PART SIXTY-FIVE

The London Shoreditch Line to Canada

The Family Line of Alfred John Collett [1915 to 1944]

and John Allan Collett [1911 to 1992] Mayor of Merritt

Updated September 2025

The re-issue of this file in August 2016 resulted in the removal of the Shoreditch appendix at the end of the file, with

many of the individuals, previously contained therein, now included within Part 50 – The London to New Zealand Line

	The information contained within this family line has been kindly provided by Sue Collett in Tasmania and relates, not to her family, but to a branch of the family originally from England which emigrated to Canada. Many of the place names mentioned here also appear in Part 21 – The Cornwall Line. Similarly, the focus of this family is Alfred John Collett (Ref. 65R2) of New Westminster in British Columbia who was killed in action over France during the Second World War. He was the son of Edward Arthur Collett and Jesse Anne Laura Smith, while also in Part 21 there is another Alfred John Collett (Ref. 21R45), also of New Westminster, who was born at Plymouth in 1904, the son of Edward Charles Collett and Ann Bowden Gribble, who died at Calgary in 1956.
	The Collett family of Merritt, Nicola Valley, British Columbia, were prominent in that area of Canada and even had a township named after them. However, it was JOHN ALLAN COLLETT (Ref. 65Q13), the first of three of that name, who was Mayor of Merritt City for twenty-three years, who eventually became that city’s only Honorary Mayor.
	This family line starts in England with Henry Collett who was born circa 1785
65M1	HENRY COLLETT was born around 1785 and was married to Sarah with whom he had a son.
	65N1			HENRY COLLETT	Born in 1807 at Shoreditch, London
65N1	HENRY COLLETT was born in London on 14^th October 1807 to parents previously unknown but now, thanks to Jennie Cordner, it has been confirmed that he was the son of Henry and Sarah Collett. It was on 27^th December 1807 that Henry Collett was baptised at Christ Church in Newgate Street within the city of London. A separate record of the event has also been located within the Pallots Baptism Register where it was noted that Hy Collett, the son of Hy and Sarah Collett, was baptised at Christchurch, Newgate.
	Henry was twenty-three when he was married by banns to Harriet Ford at the Church of St Michael Bassishaw on Basinghall Street in the City of London on 1^st April 1831, Harriet having been born in Middlesex on 18^th September 1810. Historical Note: The original 12^th Century St Michael’s Church, on Basinghall Street, was destroyed in the fire of London in 1666, but was rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. In 1900, it was demolished, with the land today occupied by the Barbican Centre complex
	Just over two years later Harriet presented Henry with a son, their only known surviving child. However, Harriet also gave birth to two daughters, neither of whom survived. They were a set of twin daughters who were born at Shoreditch on 18^th May 1835, who were baptised there on 16^th June 1835. That was also the same day that son Henry was also baptised, when their father was described as Henry Collett, a type founder. Sadly, it was later that same year on 4^th August that first Maria died, and she was followed by Harriet, who died on 17^th June 1836, both buried at Hoxton
	According to the census in 1841 Henry and Harriet Collett had the same rounded age of 30, while their son Henry was eight years old, when the family was residing in Dorchester Street in St Leonards Shoreditch. Henry senior and his son had both been born within that same registration district, while Harriet had not. Henry’s stated occupation is unclear on the census sheet, but appears to be something like ‘foundries maker’. That may have been an iron foundry’s mould maker, as the firm of Wells & Company was a commercial iron works in Shoreditch at that time.
	It is very interesting that, on that census day, another Collett family, that of a second Henry and Harriet Collett, were residing in the Hoxton area of Shoreditch at the High Street with their family of five children; Harriet who was ten, Walter who was nine, Henry who was seven, Ann who was five and William who was two. Their son Henry was Henry Lawrence Collett (Ref. 50O15) who was born on 2^nd March 1834 and baptised at St Leonards Shoreditch on 7^th April 1834. Details of that second Collett family can now be found in Part 50 – The London to New Zealand Line, under Henry Lawrence Collett (Ref. 50N6). He and his family were previously included in an appendix at the end of this file, which has now been transferred to Part 50 where it still retains brief details of other, so far, unrelated members of the family with a Shoreditch connection.
	On 2^nd July 1849, Henry Collett and his family arrived in New York aboard the ship ‘Nicolai & Jovan’ on their way to a new life in Canada, and it was there at Bentinck in Grey County, Ontario, that they were recorded in the census of 1851 (which took place in 1852). Henry Collett senior from England was 43, his wife Mrs Collett was 41, while their son Henry Collett from England was 19. Once again, ten years later the census for Bentinck in 1861 confirmed all three members of the family were still living there together, with Henry junior married by that time and with a family of his own. Henry Collett from England was 53, his wife Harriet from England was 51.
	Harriet Collett nee Ford died at Bentinck on 21^st April 1865 and was buried in Lot 16 at St George’s Cemetery, North Durham Road in Grey County, just east of Hanover in Ontario, where a memorial stone carries her name and that of her husband (as shown here). Six years later widower Henry Collett was still residing in Bentinck at the time of the census in 1871 when he was 65 and was living with the family of his son Henry. It was after a further six years that Henry Collett died at Hanover in Grey County on 24^th August 1877 at the age of 69, following which he was laid to rest with his late wife Harriet when he was buried in Lot 16 at St George’s Cemetery in Grey County. The headstone also confirms the dates of birth of both Henry and Harriet.
	65O1			HENRY GEORGE COLLETT	Born in 1833 at Shoreditch, London
	65O2			Harriet Collett	Born in 1835 at Shoreditch, London
	65O3			Maria Collett	Born in 1835 at Shoreditch, London
65O1	HENRY GEORGE COLLETT was born in Shoreditch, London, on 26^th January 1833, but was not christened for over two years, when he was baptised in a joint ceremony with his two younger sisters at St Leonards Church in Shoreditch on 16^th June 1835, when he was simply named as Henry Collett. He was the only surviving child of Henry Collett and Harriet Ford, both his sisters dying during the next twelve months. In the census of 1841 Henry Collett junior was eight years old, when he and his parents were residing in Dorchester Street in St Leonards Shoreditch. Eight years later, Henry accompanied his parents to a new life in Canada when they arrived at New York on 2^nd July 1849.
	By the time of the Canadian Census in 1851 Henry Collett from England was 19 and was residing at Bentinck in Grey County, Ontario with his father Henry Collet and his mother who was simply described as Mrs Collet. Four years later, during 1855, Henry junior married Mary Ann Ellen Davidson who was also born in England on 9^th August 1837 and baptised at St Peter’s Church in Liverpool on 9^th January 1838, the daughter of John Davidson and his wife Mary Greenhow. Fourteen years earlier in June 1841 Mary Ann Davidson was three years old when she was living with her family at Toxteth Park in Liverpool and it was when she was 11 years old that she and her parents sailed to Canada, arriving in 1849.
	All the children of Henry and Mary Ann were born in Ontario and most likely at Bentinck, where the young family was living in January 1861 when the census that month recorded the family in error as Collet. Henry Collet from England was 28, his wife Mary Ann Collet from England was 23, and their two sons on that occasion were Alfred G Collet, who was five, and Edward Collet who was three, both of then born at Upper Canada. Mary Ann was with-child on the day of the census, and the couple’s third son was born two months later. Also, at that time in their life, Henry and his family had living with them his father and mother.
	Henry George Collett was a farmer and over the following ten years his mother passed away while further children were added to his family, all while they were still residing at Bentinck. Once again, the Collett name was spelt with a single T in the Bentinck census of 1871 when Henry Collet was 36, Mary Ann was 31, Alfred was 13, Edward was 12, Joseph was eight, and Harriet was six. Still living with the family Bentinck in Grey County was Henry’s widowed father Henry Collet, aged 65, who passed away six years later. Mary Ann was very likely pregnant on the day of the census and was shortly due to present Henry with their fifth child who was born later that same year. It is interesting that the census also revealed the children were born at Oto, which may be an abbreviation of Ontario or a reference to Ordo Templi Orientis or the Order of the Temple of the East. It is likely to be the former, since the family religion was stated on the same census return as being Episcopalian.
	By that time the census return confirmed that Henry Collett was a Church of England farmer of 48 who had been born in England, like his wife Mary Ann who was 42. The six children living there with them were Alfred who was 24, Edward who was 22, Joseph who was 19, Harriet who was 14, John who was 10 and Charles who was only two years old. All their children were confirmed as having been born in Ontario, with the three eldest sons also described as farmers, presumably working with their father on the family’s farmstead. On the day of the census in 1881 Mary Ann was with-child, the couple’s last child being born at Bentinck later that same year.
