Welch was born in Kamloops in 1938 and raised on the Bambrick ranch, about 75 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake in the historical ranching community of Big Creek. There were 12 ranchers in the area with each ranch being approximately two miles apart. Each of these 12 ranchers have a history all of their own and there have been books written about almost all of them including the Bambrick ranch.

A bit of history about the grandparents of Philis Welch. Her grandfather Charlie John Bambrick was born in 1869 in Sackville, Nova Scotia; he married her grandmother, Lillian Hanes, a.k.a. Haines, a full-blood First Nations woman, who was born in 1877 in Empire Valley. They married in Big Creek in 1916 and had 12 children.

Her father Walter Bambrick, born in 1899, was the eldest son of these 12 children, he married Beulah Birdsell in 1932 and they had six children. Philis was the eldest of these six children. She said, “The two youngest children were fraternal twins which seemed to be a rarity at the time. The arrival of my twin sisters was a happy event and both my mother and my father were just as surprised as the rest of us.”

In 1938, her father bought the historic Bambrick ranch from his mother and he ranched at Big Creek until 1962 when he retired. He passed away in 1966.

Philis said, “I was raised in Big Creek and because there was no school in the area my parents sent me to boarding school in Williams Lake where I took Grade 1. It wasn’t long and neighbours Dick and Percy Church built a small log cabin school on their ranch. I returned to Big Creek and finished Grades 2 to 8 at the school. At the age of 16, I went back to the school dormitory in Williams Lake for the next three years.”

Philis reflected back and said, “Our families paid $25 per month for us to stay at the dormitory while we went to school. In many cases this was a lot of money even though it covered everything. In order to keep the rates low, the students had their duties in the kitchen, the dining room and various other chores which included all the janitorial work at the dormitory.

“We had a recreation room for activities and of course we were expected to stay at the dormitory and not go downtown. The girls occupied the second floor and the boys occupied the first floor. The Grade 12 girls supervised and patrolled the hallways for the girls and the Grade 12 boys did the same on the first floor.

“The curfew was 9 p.m. and tardiness was not allowed and certainly not tolerated. The doors were locked promptly at 9 p.m. so going to the movies downtown was nearly impossible because they ended at 9 p.m. If anyone wanted to go to the movie they had to get preauthorization and, if approved, their curfew was extended to 9:15 p.m. Time went by and Wednesday became movie night and the curfew, for Wednesdays only, became 9:15 p.m.”

Philis said, “There is a Williams Lake Dormitory reunion taking place April 28, 29 and 30 in Williams Lake with the expectation of over 500 people from the states and all over Canada due to attend. This is a reunion of the people who lived in the school dormitories from 1954 to 1969. It is certain to be a wonderful event.”

“In 1956 I quit school when I was in Grade 11 and went to work at the Bank of Commerce for the next three years as a proof teller,” said Philis.

“In 1959 I married into the Welch clan from Willow River. We moved to Willow River in 1962, then back to Williams Lake for a short while and then we moved to