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James (Jimmy) Edward Aston

1886 - 1969

James (Jimmy) Aston was born in June 1886 at Five Acres, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England, and moved to Canada in 1908. A shoemaker by trade, Jimmy had a shop first in Cumberland and then on 5th Street in downtown Courtenay on Vancouver Island.

Jimmy Aston was always active in community affairs serving as one of Courtenay's first aldermen and he was a one-time member of the Municipal fire department. He also had a life-long interest in music. Prior to coming to Canada, he sang in one of the famous Welsh choirs, but once in the Comox Valley he became associated with the Comox Men's Musical Club where he met Sid Williams.

Jimmy loved the outdoors and following his retirement in 1946, spent much of his time hiking in the mountains, prospecting and exploring, quite often with his good friend Sid. Together they staked claims on the Forbidden Plateau hoping, as with any mineral prospector, that they would strike it rich. Below Strata Mountain, near Circlet Lake, he built a cabin with his friends Joe Ducca, Bruce McPhee and Sid Wlliams. This cabin became known as Sid's Cabin. Jimmy also worked on a claim in the Oyster River with another well-known local prospector Davey Jones. Jimmy had a unique way of finding gold and other precious metals. He had a pair of leather gloves which in the fingers of one glove he stashed samples of different metals and with a wand in hand he then walked around waving it over the ground, just the way a water deviner covers the ground searching for water under the surface. Jimmy also happened to be well versed with water devining, therefore, it didn't appear unusual for him to use this technique to find precious metals. In fact, he believed it worked like a charm, unfortunately, he could never lay claim to the fact that he had struck it rich from prospecting.

Jimmy Aston passed away at St. Joseph's General Hospital in Comox on April 9, 1969, at the age of eighty-two.

Sources:
Fisher, Betty. Personal Communication. 2006.

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