	Also, later that same year, Henry’s second son Edward was married, and exactly three years after that Henry’s only known daughter married her brother-in-law, whose sister had married Edward. Almost a year after Harriet was married Henry’s eldest son became a married man and started a family of his own. However, by the time of the next census for Bentinck in 1891 Henry’s eldest son had lost his wife following childbirth, since Alfred and his baby son Arthur were living with Henry and Mary Ann. Henry Collett was 58 and his wife was 52, who still had living on the farm with them their two youngest sons John aged 20, and Charles who was 12. Widower Alfred was recorded in error as Alford Collett, who was 34, while his son Arthur was two years of age. Where their married son Edward was has not been determined, although his wife Helen and their daughter Mary were living nearby in Bentinck, where they were staying at the home of her parents in 1891.
	Just over six years later Henry George Collett died at Bentinck on 17^th August 1897 at the age of 64, his death being recorded at Grey South, a province of Ontario. He was then buried in Lot 16 with his parents at St George’s Cemetery near Hanover in Grey County where his grandson George Henry Collett was buried with his wife Mabel and their eldest son Robert George Collett. It was at the registering of his death that his date of birth was recorded as 26^th January 1833, the same as stated on the headstone which marks his grave, although that same headstone (shown right) includes an error regarding the year of his death, which could not have been 1887 when he was still alive and listed in the census of 1891.
	It is now known that, following the death of her husband, the widow Mary Ann Collett travelled west to Nicola Valley with her unmarried son Charles D Collett to be with her married daughter Harriet. Curiously no record of her has so far been found or identified within the next census in 1901, while by that time her three other sons, Joseph, John, and Charles were recorded in the census return for Yale & Cariboo, where Mary was living ten years later. The census in 1911 recorded Mary Collett at the age of 72 living with her son John Henry Collett with his wife Caroline and their son Henry E Collett at the Collett Ranch in the city of Merritt within the Yale and Cariboo district of British Columbia.
	Mary Ann Ellen Collett nee Davidson, a widow from England, was living at Collettville in Merritt when she died on 7^th August 1928 at the age of 91, following which she was buried at the Nicola Anglican Cemetery in Merritt. Her parents were then recorded as Jno Davidson and Mary Greenhow. It was also at Merritt that three of her sons died over the next nineteen years.
	Collettville came about in the early 1900s not long after the birth of Merritt. According to former mayor John Allan Collett (Ref. 65P9), the miners approached Jack Collett, his father (John Henry Collett), and asked him to subdivide some of his ranch land. Collettville was named after him and was built on his land and on adjoining crown land. The first Collett to arrive in the Nicola Valley was Joe Collett (Ref. 65P3), the son of Mary Ann Collett nee Davidson, who settled there in the 1880s from Ontario. The town of Collettville was originally inhabited by some of the 600 miners employed at Coal Hill and Middlesborough. Today, in 2014, there is no place by the name of Collettville, whilst at 2021 Birch Avenue in Merritt you will find Collettville Elementary School.
	65P1			Alfred George Collett	Born in 1856 at Bentinck, Grey County
	65P2			Edward Collett	Born in 1857 at Bentinck, Grey County
	65P3			Joseph Richard Collett	Born in 1861 at Bentinck, Grey County
	65P4			Harriet Jane Collett	Born in 1866 at Bentinck, Grey County
	65P5			JOHN HENRY COLLETT	Born in 1871 at Bentinck, Grey County
	65P6			Charles De Albert Collett	Born in 1879 at Bentinck, Grey County
65P1	Alfred George Collett was born in Ontario on 22^nd July 1856, the eldest of the seven children of Henry George Collett and Mary Ann Ellen Davidson. In the census of 1861, his place of birth was simply recorded as Upper Canada, while it was at Bentinck in Grey County that his father had been living in 1851 and where Alfred G Collett was five years old in 1861. In was also at Bentinck in Grey County, Ontario that he was still living with his family in 1871 when he was 13, while by 1881 he was a farmer at the age of 24. It was four and a half years after that when he married (1) Ann Jane Smith from Ontario, the daughter of Alexander Smith and Hannah Bowes who was born in 1861.
	The marriage took place at Normanby in Grey County on 25^th November 1885 when Alfred George Collett was 29, his parents were confirmed as Henry Collett and Mary Ann Davidson, and his bride was 24 years of age. Ann was also born in Ontario, in 1861, the daughter of Alexander Smith and Hannah Bowes. Around two years later Ann presented Alfred with their only child and it may have been that she never recovered from the ordeal because, she died four months later, on 25^th March 1889, at the age of 27. On his own, and with a baby to look after, it was inevitably that Alfred returned to live with his parents at Bentinck, where he and the child were recorded in the census of 1891. Alfred was recorded in error as Alford Collett aged 34 and a widower, while his son Arthur was two years of age, both being members of the Church of England.
	Alfred remained unmarried for the best part of ten years after the death of Ann, and it was on 16^th February 1898 at Nicola in British Columbia that he eventually married (2) Christina Schwartz, nee Voght, when he was 42, although the record of their marriage stated that he was 40. Christina was a widow of 30, the daughter of William Voght and Theresa Clema, who had been born at North Bend in British Columbia on 26^th March 1868. Once again, the parents of Alfred Collett were confirmed as Henry Collett and Mary Ann Davidson. Christina presented her husband with two sons over the next two years.
	William Henry Voght from Germany was one of the oldest and best known of Nicola Valley’s pioneers and is generally credited with being the father of Merritt. He was an original 49er who sailed to America in search of gold, but later gave that up to become a rancher in Canada. William was 16 when he emigrated to California to find his fortune, but decided that he not like panning for gold, so sailed to Victoria in British Columbia in 1858. His wife Theresa was a native American Indian and it was in 1873 that they settled in Nicola Valley and purchased a small ranch on the site of what became Merritt Township, which was incorporated as a city around 1893. Such was his stature in the Nicola Valley community that his funeral was attended by more than 2,000 local residents. His married daughter Christina Collett was one of his four children, with a fifth child being adopted.
	According to the next census in March 1901 the family was recorded in Nicola Valley, within the Yale and Cariboo census district of British Columbia. Alfred was 42, Christina was 34, Arthur was 12, George was two and Baden was eleven months old. Supporting the family was Edwin Riley aged 21 who was described as a domestic servant. At the time of the birth of the couple’s son Frederick in 1905, the occupation of Alfred George Collett was stated as being that of a rancher. It was the same situation in 1911 when the Merritt City census that year recorded the family as Alfred Collett aged 56 who was a retired farmer, Christina Collett who was 44, George H Collett who was 12, Baden R Collett who was 11, Joseph D Collett who was eight, Charles A Collett who was seven, Frederick V Collett who was five, and William C Collett was just one month old.
	It is curious that at the time of the death of Christina Collett on 28^th July 1916 at the City of Merritt in Nicola Valley, British Columbia, when she was 48, no mention was made of her husband even though it was acknowledged that she was married. However, her parents were named as William and Clemma Voght, and her date of birth was as quoted above.
	By the time of the next census in June 1921 Alfred Collett, a widower of 65 years, was a lodger at a property in Merritt City, Nicola Valley, the home of the Rhodes family. Also living there with him was his unmarried son George Henry Collett, one of only four surviving sons with no record of son William after 1911, of Joseph after 1928, and the death of son Frederick in 1933. However, they were all still alive – see below. Ten years later widower Alfred George Collett, the son of Henry Collett, died at Merritt on 1^st March 1931 at the age of 74 and was buried at Pine Ridge Cemetery.
	His obituary was published in The Province on Tuesday 3^rd March, under the headline – A Collett Well-known Nicola Valley Man, Dies. “Merritt, March 3^rd – Alfred Collett, 74 and a familiar figure in the Nicola Valley for nearly forty years died in hospital here. He came from Ontario to the Nicola in 1893, and was a carpenter. He married Mrs Schwartz, formerly Christina Vought, daughter of William Vought, one of Merritt’s pioneers. For many years he lived on a ranch at Shulus, and in the early days was the musician at all the country dances. Mr Collett is survived by five sons, Charles, Fred, and Clement in Merritt, and Joseph and George in the United States. He leaves also three brothers, John, Joseph, and Charles of Merritt”. It was also at Merritt in 1941, and 1947, that his two brothers, Joseph and Charles, were living when they passed away, and where his mother and sister also died.
