Lee Gee and Young Gow
As part of the Chinese Historical Wrongs Legacy Initiative, we’ve digitized a small selection of inquests and inquiries from 1872 to 1934, found in series GR-0431. These were chosen to reflect the experiences of early Chinese immigrants to B.C. – their living and working conditions, and their unfortunate accidental or unusual deaths. They range from a woman working in a brothel in Barkerville who died of natural causes to three sawmill workers who died from malnutrition. Learn more.
*All transcriptions are provided by volunteers, and the accuracy of the transcriptions is not guaranteed. Please be sure to verify the information by viewing the image record, or visiting the BC Archives in person.
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Current Page Transcription [edit] [history]
[Coroner] INQUISITION
An Inquisition indented taken at Cumberland British Columbia, the 27th day of February, the 1919 year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord, the King, before me, Joseph Shaw, gentleman, one of the Coroners for our Lord the King, for the district aforesaid, upon the view of the body's of Lee Gee & Yong Gow, then and there and within the jurisdiction of the said Coroner, lying dead, upon the oaths of William Henderson, Foreman GD Webster GP Willis JJ Harwood EA Jones Charles Reynolds good and lawful men of Cumberland, BC, aforesaid, in the said County of Nanaimo, who being now here sworn and a charged to inquire on the part of our said Lord of the king, when, where, how, and after what manner, the said came to his death, do say upon their oath, that we, your jury empaneled to inquire into the cause of the death of Lee Gee and Young Gow [f--id] [---y] evidence, adduced before us that the said Lee [Gee] and Young Gow, on the 24th and 25th of February nineteen hundred and nineteen (1919) at a certain place known as no 4 yard situated near Cumberland, BC came to their deaths, as the Result of a Railway collision and we the jury /over