Shawnigan in 110 Objects

Hallway Photos

3/26/2026

When alumni return to campus, one of the first things they often do is seek out the framed photos representing their graduation year. A large frame displays key photos for each school year. The first such frame was created for the 1951–52 school year, an initiative of Shawnigan’s second Headmaster, G. Peter Kaye, who became Headmaster that year. The first frame includes the whole-school photo, the 1st XV Rugby team, and the 1st XI Cricket team. Since 1954, a photo of the School Prefects has always been included. The names of team members and Prefects are listed below each photo.

Lake Omar

3/19/2026

When the School began, the site of Lake Omar was simply a small clearing. In 1959 it was transformed into a sewage lagoon – a large, shallow pond that treats wastewater naturally using sunlight, wind, and bacteria. Waste settled into an anaerobic sludge layer below, while an oxygen-rich surface layer supported algae and hardworking microbes above. To the casual observer, however, it mostly looked like a thick green carpet with a scent that left little doubt about its purpose. Students soon nicknamed it “Lake Omar,” after the maintenance man responsible for keeping the campus plumbing behaving itself.

School Bus

3/12/2026

For a boarding school in the country, transporting students is no small task. Every week students must be picked up from, and dropped off at, ferry terminals, airports, sporting events, academic activities, outdoor excursions, and medical appointments. Even for a typical family this can be complicated, but when the “family” numbers more than 500 students, it becomes a full-time operation requiring a small fleet of vehicles.

Hiking Boots

3/5/2026

Shawnigan Lake School is situated in a natural playground, surrounded by forests, mountains, and valleys just waiting to be explored by those with an adventurous spirit – and a sturdy pair of hiking boots.

On Vancouver Island, hikers can choose from trails to suit every ability and ambition. Nearby routes like Mount Baldy and the Cowichan River Trail offer inviting day hikes, while multi-day adventures beckon farther afield on the West Coast Trail and the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail. Strathcona Provincial Park provides everything from gentle walks to demanding mountaineering challenges.

Recycling Bin

2/26/2026

In the fall of 1990, the School began taking recycling seriously. A collection system was introduced that still operates today: recycling containers that sit beside garbage cans in every dorm room are emptied into House bins, and then transported to a central collection point. In the early years, Grade 8 science classes took turns sorting the material weekly before it was sent off to recycling facilities. As volumes grew, the task eventually required a dedicated staff member to oversee the program.

Forts in the Forest

2/19/2026

It’s hard to imagine today, but many boys once brought an axe as part of their “school supplies.” They helped cut firewood for the woodstoves and, in their free time, turned those skills to more creative ends. A favourite pursuit was fort-building. In the earliest days, boys recall a fort on the hill where the Chapel now stands. As the campus expanded and firewood was no longer needed for heat, fort-building moved farther up the hill into the forests beyond the playing fields.

The Shaw Library

2/13/2026

In the spring of 2016, Shawnigan cut the ribbon on the final phase of the Centennial Capital Project – one of the most significant developments in the School’s history. At its heart stands the Jim ’77 (Lonsdale’s) and Kathryn Shaw Library, named in honour of the donors’ generosity. The building is a striking fir timber-frame space with soaring ceilings, warmed by matching fir bookcases, tables, and window seats. A second-floor mezzanine wraps around the interior and is furnished with inviting seating.

Stag Cafe

2/5/2026

In 2004, the addition of Entrepreneurship 11 and 12 sparked a search for meaningful, hands-on learning. Instructor Georg Stroebel found it in an unlikely place: a former school kitchen left vacant after the opening of Marion Hall. A café, he realized, could turn theory into practice. Thanks to his experience as a restaurant owner, the risks were manageable, and approval soon followed. With no start-up funding available, Stroebel personally financed the initial supplies. The early operation was modest – just a few frying pans and a single fryer – but it was enough to launch service of hamburgers and fries. The response on opening night was immediate and enthusiastic, forcing the café to expand almost at once. Second-hand equipment soon followed, including another fryer, a flat grill, blenders, panini presses, and a two-level pizza oven. The loan was quickly repaid, and the program continues to flourish today, more than a decade after its founder’s retirement.

Word Shirt

1/29/2026

After the devastating tsunami in Thailand in December 2004, the School sought a tangible way to help. A team of students and two staff members travelled to Thailand the following March to assist with rebuilding, joined by a Grade 12 student from Thailand whose support proved invaluable. To raise funds in early 2005, the team designed and sold t-shirts featuring the word “Relieve” on the front and its definition on the back.

Museum

1/22/2026

The idea for the Museum grew out of Lance Bean’s deep affection for the School’s history. Lance worked at Shawnigan from 1974 to 1981 as a French and art teacher, band instructor, and housemaster. When he prepared to return in 2002, he shared with Headmaster and longtime friend David Robertson his vision: a museum that would show what life as a boarder once felt like – not only through photographs and stories, but through objects, spaces, and lived experience. The Head agreed, and allocated a portion of the basement in Marion Hall – which was being built at the time – to house the Museum.

Sir Percy Lake Bust

1/15/2026

Sir Percy Henry Noel Lake was born in Tenby, Wales, in 1855, to a British father and a Canadian mother. Commissioned into the British Army in 1873, he pursued a distinguished military career spanning continents and decades. Rising through the ranks, he served as a senior commander in the British and Indian Armies and the Canadian Militia, with postings in Afghanistan, Sudan, India, Britain, Iraq, and Canada, where he was Inspector General of the Canadian Militia. After leaving Canada in 1910, he served in India as Chief of the General Staff, was appointed Colonel of the East Lancashire Regiment, and later became commander-in-chief of the Mesopotamian Force. He returned to England in 1916 and, after retiring in 1919, settled in Victoria, B.C. In civilian life, he continued his service as the first president of the Canadian Legion. Since 1943, the South Vancouver Island Zone of the Canadian Legion has awarded the annual Sir Percy Lake Memorial Scholarship in his honour.

