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Vancouver calls me William Templeton |
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Born and edcuated in County Antrim, Ireland, Templeton came to Vancouver in 1908. In 1911 he helped to build the 35 horsepower biplane he flew some 260 feet over Minoru Park racetrack. A model of this plane is now in the Smithsonian Institute. He was also the first man to fly a front-propeller aricarft from Canadian soil. During WWI he flew with the Royal Naval Air Service on submarine patrol duty over the North Sea from 1915-1917. After the war, he joined the city's building department and in 1929 he was named manager of the 40-acre city air field on Lulu Island. Charles Lindbergh was invited to fly to Vancouver during a visit to Seattle. Lindbergh's response was that he would be glad to once Vancouver had an airport he could land on. His snub and Templeton's persistance was credited for the subsequent passage of $600,000 in bylaws to buy and later expand to 325 acres the new airport property on Sea Island in 1931. Mr. Templeton retired in 1950, after serving also as Airport Consultant. He died in 1966. Templeton wrote this song while acting as Airport Manager. He deeded the song, its royalties and copyright to Alderman W.D. Greyell who at the time was chairman of Vancouver's Summer Entertainment Council. Greyall arranged for Canadian and United States copyright for the song and appealed to citizens to make it their own song. As part of that summer's features in Vancouver, it also became the theme song for band parades which kept up the spirit of citizens during a time of war.
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