	65Q1			Edward Arthur Collett	Born in 1888 at Allan Park, Grey County
	The following are the children of Alfred George Collett and his second wife Christina Voght:
	65Q2			George Henry Collett	Born in 1899 at Nicola
	65Q3			Baden Richard Collett	Born in 1900 at Nicola
	65Q4			Joseph Davidson Collett	Born in 1902 at Nicola
	65Q5			Charles Alfred Collett	Born in 1903 at Nicola
	65Q6			Frederick Voght Collett	Born in 1905 at Lower Nicola
	65Q7			William Clement Collett	Born in 1911 at Merritt City, Nicola Valley
65P2	Edward Collett was born at Bentinck in Grey County, Ontario in 1857, the son of Henry George and Mary Ann Collett. In the Bentinck census of 1861, he was named in error as Edward Collet, aged three years. He was 12 years old in the census of 1871 when he and his family were living at Bentinck in Grey County, and ten years later when he was 22 in the census of 1881 he was still living with his family at Bentinck where he was a farmer working with his father and his brothers. It was later that same year, on 15^th December 1881, that Edward Collett, aged 24, the son of Henry Collett and Mary A Davidson, married Helen (Ellen) Hunter, aged 26, the daughter of William Hunter and Margaret Corrie who was born at Gananoque in Leeds County, Ontario. The wedding took place at Walkerton, five miles west of Hanover, in Bruce County, Ontario. Helen Hunter was the sister of William Hunter who married Edward’s sister Harriet (below) three years later.
	So far, the only child of the couple that has been found was their daughter Mary and, judging by the results of the next two census returns Edward Collett was away from home in 1891 and died between then and 1901. According to the census in 1891 Helen Collett, aged 35 and a married lady, was residing at the Bentinck home of her parents with her daughter Mary who was eight years of age. With Helen’s husband passing away before 1901, the census that year recorded Helen Collett, aged 45 and a widow, as still living at Bentinck with her daughter Mary who was 18. Living with them was Helen’s mother Margaret Hunter from Scotland who was also a widow at 81. Helen and her mother were both Presbyterians, while daughter Mary Collett was Church of England. It was on 20^th December 1903 that Margaret Hunter nee Corrie from Scotland died while she was still living with her daughter Helen Collett.
	65Q8			Mary Margaret Collett	Born in 1883 at Ontario
65P3	Joseph Richard Collett was born at Bentinck in Grey County on 27^th March 1861, the son of Henry George and Mary Ann Collett. Joseph was eight years of age in the Bentinck census of 1871, while in the next census in 1881 he was 19 and a farmer working with his father and his two older brothers (above) on their farm at Bentinck. Ten years later Joseph had left the family home but was still living and working within the area later to be known as Merritt, the first Collett to settle there. It was during that decade when Joe Collett purchased Beaver Ranch at Quilchena towards the north end of Nicola Valley. Later, he owned and managed the Livery Stables in Merritt. After the death of his father, Joe was still unmarried in 1901 when he was the head of the household at North Yale, in Yale & Cariboo, when he was 37. Living there with him were his two younger brothers John (aka Jack) and Charles, the latter was married and had his wife and two children with him.
	It was on 11^th January 1910 that Joseph Richard Collett married Alice May Armstrong in Vancouver. Joseph was a bachelor at 47, the son of Henry Collett and Mary Ann Davidson, when his bride was only 29 and a widow from Kingston in Ontario, the daughter of Hugh McCaugherty and Minerva Amelia Mosier, who had been born at Frontenac, Ontario on 7^th September 1880. By the time of the census in 1921 the couple were living at Merritt with their only known child Joyce, who was 10 years old. Joseph Richard Collett, who had established a livery stable at Merritt, died at Merritt in British Columbia on 5^th December 1941 at the age of 79 and was buried in the Nicola Anglican Cemetery at Merritt. His marital status was widower and his late spouse was named as Alice Collett, when once again his parents were confirmed as Henry Collett and Mary Ann Davidson. This would indicate that his wife had already died by then.
	Author’s Note. There appears to be some confusion between Joseph Richard Collett and Joseph Medie Collett. Joseph Richard was the son of Henry Collett (as stated above), whereas Joseph Medie was the son of Edward Collett and he married Nettie Clare Mortimer who was a similar age to Joseph, having been born in 1862. Nettie was the daughter of James Mortimer and had been born at Illinois in the USA and died at Kamloops in British Columbia at the age of 79 on 11^th July 1932. Joseph Medie Collett was born on 20^th September 1860 in Quebec and died at Kamloops on 16^th November 1946 aged 86. Their joint memorial gravestone includes the inaccurate inscription “COLLETT ~ Nettie 1862-1932 and Joseph 1862-1947 ~ AT REST”.
	65Q9			Joyce Collett	Born in 1911 at Ontario
65P4	Harriet Jane Collett was born at Bentinck in Grey County on 28^th May 1867, the only daughter of Henry and Mary Collett. Harriet was curiously recorded as being aged six years in the Bentinck census of 1871 when she was living there with her family. By the time of the census in 1881 Harriet Collett, aged 14, had left school and was most likely helping her mother look after the farmhouse and the family, while her father and her three older brothers worked on the land.
	It was just over three years later that Harriet married stagecoach driver Thomas Hunter at Hammon (?) in Grey County on 5^th December 1884 with whom she had five children. The registration of the marriage stated that Thomas was 23 and the son of William Hunter and Margaret Corrie, while Harriet Jane Collett was 18 and the daughter of Henry Collett and Mary Ann Davison (sic). Almost exactly three years earlier Harriet’s brother Edward (above) had married Helen Hunter, the sister of Thomas Hunter. Harriet Jane Hunter nee Collett died on 9^th March 1907, aged 39, and was buried at the Nicola Anglican Cemetery in Merritt, British Columbia, next to the grave of her mother Mary Ann Collett.
	According to the 1901 Census return Harriet and Thomas had the following children living with them at Nicola, and they were Harriet Ellen Hunter (born 8^th July 1885), William H Hunter (born 16^th June 1887), Floretta Hunter (born 27^th August 1890) all born in Grey County, and John I Hunter (born 11^th March 1892 and Edna May Hunter (21^st September 1895), both born at Nicola, British Columbia. Thomas Hunter was born at Ganonoque, Leeds, Ontario, in 1861.
65P5	JOHN HENRY COLLETT was born at Bentinck in Grey County on 27^th April 1871, the son of Henry and Mary Collett. He was 10 years old in the census of 1881 and was 20 in 1891, on both occasions he was living with his family at Bentinck. It was at Wellington in Ontario on 22^nd September 1898 that he married Caroline Mary Lobsinger who was born at Dumston in Ontario on 18^th January 1878, the daughter of George Lobsinger and Mary Ueberschlag. Six months later their son was born at Quilchena near the city of Merritt on the south shore of Nicola Lake on, meaning Caroline was already with-child on her wedding day. By the time of the census in 1901 John, aged 29, and Caroline, aged 23, were staying at the home of his brother Joseph Richard Collett in North Yale with their son Henry who was two and their daughter Irene who was one month old. By that time in his life, he was known as Jack Collett, whilst it was in 1906, possibly after the death of their next child, that he purchased ranch land at nearby Merritt which later became established as the Collett Ranch in Collettville. And it was there that the couple’s second child died at the age of eight years and where their fourth and last child was born.
	According to the Merritt census in 1911 John Henry Collett was 39, his wife Caroline was 33, and their son Henry E Collett was 12. Sadly, by that time the couple had lost two children, although Caroline was four months into her pregnancy for their fourth and last known child, who was born five months later. Staying with the family on the day of the census that year was Henry’s widowed mother Mary Ann Collett who was 72. She was still living with the family in 1916 when Jack built the ‘big house’ on the ranch, the family having previously lived in the bunk house, where his son John Allan had been born five years earlier. In 1921 it was just the couple’s youngest child John Allan Collett who was living with John and Caroline in Merritt City, as well as Jack’s mother Mary Ann who continued to live with them until her death in 1928.
	It was Jack Collett who was later approached by the miners in that area, when he was asked to provide some of his land for a new township, which he did, and out of which arose Collettville which was named after him. It is also known that the fourth child of Jack Collett and Caroline Lobsinger was John Allan Collett, who later became mayor of the city of Merritt.
	Caroline Mary Collett nee Lobsinger died at Collettville, Merritt in British Columbia on 21^st December 1932 while, like some of his siblings (above and below), John Henry Collett of Merritt died in St Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver on 4^th September 1945, when he was 74. His failing health meant he spent ten days in Merritt Hospital before being transferred to St Paul’s for special examination and treatment. In the end he underwent an operation and passed away one week later.