Pranks

1/8/2026

On April Fool’s Day in 1953, teacher Frank Duxbury was surprised to find his bicycle hanging from the flagpole (pictured above) – an early sign that Shawnigan has always taken its mischief seriously.

Back in the 1920s, boys were responsible for lighting the classroom woodstove. Two enterprising students discovered that adding coal dust to kindling caused a small, delayed boom! To discourage a teacher from monopolizing the stove’s warmth, they prepared a “special” fire. When it exploded, everyone jumped – except the boys who laughed. Case closed. The teacher never sat there again.

Eagle Lectern

12/18/2025

The lectern was created to honour the memory of Nicholas Richard “Dick” Loggin, a student mourned by the School community when he sadly died of appendicitis in April 1926 at the age of 13. He had been a student since 1920, and had “set an example of loyalty, straightforwardness and unselfishness.” A memorial service was held at the School in 1926. The lectern was installed in the School Chapel when the Chapel was completed two years later. It takes the form of an eagle with wings outstretched, carved in oak – a very beautiful piece of work executed by master carver, George S. Gibson.

Steam Radiator

12/11/2025

There is a saying, “A wood stove warms you twice: once when you cut the wood, and again when you burn it.” This would have been the experience of many a boy in the early days of the School, as they were responsible for getting the fires lit in the woodstoves each morning. They would cut, split and carry the wood to the stoves. Once lit, the heat would rise to the upper floors by convection; however, boys do not remember it reaching the level of the dormitories, where they spent many a cold winter’s night, sometimes awaking to frozen water in their wash basins. Thankfully, there were small stoves in each classroom, which were also maintained by the boys.

Observatory

12/4/2025

The journey of the Shawnigan Observatory began in 2011 when an alumni’s neighbour on Saturna Island offered their old observatory to the School, presumably left from an Estate sale. Members of the Cowichan Valley Starfinders Club physically moved it in parts from its original home on tiny King’s Island – adjacent to Saturna Island – to the basement of the Shaw Centre, where it was housed for three years. During this time, it was reconstructed piece-by-piece, and by 2014 it was ready to be moved to its new location, on the edge of the sports fields, just northwest of the Hyde-Lay Pavilion. Its reconstruction was made possible by the generous donation of the Brister Family (Matt, Tara and Liam ’13 [Ripley’s]). In June 2017, it was officially christened the Stephen A. S. Lane Observatory.

Squash Courts

11/27/2025

In the summer of 1927, Headmaster Lonsdale was a passenger on one of the “Queens” sailing from the U.K. to Canada. He happened to come across a game of squash being played on the ship’s squash courts. Realizing the potential the sport could have as a school game, and one that could be played in inclement weather, he measured the dimensions of the court, and on his return to Shawnigan, promptly had two courts built to the measurements he had taken. The two courts were built onto the west side of the newly finished gym, and voila! – these were the first squash courts in B.C. Unfortunately, Lonsdale did not realize that the courts conformed to neither the English nor North American specifications, since their size was limited to the space available in the ship’s hull. Consequently, Shawnigan’s courts were unique in the world, yet served the School admirably for the next 40 years. Despite the “dimensional drawbacks,” the School produced some excellent players who went on to become champions in B.C. and at universities throughout North America.

Commissary

11/20/2025

Having a store on campus seems natural, as if it has always been here. But it actually developed slowly over many years. It began as a small idea: a “Tuck Shop.”

Apparently, the first Tuck Shop arose from a question posed at a Debating Club meeting in 1926, and the work of their teacher, Mr. Stanton, “who made the scheme an actuality.” Traditionally, a tuck shop sells candy and other snacks, of which the Headmaster strongly disapproved. Therefore, while Lonsdale may have softened his views by 1926, we imagine that Mr. Stanton may have drawn upon his debating skills to obtain permission to open the shop.

Growing Dome

11/13/2025

A defining architectural feature of most of the buildings dotting the Shawnigan Lake School campus is the decorative, ornamental "half-timbering," which consists of exposed, dark-colored wooden beams set against light-colored stucco. Yet, there is one building that stands out in striking contrast to these medieval-era English Tudor facades because of its modern – even futuristic – appearance: the Growing Dome.

Roll of Honour

11/6/2025

By the end of WW2, almost 800 boys had passed through the School and almost half of those had enlisted. Most of them were in Canadian or Imperial units, but at least thirty were in the United States military. As was said in a Remembrance Day Service years ago, “This voluntary enlistment was a remarkable indication of the sense of duty that Shawnigan had instilled in these young men. But I also attribute it in part to the knowledge of history acquired at the School and, perhaps, a love of adventure.” Many of those were wounded or made prisoners of war, and, sadly, 44 of them were killed in action, along with one former staff member.

Woodwork Shop

10/30/2025

In C.W. Lonsdale’s report to the Board in 1928, he stated, “We have opened up a space in the attic, 80 feet long and 12 feet wide, as a temporary home for boys [who are] anxious to use tools for work in the nature of wood modelling, fret work and kindred efforts. There is, however, very little assistance which we are able to give those boys; . . . our ideal should eventually be to have a manual training instructor with a properly equipped workshop.” A student from the early 1930s remembers Mr. Hawksford, a man who worked in maintenance, starting the first “Hobby Shop” in the basement, underneath the gym.