ANDERSON ARCHIVES

Harrie’s mother, Mary Florence (often called Florence), was a Heathorn - a respected family and one of the first to settle in Victoria, at the southern tip of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. We have a wonderful album of formal portraits which reflect their pride. Mary Florence was one of several siblings and, according to family lore, was or could have been a concert pianist. She met and married Peter Frank Richardson in 1890 when she was 23. Their wedding was written up in the Victoria newspaper and we have photographs of the bride and her sisters, the bridesmaids.

The records show that in addition to Mary Anderson’s father Harrie and his brother Wilfred, Mary Florence Richardson gave birth to two other children who did not survive. The child Mary Florence, born in early 1890’s, died in 1895 and Cecil Roberts, born in 1900, died before reaching his first birthday. When the surviving boys were young (roughly 10 years old) there was an incident which resulted in Mary Florence being institutionalized. She spent the rest of her life in the Essondale, now called Riverview Hospital in New Westminster near Vancouver on the mainland where she died in 1943 at the age of 76. The complete record of these 35 years have recently been attained. It seems very likely (and understandable) that she had been severely depressed from losing two children. She had an even more complicated condition, such as schizophrenia, which today would be easily addressed with medication,

Mary’s grandfather, Peter Frank Richardson, returned to Ontario and raised the two boys. Mary remembers meeting this grandfather. In her memory he was quite stern. There seems to have been little talk in the family about Mary Florence except of her abilities as a pianist. Both her son Harrie and granddaughter Mary Anderson were accomplished pianists.

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