	65Q10			Henry Edward Collett	Born in 1899 at Quilchena, nr Merritt
	65Q11			Mary Irene Collett	Born in 1901 at Quilchena, nr Merritt
	65Q12			a Collett daughter	Born in 1906 at Quilchena, nr Merritt
	65Q13			JOHN ALLAN COLLETT	Born in 1911 at Merritt, Brit Columbia
65P6	Charles De Albert Collett was born at Bentinck in Grey County on 10^th February 1879, the son of Henry George Collett and Mary Ann Davidson, his name being registered on that occasion at Charles D Albert Collett. He was known as Charlie, but it was as Charles Collett aged two years that he was recorded with his family at Bentinck in 1881, where he was still living ten years later when he was 12 in the census of 1891. Ten years later Chas D Collett was 22 when he was staying at the home of his older brother Joseph Richard Collett (above) at North Yale. Less than six months after the census day in 1901 Charles D Albert Collett married Elizabeth Beatrice McKitrick at Lower Nicola in British Columbia on 22^nd June 1901. He was described as 22 and a bachelor, the son of Henry and Mary Ann Collett born in Grey County, while his bride was only 17 and the daughter of Patrick and Adelaide McKitrick who had been born on 24^th June 1883 at Lower Nicola in Yale County, British Columbia. Elizabeth, who was known as Bessie and is reputed to be the first white woman born in Nicola Valley, was expecting the couple’s first child on their wedding day, with their daughter born at Nicola Valley just three months later. She was followed by the birth of three more children over the next ten years.
	Their son was born at Nicola or Lower Nicola two years later. Seven years later, during the summer of 1919, the young family moved to 51 Nicola Avenue in Merritt City a house built nine years earlier, where Charles and Bessie remained for the rest of their lives. In the census of 1921 Charles and Bessie had three children living with them and they were James Collett who was 18, Lillian Collett who was 16, and Albert Collett who was ten years old. During the following decade, the two eldest children left the family which was owned by Charles and valued at $1,750 in the Merritt City census of 1931 when Charles De Albert Collett from Ontario was 52 and a farm labourer employed on Fox Farm. His wife Elizabeth B Collett from British Columbia was 47 and a home maker. Their son Albert was twenty and working for a local newspaper.
	It was at Merritt in British Columbia that Charles De Albert Collett died on Sunday 27^th April 1947 at the age of 68. Curiously on that occasion his place of birth was stated as being Allan Park, while his father was named as George Henry Collett. His mother was correctly named as Mary Ann Davidson and his wife as Elizabeth Beatrice Collett nee McKitrick. It was also at Merritt that his mother and four older siblings had died prior to his passing, and where many years later his widow Elizabeth Beatrice Collett nee McKitrick died on 28^th October 1978 at the age of 95.
	Prior to that, but after 1962, an article written by Elizabeth was published in the local Merritt newsletter in the section headed Historical Work Paper, as follows: “We have lived in this house since July 1919, the house built in 1910. My husband had good health throughout his life, took sick on Thursday, and was gone on the Sunday. That was April 27, 1947. He was only 68 years old at the time. My brothers Frederick and Leonard, and my sisters Nellie, Sarah, Josephine, Isabelle, Olive, and Hazel, are all dead now, as are Charles’ sister Harriet and brothers Edward, Joseph, Alf, and John. Only my brother John Arthur and I are still alive. He lives in Victoria and is 82 years old.
	We lost our eldest daughter at 13 years of age of a kidney infection in 1914. Also gone, my son Edgar, who never married. He had a ranch at Anaheim Lake and died at Merritt in 1962 at the age of 58. Albert, who was the youngest linotype operator in BC at one time, is now retired and living in Courtenay BC. Lillian is here with me, and she had two children, one passed away, the other has two children of her own, one living in Calgary, the other here at Merritt with me and her mother. My two granddaughters are both 17 years old”.
	Included in an earlier version of this family line was the following sentence which, it was thought, referred to the couple’s eldest son, since his mother described him as Edgar during his life. “In May 1912 the name of Edgar Collett aged eight years appeared on the passenger list of The Empress of Ireland at Quebec, although curiously he was not with his parents”. Further research has revealed there was six passengers named Collett. The first of them was ‘returning Canadian’ Thomas Collett, aged 30, born in England, a commercial traveller whose onward destination was Vancouver, British Columbia, having lived in Canada for one year.
	The other five were the family of ‘returners’ of ? Collett (illegible) aged 39 from England but a Canadian resident of twenty-five years, employed as a CPR (railroad) yardmaster. All members of his family had been born in Canada, his wife Sadie Collett being 37 years old. Their three children were Edgar Collett aged eight years one month, Constance Collett aged six years one month, and Minnie Collett who was four years and one month.
	65Q14			Nellie May Collett	Born in 1901 at Nicola Valley
	65Q15			James Edgar Collett	Born in 1903 at Nicola Lake
	65Q16			Lillian Collett	Born in 1905 in British Columbia
	65Q17			Albert Collett	Born in 1911 in British Columbia
65Q1	Edward Arthur Collett was born at Allan Park near Hanover in Grey County, Ontario on 21^st November 1888, the only child of Alfred George Collett and his first wife Ann Jane Smith. Following the death of his mother, four months after he was born, he and his father went to live with Edward’s grandparents at Bentinck where he was recorded as Arthur Collett aged two years in the census of 1891. Following his father marrying for a second time in 1898, neither father and son, nor his stepmother, have been identified within the census of 1901 or any census thereafter.
	Exactly ten years after the 1901 Census that Edward Arthur Collett married Jessie Anne Laura Smith on 15^th March 1911 at Spences Bridge in British Columbia (within the registration district of Kamloops), 40 miles north of Merritt and 50 miles west of Kamloops. Edward, a Presbyterian, was 22, a rancher and a bachelor from Allan Park, the son of Alfred George Collett and Jane Smith, while his bride was a spinster of 26 from Spences Bridge, the daughter of John Smith from Scotland. Jessie Anne Smith was born at Spences Bridge on 22^nd January 1885.
	Their marriage produced four children for the couple, with the first two born in Alberta and the last two born in British Columbia. While no date of death for Edward has so far been located, his wife Jessie Anne Laura Collett, nee Smith, passed away during 1965.
	New information unearthed in 2025 reveals that Edward had died sometime after the birth of the couple’s last child, and before June 1931. The census that month for the rural area of Burnaby (east of Vancouver) in New Westminster, British Columbia, included his widow and three of his four children. They were living at the rented home of widower Thomas Read from Ontario of English parents, who was 48 and a carpenter in house building, 2825 Sprott Street. Jessie Anne Collett aged 47 of Scottish parents, but born in British Columbia, was working as the housekeeper for a private family. Her three children were Alfred Collett who was 15 and born in Alberta, daughter Jesse Collett who was 14 and a student born in British Columbia, as was Lloyd Collett who was 13, a student, also born in British Columbia. Missing daughter Elsie may have been married by then, although no record of her at all has been found.
	65R1			Elsie Collett	Born in 1913 in Alberta
	65R2			Alfred John Collett	Born in 1915 in Alberta
	65R3			Jesse Collett	Born in 1916 in British Columbia
	65R4			Lloyd Collett	Born in 1917 in British Columbia
65Q2	George Henry Collett was born at Nicola on 3^rd March 1899 the first child of Alfred George Collett by his second and much younger wife Christina Schwartz nee Voght. In the census of 1901, he was still living at Nicola with his family when, as George Collett, he was two years old. On 2^nd June 1917 unmarried George, a teamster, enlisted with the army and signed his attestation papers on that day which also confirmed his father Alfred as his next-of-kin. Four years later George Henry Collett was 22 and a lodger at the home of the Rhodes family in Merritt where his widowed father was also residing at that time on 1^st June 1921.
	Just over two years after that George Henry Collett arrived in Seattle in the USA during September 1923, and it was on 18^th January 1926 in Los Angeles that he took up American citizenship. The Declaration form confirmed his date of birth as above, and that he was a metalworker who had been born at Merritt. His address that day was recorded as 1471 North 29^th Street in Los Angeles. He was still living in the Los Angeles area in 1930 when the census that year confirmed he was married with a two-year-old son. Around three years earlier he had married Mabel Butterfield who was born in Wyoming on 21^st July 1902, the daughter of Levi Barros Butterfield and Margaret Ann Peterson. George was 30 in 1930 and Mabel was 27. The following year, George was confirmed as living in America in his father’s obituary.
	In addition to their son Robert, the couple had another son whose details have not been revealed as he was still living in 2014. On the births of both boys, when their surname was recorded as Collette, their father was employed by the Reliable Mechanical Works in Los Angeles when he was an auto fender and body man in 1928, and an auto repair man in 1929.
	It was at Glendale in Los Angeles that the family was residing in 1940 when George Collett was 41, Mabel Collett was 37, Robert Collett was 11, and Clarence Cllett was 10. The Military Draft Registration form 1940-1947 was completed by George Henry Collett when he was 42 years of age when he was residing at 3504 Las Palmas, Glendale, Los Angeles, California, who was employed by Savage Halderman (Motor Factors) of Los Angeles. His wife Mabel Collett of the same address was named as his next-of-kin. In 1950, when George was 40 years old, he was an auto metal repair man with an auto repair shop.
	Twenty years after that, the elderly couple was still living at 3504 Las Palmas Avenue with George working as a (motor) mechanic in 1960. Sixteen years later the death of George Henry Collett was recorded in Los Angeles on 13^th November 1976, after which he was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills. Mabel Collett nee Butterfield remained a widow until her death in Glendale on 22^nd February 1990 at the age of 87, and it must have been after that when a memorial plaque was erected which also included the name of the eldest son. It is unclear at this time as to who Helen P Hick was, whose name is also listed.
