April 20, 1943: Sailor fined for picking Victoria daffodils

An Edmonton sailor in Victoria, B.C., for three months of basic training was fined for picking flowers in a park.

Twenty-year-old Ordinary Seaman Raymond Alfred Allen received a police summons and a $2 fine for picking five daffodils in Beacon Hill Park.

Although Allen smiled over the outcome of his daffodilpicking, the citizens of Victoria were annoyed and a member of the city council reimbursed him his fine, the Journal story reported.

“Victoria doesn’t like what happened to Allen, who is a fine, clean-looking boy — the kind doing a good job for the navy.

“When Allen appeared in court and Magistrate Hall asked him to plead he said simply: ‘I picked the flowers all right.’ This was taken as a plea of guilty.

“Newspapermen asked him for his story, and its touch of humanity appealed to Victorians.”

His story, like that of so many servicemen, was that Allen was away from home for the first time. It was his first time seeing the Rocky Mountains, his first time seeing the ocean, and his first time seeing flowers bloom in winter.

A profusion of yellow-headed daffodils grew in the rocks near his barracks at Esquimalt.

Allen loved flowers and wrote to tell his mother in Edmonton about them.

On a visit to Victoria, the young sailor and a buddy were among thousands of people strolling along the waterfront and admiring the flowers in Beacon Hill Park.

Allen, who had his camera with him, asked his friend to snap a picture of him on the lush green lawns with daffodils growing in them to send to his mother.

He stooped among the daffodils and then figured holding a couple of the blooms in his hand would enhance the photo.

“I wanted to make it as nice as I could as I wanted to send the picture home,” Allen said. “I wanted the folks to see how lovely the flowers are here, and I only wished my mother could come out and enjoy them after being sick (with the flu).

“I thought the flowers were wild ones. There weren’t any signs around not to pick them, and there were so many I didn’t think there was anything wrong.”

But while Allen picked his flowers, a constable was watching. He came over, asked Allen for his registration card, took information from it and left. Allen was not surprised to receive a summons.

“The whole thing appeared like a joke, and one wag (reporter) sent him a note: ‘Daffodils are 10 cents a dozen,’ ” the story said.

Allen, whose fine amounted to 40 cents per daffodil, could have bought 20 dozen daffodils with that money.

The wireless telegraphist, who was about to leave for Toronto to complete his naval training, had a scrapbook he kept with him.

“Among the most interesting pages will be his summons, the receipt for his fine, and one of the five daffodils.” czdeb@edmontonjournal. com