William Oke

William Austin Oke, Esquire (December 14, 1857[1] – February 24, 1923[2]) was a printer and politician in Newfoundland. He represented Harbour Grace in the Newfoundland House of Assembly for three terms, from 1897 to 1908, as a Liberal.[3]

The grandson of Robert Oke, the first Chief Inspector, Newfoundland Lighthouse Service, and the son of Edward Langdon Oke, II, William was born in Harbour Grace and was educated there. His father, a lighthouse keeper on Harbor Grace Island in Conception Bay,[3] drowned while crossing the ice in February 1862.[4] From the age of 13, William apprenticed as a printer with the Harbor Grace Standard and Conception Bay Advertiser.[5] In May 1888, he formed Munn & Oke with John F. Munn, editor, to continue publication of the Standard.[6]

On July 31, 1890, Oke married Sophia Lilla Snow[1] (b. January 1863,[7] d. June 11, 1938[8]), a high school teacher in Harbour Grace,[9] who became the first president of the local Women’s Patriotic Association during World War I and later was named an Officer in the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.[10] They raised two children, Annie Gladys Oke (1891 - 1974) who married Rev. Gordon Stewart Templeton, and Edward Langdon Oke, IV (1893 - 1966). By March 1909, Sophia Oke (as trustee for son Edward, a minor) and the estate of J. F. Munn were the publishers and proprietors of the Standard.[11]

Oke and five other candidates ran in a close election for the three Member House Assembly seats for the Harbour Grace District in 1908 but he was unsuccessful in seeking a fourth term.[12] From 1909 until his death in 1923, Oke served as one of the two District Court judges in Newfoundland (the District Court in Harbour Grace was abolished in 1935).[13] By 1913, Oke was appointed as a Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland, authorized to take affidavits for any cause pending in the Supreme Court and empowered to issue Original or Mesne Process.[14]

Locally, Oke served as a notary public and a justice of the peace. He was also on the Harbour Grace School Board,[15] was elected president of the Sons of England Benefit Society (Lodge Diamond Jubilee no. 236), participated as a member of the Masons,[3] and was a Trustee of Shannon Park.[16]

Oke died of meningitis in Harbour Grace in 1923.[2] At the time of his death, Oke's son, Edward, was the editor and proprietor of the Standard.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 House of Commons: And the Judicial Bench. 1916. p. 477.
  2. 1 2 "Vital Records Register of Deaths Harbour Grace District 1923 - 1926".
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Oke, William A". Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador. p. 160.
  4. ↑ "History". Town of Harbour Grace.
  5. ↑ "William A. Oke". The Newfoundland Quarterly 4 (2): 16, 18–19. October 1904.
  6. ↑ "Historical Directory of Newfoundland and Labrador Newspapers". Centre for Newfoundland Studies, Memorial University.
  7. ↑ "Pre 1891 Registration Records Harbour Grace District, Volume 44 Harbour Grace Area Church of England Baptisms 1860 – 1865". p. 44.
  8. ↑ "Deceased, Mrs. Sophia L Oke, O.B.E.". Harbor Grace. IN: Daily News. June 13, 1938. p. 10.
  9. ↑ "Happy Events in the 19th Century of Harbor Grace. Matrimonial 1845 – 1891". R. Connelly. Harbour Grace War Memorial Library.
  10. ↑ "Photographs". The Newfoundland Quarterly 8 (4): 4. April 1919.
  11. ↑ Harbor Grace Standard and Conception Bay Advertiser. Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador 2. St. John's: Newfoundland Book Publishers Ltd. 1984. p. 800.
  12. ↑ "Election Information for 1908". Legislative Library, House of Assembly, Newfoundland & Labrador.
  13. ↑ "Judiciary". Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador 3: 146. 1991.
  14. ↑ "Supreme Court". A Year Book and Almanac of Newfoundland: 1914: 174–175. 1913.
  15. ↑ Debrett's House of Commons. 1921. p. 468.
  16. ↑ "Shannon Park, Harbor Grace". The Newfoundland Quarterly 5 (4): 15–16. March 1906.
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