	65R5			Robert George Collett	Born in 1928 at Los Angeles, USA
	65R6			Clarence Arthur Collett	Born in 1929 at Los Angeles, USA
65Q3	Baden Richard Collett was born at Nicola in British Columbia on 12^th April 1900, the second son of Alfred and Christina Collett. It was simply as Baden Collett aged eleven months that he was living with his family at Nicola in the March census of 1901. Tragically, he was only nineteen years old when he died at Merritt in British Columbia on 16^th September 1919 when he was recorded as Baden Richie Collett. The cause of death was the rupture of his appendix (appendicitis).
65Q4	Joseph Davidson Collett was born at Nicola Valley on 12^th August 1902 and was eight years old in the Yale & Cariboo census of 1911. Ten years later, at the age of 18, he was living with his aunt and uncle in Nicola. Less than three years after that Joseph arrival at Portal in North Dakota, USA during January 1924 when he was 21. That same year he settled in Davenport, Scott County in Iowa, where he was also residing at the time of the census in 1925, by which time he was 22 and working as a renter. He was still living there in 1928, but thereafter he moved to Los Angeles where he lived in a YMCA hostel. His move to America was also confirmed in the 1931 obituary for his father.
	A later move for Joe D Collett from British Columbia took him to Illinois, and Moline City, Rock Island, where he was lodging in 1940 at 714 17^th Street, the home of the Burke family. Joe was 37 and from Canada who was employed at a retail cigar store. When he completed the Military Draft Registration form on 16^th February 1942 at Moline, Joe D Collett provided the following information. Firstly, that he was still living at 714 17^th Street, when he gave the name of Mrs William Burke of that address as someone who would know where he resided. At that time, he was unemployed at the age of 39 and had been born in British Columbia, Canada.
	It was also at Moline that he was still living when he died on 20^th January 1960 at the age of 57, after which Joseph Davidson Collett was buried at Riverside Cemetery in Moline.
65Q5	Charles Alfred Collett was born at Nicola Valley in May 1903, almost exactly nine months after the birth of his older brother Joseph (above). He was the fourth son of Alfred and Christina Collett and as Charles A Collett he was seven years old in the Merritt City, Nicola Valley census of 1911. Just over four months prior to becoming a married man, his father died, with Charles named in his obituary as still living in Merritt. He was 27 years old when he was married by licence to Ada Waller at Vancouver on 19^th July 1931, when Charles Alfred Collett was confirmed as the son of Alfred G Collett and Christina Voight. Ada was only 19 and was the daughter of Edward Waller and Ellen Pearson from England, and had been born at Calgary in Alberta during 1912. It was at Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, where Charles Alfred Collett died on 5^th July 1987, at the age of 84. It is unclear whether, or not, they ever had any children.
65Q6	Frederick Voght Collett was born at Lower Nicola in British Columbia on 18^th July 1905 and was the third child of Alfred Collett and Christina Voght. His birth was registered by his father at Kamloops on 25^th October 1905 (Ref. 92325-185), and he was five years old in the City of Merritt census of 1911. Frederick was only nineteen years old when he was married by licence (no. 84652) to Melvina Nell Chartrand on 12^th August 1924 at Keremeos in British Columbia. The marriage certificate gave his age as 22 and his occupation as truck driver, and that he was a bachelor and a Presbyterian. He was residing in Merritt at the time, which was also noted as the place of his birth.
	His bride was a widow of 25, also of Merritt, who was a housekeeper who had been born at Taloga in Dewey County, Oklahoma, the daughter of Leonard William Brand and Marguerite Lottie Palmer. The witnesses were Goldie Brand and Margaret Lottie Mallory. She had first married Archie (Jack) Chartrand, who was born at Ceder in Quebec circa 1861, during the month of December in 1914, with whom she had three children; Adolph, Elma, and May. On Saturday 25^th February 1922 Jack Chartrand was murdered by his ‘friend’ and nearest neighbour George Maclure.
	Reported in the Herald Newspaper during the following week, it appears Maclure travelled to Chartrand’s ranch that afternoon and shouted “you have been murmuring about me for long enough” before firing and hitting Chartrand twice. Jay Shivel was helping Chartrand at the time of the murder and, upon seeing Shivel, Maclure aimed his gun at Shivel exclaiming “you’re in this”. Shivel ran for the house and warned Mrs Chartrand and the children to get out of harm’s way. Maclure followed Shivel into the house where he managed to knock the gun out of the way before he could fire it. A fight ensued where Shivel was outmatched, but once Maclure was able to reclaim his gun he ran out of the house to his horse and escaped, but was arrested the next day, and was later transferred to an insane asylum.
	Melvina ended up selling Chartrand’s ranch and two years later moved to Merritt when she marry Fred Collett. Chartrand Creek, also sometimes known as Jack Creek was named after Chartrand, and . Chartrand Avenue in Logan Lake is also named in his honour, one of the only roads not named after a mineral or gem in that community.
	Fred’s two older brothers George, and Joseph, both left Canada to start a new life in America, and it was perhaps by their example, and persuasion from his American wife, that resulted in the couple arriving in Oroville in Washington just six weeks after their wedding day. However, their time in America was short-lived when they returned to British Columbia where their son and daughter was born. It was within the obituary for his father in 1931 that Frederick was referred to as Fred, one of three sons still living in Merritt, with George and Joseph (above) both confirmed as already living in America by that time.
	It was only two years after the death of his father, that Frederick Voght Collett died at Nicola Valley General Hospital in Merritt on 24^th November 1933 at the age of 28. His death certificate confirmed that he was married, the son of Alfred Collett and Christina Voght, and that the cause of death was nephritis resulting from lead poisoning, possibly associated with his work as a mill hand. Judging by the photograph above, Frederick was a member of the Canadian military at sometime during his short life.
	Melvina Nell Collett – known as Vi, formerly Chartrand, nee Brand, who was born on 25^th February 1900 at Taloga, Dewey County, Oklahoma, later married John C Phelan on 20^th November 1952 at Skagit Valley in Washington State. After thirty-three years together Melvina Nell Phelan died on 30^th November 1985 with her death recorded at Spokane, Spokane County, Washington, when her place of residence was reported as Okanogan, north-west of Spokane, with her body laid to rest at Pines Cemetery in Spokane Valley. An alternative internet source, while providing the same names and dates of birth and death, suggest that Vi died at Puyallup, Pierce County in Washington, and was buried at Woodbine Cemetery in Puyallup, some three-hundred-miles west of Spokane Valley.
	65R7			Frederick Alfred Collett	Born in 1926 at Hedley, British Columbia
	65R8			Jane (Janie) Collett	Born at Hedley in British Columbia
65Q7	William Clement Collett, who was known as Clem, was born at Merritt City in Nicola Valley on 1^st May 1911 and was listed as being only one month old in the June census that year. He was final child of Alfred George Collett and his second wife Christina Schwartz nee Voght. It was in his father’s obituary in 1931 that he was named simply as Clement one of five surviving sons when, prior to this being discovered, it was thought the C in his name may have been a reference to his father’s mother-in-law’s maiden-name of Clema. At that time in 1931, Clement, and older brothers Charles and Fred, were still residing in Merritt City, with brothers Joseph and George having already emigrated to America.
	It was during the following year when 22-year-old Clement Collette, as a member of the crew, sailed onboard the ship Hollywood from the Port of Vancouver BC, to the Port of Townsend, Seattle in King County, Washington, USA, arriving there of 18^th December 1932. The crew list recorded the he was the only cadet on the ship, and had started his employment with the company on 12^th August 1932. His family previously confirmed that after the death of his father in 1931, Clem emigrated to America and settled in Eugene, Lane County in Oregon, where he was recorded in the US Census of 1950.
	By then, as Clem Collett, he was a married man with a wife and a son. They were residing at East 15^th Street, the only residence on that street and the home of divorced Californian Tommy A Williams the owner and manager of a flower shop and greenhouse. Curiously, Clem Collett from Canada was described as “partner” who was 38 and working as a splitter on a lathe at a sawmill. His (first) wife was Elna Collett from Oregon who was 31, and their son Bobbey Collett from Canada was ten years old and a naturalised American, unlike his father.
	The later death of Clem Collett was recorded at Lane County in Oregon on 16^th August 1980 at the age of 69, when his date of birth was confirmed as above, but named his (second) wife as Mable, with Clem named as Clem Car Collette. It was as Clem C Collette that he was buried at Springfield Memorial Gardens, just east of Eugene. Seven other Colletts were named on the same list and they were: Mabel Fer Collett born 1881 died 14^th January 1971 – wife of Ralph Collett; Ella J Collette born 1886 died 21^st March 1974 – wife of Joseph Collette; Ivy Bea Collett born 1899 died 28^th October 1971 at Eugene – wife of Archie Collett; Ray Collett born 1906 died 24^th June 1976 – husband of Marie Collett; Martin J Collet born 29^th October 1906 died 22^nd June 1978; Marie Collett born 1908 died 18^th April 1976 – wife of Ray Collett; and Mary Lou Collette born 4^th April 1912 died 22^nd January 1978 – wife of Dean Collette.
	65R9			Robert Clement Collett	Born in July 1939 in Canada
65Q8	Mary Margaret Collett was born at Ontario on 27^th May 1883, the only known child of Edward Collett and Helen (Ellen) Hunter. Her father has not been identified in the census of 1891 when Mary, aged eight years, and her mother were staying with Mary’s maternal grandparents in Bentinck. Furthermore, her father had died by the time of the next census in 1901, as Mary Collett aged 18 was still living at Bentinck in West Grey, Grey County, Ontario, with her widowed mother Helen who was 45. Also recorded at the same address was Mary maternal grandmother Margaret Hunter from Scotland who was 81. It was over twelve years later, when was thirty years old, that Mary Margaret Collett married James Frederick Donald on 10^th September 1913 at Souris in Manitoba. She was ten days short of her 52^nd birthday, when Mary Margaret Collett Donald died on 17^th May 1935 in Souris, Brandon County, Manitoba, after which she was buried at Souris Glenwood Cemetery. The registration of her death confirmed that her father was Edward Collett, that her mother was Ellen Hunter, and that her husband was James F Donald.
65Q10	Henry Edward Collett, who was known as Harry, was born at Quilchena near the city of Merritt on the south shore of Nicola Lake on 29^th March 1899, the son of John Henry Collett and Caroline Mary Lobsinger. On 11^th June 1924 Henry Edward Collett, a bachelor aged 25, married Victoria Jean Bishop Coles, a spinster of 22, at Merritt. The groom’s parents were confirmed as John Henry Collett and Caroline M Lobsinger. The bride was the daughter of John Langdon Coles and Mary Elizabeth Malcolm, who had been born at Greenwood in British Columbia. Henry Edward Collett was 86 when he died at Vancouver on 4^th November 1985, the husband of Jean Victoria B Coles who survived him by four years when she passed away on 11^th February 1989. The death of Jean Victoria Collett nee Coles at the age of 87 was recorded in Vancouver.
65Q11	Mary Irene Collett, who was known as Polly, was born at Quilchena on 23^rd January 1901 the daughter of John (Jack) Henry Collett and Caroline Lobsinger. She was just eight years old when she died on 13^th February 1909 at Collett Ranch in what was later the township of Collettville. A memorial gravestone marks the plot where she was buried with the inscription “Mary Irene beloved daughter of J H & C Collett Jan 23 1901 – Feb 13 1909”.
65Q12	Another Collett daughter was born to Jack and Caroline Collett, their third child, who was born at Quilchena on 15^th November 1906. Tragically the child only survived for four days, when its death from jaundice was recorded on 19^th November 1906.
65Q13	JOHN ALLAN COLLETT was born at Merritt on 31^st October 1911 and was the fourth child of John Henry (Jack) Collett and Caroline Lobsinger. He entered school just as the world was recovering from the First World War and graduated from Merritt High School as the world entered a shattering international depression. He was recorded with his parents in the Merritt census of 1921. In April 1932, when Allan Collett was twenty-one years old, the city was placed in receivership by the Province, its Council replaced by an appointed commissioner. Allan then witnessed, at close hand, the subsequent nineteen years in receivership, after Merritt had failed to make good the Pine Mill bonds it guaranteed in 1928.
	Up until late 1951, Allan Collett worked with the local Board of Trade and Civic Improvement League to make the best of a bad hand. He was in the forefront of those calling for a return to self-government in the late forties, but was told by Provincial officials that the city had to be free of all capital debt before reversion, and that was calculated to take place on 2^nd January 1954.
	The theme of his first election set the tone for every election Allan Collett would enter throughout his career in municipal politics. He advocated "caution in financial business” and said he would "make no promises of policy until the City was out of debt". The citizens of Merritt went to the polls on Thursday 3^rd December 1951 and, when the ballot papers were counted, Allan Collett was declared the winner with three times the vote of his erstwhile rival William Barton.
	When he finally retired from civic politics, after twenty-three years of unexcelled leadership, his fellow council members - those who had worked with him and others who had opposed him - were unanimous in the decision to declare him a Freeman of the Town and name him Honorary Mayor, the first and only time in Merritt's history the honor has been granted.
	At the ceremony, speaker after speaker lauded Allan Collett's accomplishments in and out of office, with the School District's Superintendent, McPhee, coming up with one of the more unusual compliments when he referred to Mayor Collett as "the Gordie Howe of Municipal Government”. John Allan Collett's life encompassed much more than civic politics; he was one of the province's premier athletes in his younger years, a devoted husband and father, and a dedicated rancher.
	He was married to Gloria Edith Morrissey (born on 17^th October 1917; died during 1998) at Merritt on 22^nd December 1939 with whom he had two sons and a daughter, the youngest son suffering an early death at the age of 44. It was just two years after the death of his youngest son in 1990 that John Allan Collett senior passed away, while a patient in Nicola Valley General Hospital, on 9^th February 1992 when he was survived by the following members of his family:
	His wife Gloria Edith Collett, his daughter Caroline Pound, and her two children Teresa Pound and Anne Pound, his son John Collett junior, and his three children Paula Collett, Michael Collett and Johnny Collett, and his two great grandchildren by his grandson Johnny, David Lloyd Collins, and Jennifer Rose Collins.
	The Will of John Allan Collett was made on 9^th October 1991 and was admitted to probate on 1^st September 1992, seven months after his death, when the executors were named as his wife Gloria, his daughter Caroline and William Henry Grayson, an accountant. During the following year his son John Allan Collett brought a Wills variation action which resulted in the Will be varied by Mr Justice Hunter on 15^th February 1993. The variation occurred at Kamloops Registry (No. 19639) when John was named as the plaintiff, with the defendants listed as his mother Gloria, his sister Caroline, William Henry Grayson, Teresa Pound, Anne Pound, Paula Collett, Michael Collett and Johnny Collett.
	At that time the estate was valued at around Three Million Dollars and in April 1993 some of the assets of the estate were sold resulting in a significant amount of money being available. Also, that same month, John’s widow requested a capital distribution of One Million Dollars be paid out to Caroline ($250,000), John ($250,000) and $100.000 to each of Paula, Michael, Johnny, Teresa, and Anne. In January 1994 the estate made loans to Caroline ($150,000), and $60,000 to each of Michael, Teresa, and Paula. Each of them signed a loan agreement, while John and Johnny did not apply for a loan, with John objecting to the loan procedure.
	Matters then came to a head later that same year when first Johnny passed away on 16^th February 1994, followed by Michael who died on 5^th November 1994 whose daughter Paige Collett-Arduini was born during May 1995. When Gloria Edith Collett died on 25^th June 1998 the residue of her late husband’s estate was to be divided into two shares, one for her two surviving children Caroline and John, the other to be equally divided between Teresa, Anne, Paula, David and Jennifer, and Michael’s daughter Paige.
	Four years earlier, proceedings were commenced on 26^th July 1994 by executor William Henry Grayson regarding the management and administration of the assets of the estate by John Allan Collett junior. John had dealt with the sale of some of the cattle and the parties could not agree on the accounting for that sale. On 13^th March 1995 the court ordered a trial to look in to the issue of the sale of assets. Over four years after that the matter was again raised in court on 30^th August 1999 when a consent order was made that day.
	It was hoped that the dispute would finally be settled in the Supreme Court of British Columbia at Kamloops on 18^th October 2000 presided over by The Honourable Mr Justice R E Powers, with his final ruling being made six days later, on 26^th October 2000. However, that was not the end of the matter, the details of which were eventually completed during 2012 when the remaining funds were presented to the court appointed Judicial Trustee. In 2015 John’s granddaughter Paula Anne Collett (Ref. 65S3) in Alberta, wrote to the Mayor of the City of Merritt, British Columbia, with her letter later published by the council in the Merritt Herald on 1^st October 2015. Whilst no formal reply was ever received, Paula was very pleased when, on 24^th May 2018, the following was recorded under the headline “Charters Street Properties Reserved for Biodiversity Purposes.” To view the full details, go to Ref. 65S3.
	65R10	Gloria Caroline Collett				Born circa 1940 at Merritt
	65R11	JOHN ALLAN COLLETT				Born in 1943 at Merritt
	65R12	Henry Edward Collett				Born in 1946 at Merritt
65Q14	Nellie May Collett was born at Nicola Valley on 15^th September 1901 just three months after her parents were married, with her birth registered at Nicola Lake. She was baptised at Lytton, the daughter of Charles Dealbert Collett and Elizabeth Beatrice McKitrick. Tragically, she was 13 years of age when she died at Merritt on 28^th September 1914 when she was confirmed as the child of Charles D Collett and Bessie McKitrick. The cause of death was a kidney infection, as reported by her mother in 1947 just after Nellie’s father passed away.
65Q15	James Edgar Collett was born at Nicola Lake on 10^th November 1903 and it was at Lower Nicola where his parents Charles and Bessie were married two years earlier. His birth was also registered at Nicola Lake like that of his sister Nellie (above). In the Skeena, British Columbia census of 1931, James Edgar Collett was the only person living at Charlotte Lake, in a property he owned, where he was 27 and a stock rancher. He never married and it was at Merritt that the death of James Edgar Collett was recorded on 6^th February 1962 at the age of 58, when he was buried at Lower Nicola Cemetery as Edgar J Collett. Sometime after that, his mother submitted an article to the Merritt Newsletter for the Historical Work Paper page, in which she stated that prior to his death, he had a ranch at Anahim Lake, British Columbia.
65Q16	Lillian Collett was born was in British Columbia during 1905, another daughter of Charles and Bessie Collett. The family moved to Merritt in 1919, where her father died in 1947 and her brother Edgar (above) in 1962. By that time Lillian was married and had given birth to two children. Before her mother died in 1978, she had written a brief article for the local Merritt newsletter regarding her life and family. In this, she reported that one of Lillian’s children had already passed away, with the other having two children of her own, one of which was living in Calgary. The other child (grandchild) was still living with her mother at the Merritt home of Lillian’s mother at the time of writing.
65Q17	Albert Collett was born in British Columbia during 1911, the fourth and last child of Charles Dealbert Collett and Elizabeth Beatrice McKitrick. In the Canadian census for 1931, Albert Collett was 20 and working for a newspaper as a printer when he was the only child still living with his parents at 51 Nicola Avenue in Merritt. According to his mother many years later, Albert was the youngest linotype operator in BC at one time who, at the time of writing midway between 1962 and 1978, was retired and living in Courtenay, British Columbia. He was still residing in Courtenay when Albert died on 18^th December 1989
65R2	Alfred John Collett was born in British Columbia on 17^th August 1915, the son of Edward Arthur Collett and Jesse Anne Laura Smith. It was on 25^th April 1936 at Maillardville in British Columbia that he married Marcella Sara Madden, with their only known child being born later that same year. Marcella was born at Thief River Falls in Minnesota on 24^th December 1913. On 23^rd April 1939 the family of three was recorded crossing the boundary line between Canada and the USA, when Alfred’s place of birth was stated as being Alberta. The purpose of that ‘visit’ is not known, but it is established that the family later returned to Canada and settled in New Westminster, BC. The next record confirms that Alfred enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force at the start of the Second World War and saw active service in Europe, during which he lost his life.
	Pilot Officer and Air Gunner Alfred John Collett of the RCAF, service number J/89954, was stationed at RAF Binbrook in England with No. 460 Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was just short of his twenty-ninth birthday when he was killed in action near Paris on 11^th June 1944, following which he was buried at Viroflay New Communal Cemetery just west of Versailles – Grave 23, Row B. His premature death happened when his aircraft, a Lancaster Bomber, was flying towards Paris during a night raid and tragically collided with overhead high-tension lines, resulting in the loss of all crew members. At that time, his home address was 232 Blue Mountain Road in New Westminster, British Columbia. His widow survived him by fifty-four years when Marcella Sara Collett nee Madden died on 7^th August 1998.
	No. 460 Squadron was formed at Molesworth, Huntingdonshire, on 15th November 1941, as a bomber squadron equipped with Wellington aircraft. Originally part of No. 8 Group, it moved and transferred to Breighton, Yorkshire, and No. 1 Group early in January 1942, and began operations on 12/13^th March. In September 1942, the squadron "stood down" to re-equip with Halifax Bombers, but in October it began to re-arm with Lancaster Bombers instead. In May 1943 the squadron moved to Binbrook in Lincolnshire, where it remained based until July 1945.
	65S1		Coleen Collett				Born in 1936 in British Columbia
65R5	Robert George Collett was born at 3121 Montclair in Los Angeles on 9^th July 1928, the eldest son of George Henry Collett and Mabel Butterfield of Wyoming, when the surname was recorded as Collette. The birth certificate also gave the father age as 29, his place of birth as Merritt, British Columbia, Canada, and his occupation as an auto fender and body man at Reliable Mechanical Works, in Los Angeles. Mabel was 25 and a housewife from Wyoming. Robert was one year and nine months old in the Glendale, Los Angeles census of 1930 and was 11 in the census of 1940 when living with his family at 3504 Las Palmas Avenue in Glendale, where his parents continued to live through the 1940, 1950, and 1960s. He was still living with his family in 1950 when Robert was 21 and a supply man at the same utility telephone company as his younger brother (below).
	Robert George Collett was married twice, the first time at Santa Barbara on 21^st January 1961, although the details of the bride have not been revealed. Then, thirteen years later, on 12^th June 1974, Robert was married in Los Angeles for the second time. On that occasion Robert was 46 and his bride (2) Viola was 49. However, the registration documentation contains two names for his new wife who may also have been married before, when she was jointly recorded as Viola M Newberry and Viola M Devore. Robert George Collett was still living in Los Angeles when he died on 14^th June 1984, his name appearing with those of his parents on a memorial plaque at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills.
65R6	Clarence Arthur Collett was born at the West Coast Maternity Hospital on 1425 Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles on 25^th November 1929, the son of George and Mabel Collett. His birth certificate included the Collette variation of the surname and confirmed the family resided at 5954 Cimarron Street in Los Angeles, when his father, aged 30, was an auto repair man with Reliable Mechanical Works. He was one year old in 1930, was 10 in the Glendale census of 1940, and by 1950 he and his family were living at 3504 Las Palmas Avenue in Glendale, when Clarence A Collett was 20 and a messenger with a utility telephone company where his older brother (above) was also employed. Just under three years after that Clarence Arthur Collette married Jean Marilyn McDonald at Los Angeles on 30^th January 1953, when his parents were confirmed as George Collett and Mabel Butterfield, while the bride’s parents were named as John McDonald and Laura Greenlee.
	The marriage certificate provided other details, including that the groom was residing at the family home at 3504 Las Palmas Avenue in Glendale, Los Angeles, with the bride’s address being 1518 Kenneth Road in Glendale.
65R7	Frederick Alfred Collett was born at Hedley in British Columbia on 31^st May 1926, the son of Frederick Voght Collett and Melvina Chartrand, nee Brand. Frederick Alfred Collett married Dorothy Arlene Dugas at the United Church in Princeton, BC, on 6^th July 1947. The registration of their wedding included the following information. The groom was described as a mill worker and a mine crusher aged 21 and a bachelor residing at Hedley, where he was born the son of Frederick Vought Collett of Merritt, and Melvina Nell Brand of Taloga in Oklahoma. The bride was described as a spinster of 23 who was a stenographer of 1435 Richardson Street in Victoria, British Columbia who was born at Regina, Saskatchewan, the daughter of Albert Francis Dugas and Gertrude Frances Marriot. The witnesses were Edna May Mansfield and Kenneth Davidson Mansfield.
	After twenty years together, Frederick suffered a premature death at the age of only 41, when Frederick Alfred Collett died at Glen Lake, Vancouver Island, British Columbia on 22^nd October 1967 and was buried at Hatley Memorial Gardens in Colwood on 26^th October 1967. The registration of his passing included the following details. It was at 2677 Sooke Road in Glen Lake that he died, and had been living in Glen Lake for the previous seventeen years. His date of birth at Hedley was confirmed as above, who had been a lift truck driver with the British Columbia Forest Products Limited, where he had worked for seventeen years, up until 20^th October 1967. The informant of his passing was his cousin G Paterson of 2152 Beacon Avenue, Sidney, British Columbia. Because he died from a sudden collapse, an inquiry was conducted by a coroner who determined the cause of death was a myocardial infarction. He was survived by his wife Dorothy Arlene Dugas, and was confirmed as the son of Frederick Collett and Melvina Brand.
65R9	Robert Clement Collett was born in Canada on 22^nd July 1939, the only known child of William Clement (Clem) Collett and his first wife Elna. His first appearance was in the Eugene, Lane County, Oregon census of 1950 when he was Bobbey Collett aged 10 years, living with his parents at East 15^th Street. The next record of him has him living at Springfield from 1985 to 1995, and from May in 1997 he was living at Pleasant Hill, Lane County in Oregon. As recently as 2017, as Robert C Collett senior, he was again residing in Springfield, which indicates that he had been, or was still, a married man, the father of Robert C Collett junior. It was during the summer of 1996 that his son Robert Carl Collett was living at Junction City in Oregon who, in his forties was a resident of Springfield, and was living in Eugene by 2016.
	65S2		Robert Carl Collett junior				Born on 29^th May 1960 at Eugene
65R10	Gloria Caroline Collett was born at Merritt around 1940, the first child of John Allan Collett and Gloria Edith Morrissey, who is known within the family as Caroline. She married John Pound with whom she has two daughters Teresa Pound and Gloria Anne Pound who is known as Anne. In 2014 Caroline Pound and her married daughter Teresa Grieg were residing at Big Valley in Alberta.
65R11	JOHN ALLAN COLLETT junior was born at Merritt on 7^th July 1943, the son of John Allan Collett and Gloria Edith Morrissey. It was in the early 1960s that he married Arlene Atkinson who was born on 17^th January 1943 and their marriage produced a daughter and two sons. However, while they were still married John had an affair with Arlene’s best friend, the outcome of which was the birth of another daughter. That child, Pamela Theile, only discovered who her father was when she was fifteen years old and they met for the first time around 1999. It was around three years earlier that John and Arlene were divorced, following which Arlene reverted to her maiden-name and currently lives in Merritt. Once they were divorced John had a further relationship with Maricel Loquino from the Philippines which produced another daughter, Katrina Alexi Loquino born in 2005, whose name was changed to Collett following his death three years later, by which time John and Maricel had parted company. Both Maricel and Katrina were named in his obituary. At the time of the death of John Allan Collett in 2008 his two sons had already passed away, as had his brother Casey (below) and his parents. His obituary (below) was published on the In-Memoriam website:
	“John Allan Collett passed away suddenly and peacefully on Monday 17^th November 2008 at Vancouver General Hospital. He was surrounded by his loving family at the time of his passing. John was born into a prominent pioneering family to Allan and Gloria [nee Morrissey] Collett on 7^th July 1943. John was known for his athletic ability and enjoyed baseball, track and field and Rodeo. He was president of the Nicola Valley Rodeo Association for many years. He was part of the ranching community, to which he dedicated the majority of his life. Later John sold the Collett Ranch and began a new way of life, which included travelling the world and meeting his companion Maricel Loquino in the Philippines. John is survived by Maricel Loquino of the Philippines, sister Caroline Pound of Big Valley in Alberta, daughters Paula Collett of Canmore in Alberta, Pamela Ferman of Vancouver and Katrina Loquino of the Philippines, his grandchildren: Corey Collett, Jennifer, and David Collins, Paige Collett-Arduini, nieces, Teresa Grieg [nee Pound] and Anne Pound; cousins Kerry Morrissey, Mark Pooley, Lisa Leduc, Sue Berkes, and Carmen Ross. John was predeceased by his loving parents Allan and Gloria Collett, brother Casey Collett; two sons John Collett and Michael Collett, and grandson Kyle Kramb. John was a kind and generous man. His smile and hearty laugh will be truly missed.” The funeral service took place at the Sacred Heart Church on Jackson Avenue in Merritt at 11 a.m. on Saturday 22^nd November 2008.
	65S3		Paula Anne Collett				Born in 1964
	65S4		JOHN ALLAN COLLETT				Born in 1965
	65S5		Michael David Collett				Born in 1969
	The following is the daughter of John Allan Collett from a liaison with Helen Theile:
	65S6		Pamela Theile				Date of birth unknown
	The following is the daughter of John Allan Collett by Maricel Loquino:
	65S7		Katrina Alexi Collett - formerly Loquino				Born on 25.11.2005 at Bacolod City in the Philippines
65R12	Henry Edward Collett, who was known as Casey, was born at Merritt during 1946, the youngest of the three children of John Allan Collett and Gloria Edith Morrissey. At the time of the death of his brother John Allan Collett (above) in 2008 Henry Edward Collett was referred to as “Casey Collett the predeceased brother of John Allan Collett”, with Henry having died in 1990.
65S3	Paula Anne Collett was born on 26^th August 1964, the eldest of the three children of John Allan Collett and Arlene Atkinson. Her partner Dale Ernest Kramb was the father of both of her children, although the birth of their son Corey, who was born on 7^th October 1986, was registered using the Collett surname. Their second child, Kyle Dale Kramb, who was born on 5^th July 1989, sadly died on 7^th April 1997. It was just over one year after the tragedy that Paula and Dale went through a separation during May 1998. At the time of the death of her father in 2008 his obituary stated that Paula Collett was living at Canmore in Alberta, while by 2014 Paula and her son Corey were together and residing at Airdrie in Alberta. It is thanks to Paula that this family line was extended in 2014, 2018, and again in 2025 when the previously known but unplaced Janie Collett was confirmed as born at Hedley in British Columbia, whose mother was Melvina Nell Collett, formerly Chartrand, nee Brand.
	In 2015 Paula Anne Collett was in Alberta when she wrote to the Mayor of the City of Merritt, British Columbia, with her letter later published by the council in the Merritt Herald on 1^st October 2015. Whilst no formal reply was ever received, Paula was very pleased when, on 24^th May 2018, the following was recorded under the headline “Charters Street Properties Reserved for Biodiversity Purposes”
	City of Merritt approving plans for "Colletts Island" Nature Sanctuary. The park dedication bylaw approved at Tuesday's regular meeting will ensure 2801, 2802 and 2807 Charters Street stay reserved for biodiversity conservation purposes. Councillor Deanna Norgaard was very happy to recognize one of Merritt's oldest families in the process. She said "They were very important in this valley for many, many years. This is their tract of land that we are putting forward. And, I think we need to acknowledge the Collett family for all they have done for the valley." Unsuitable for development, 2801, 2802 and 2807 Charters St were purchased by the City of Merritt in August of 2015, at a cost of $75,000. Paula’s original letter read as follows:
	Dear Mayor Menard and council members, I would like to extend my sincere thank you and gratitude on behalf of my surviving family, regarding the decision made to purchase the Charters Street lots in Merritt, BC also known as the island. The island is one of the remaining properties that form part of my late father’s estate, John Allan Collett. My father purchased this land from my grandfather’s estate in the 90s with hopes of developing this into a park. Unfortunately, he passed away before he could see this happen. The good news is this little piece of property has been an untouched located in the middle of Merritt. In 1949 an agreement was made between my grandfather and the City of Merritt. My grandfather gave some of his land to the city to divert the Nicola River, to prevent flooding of Merritt. In exchange, and because this created a piece of my grandfather’s land to become an island, the city would provide a five ton bridge across for access to the property.
	Thankfully this never proceeded and as a result this unblemished property is home to hundreds of birds. During the 30s and 40s, my grandfather spent many years working hard to pull Merritt out of receivership. In November 1951, Merritt returned to a self-governing community. My grandfather continued his leadership for the next 23 years as mayor. When he retired, his council members voted “Allan Collett a freeman of the town” and named him honorary mayor – the first and only time in Merritt’s history the honour has been granted.
	I am attaching an article written by a former reporter of the Merritt Herald published when my grandfather passed away in 1992. It is my deepest hopes that your Worship Mayor Menard and council members will dedicate this wildlife sanctuary in memory of Allan John who, as Mr Evans-Cockle reported, “Mayor Allan Collett was a definite force in the growth and development of Merritt”.
	65T1		Corey Michael Collett				Born in 1986
65S4	JOHN ALLAN COLLETT, who was known as Johnny, was born on 29^th November 1965, the second child of John Allan Collett and his wife Arlene Atkinson. During the latter half of the 1980s John took Gina Rose Collins to be his common law wife and together they had two children, but separated two years after the birth of the second child in September 1992. Jennifer Rose Collins, who graduated and received her Bachelor of Social Work in May 2013, was born on 17^th September 1988 and David Lloyd Collins, who is in his final year in 2014 to receive his red seal in carpentry at Thompson Rivers University, was born on 27^th June 1990. Two years after the separation John Allan Collett who battled with schizophrenia suffered a premature death at the age of 29, when he died on 16^th February 1994.
65S5	Michael David Collett was born on 2^nd April 1969 the youngest of the three children of John Allan Collett and Arlene Atkinson. Like his brother John (above), Michael was also very young when he died on 5^th November 1994, just nine months after the death of his brother. However, prior to his passing he had a relationship with Theresa Arduini out of which was born his daughter Paige Michaela Collett Arduini who was born on 26^th May 1995, under seven months from the death of his father. Paige later changed her name to Paige Michael Collett Arduini and in 2014 was in her second year to obtain her business degree at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops.
65S6	Pamela Theile was the daughter of John Allan Collett and Helen Theile who, by the time of the death of her father in 2008, was referred to as “his daughter Pamela Ferman of Vancouver”.