Life Events Timeline – Ruth Enke Chambers | The Marion Project

Predecessors

Ruth’s Life in Photos

Dates	Main Life Events
1910	Born on Galiano Island, British Columbia, Canada on December 5. Grandmother J.L. MacLaren was visiting from Manchester, England.
1912	Mother Marion Lejeune Enke travels with Ruth to Manchester, England and Eeclo, Belgium to show family. On their return just missed taking the Titanic which sank on April 15, 1912.
1913	Family moved to new architect designed custom home at 572 Island Road in the Gonzales area of Victoria, BC Canada. The farm on Galiano Island was retained and often visited.
1916	Brother Stephen Enke was born on July 15, 1916
1919 -1921	Max, Marion, Ruth and Stephen Enke departed for Belgium to visit the Enke side of the family there, staying at Oaklands, in Eeclo (home of Hermann Enke, grandfather to Ruth and Stephen), and to visit the Lejeune side of the family in Withington in the outskirts of Manchester (Jane-Louisa Lejeune, grandmother to Ruth and Stephen). During this period the Enke family stayed at 8 Burlington Road in Withington and Ruth attended Withington Girls School.
1921 -1924	Returned to Victoria and 572 Island Road. Attended Norfolk House. Summers spent in Victoria and on the Galiano Farm.
1924 -1929	To England, staying first with Jane Louisa Lejeune who had moved to 19 St. Loo Mansions in Chelsea and while there attended the Wembley Exhibition. Then off to boarding school at The Downs School, Sutton Road, Seaford, Sussex. During longer school breaks lived with paternal Uncle Peter and Aunt Isabel Armstrong at Pinehurst, Eeclo, next to Oaklands (Hermann Peter Enke changed his name to Peter Henry Armstrong during WW1 because of the fervent anti-German feelings in England where they sheltered during the war).
1929 -1930	Oxford for a term or two and then to Belgium
1930	With Max and Marion to Victoria to pack up 572 Island Road and ship the contents to Belgium as Max was to assume charge of the Eeclo factory. Moved into an Eeclo house and called it Trekweg (across the road from the towpath running alongside a canal).
1931 – 1934	November 1931 – Ruth, having decided not to stay in Europe but to return to Canada, boarded the Dinteldijk in Rotterdam December 5, 1931- celebrated 21st birthday in the Caribbean – Passed through the Panama Canal and up the west coast to California. December 13, 1931 – Met upon her arrival in Los Angeles by her maternal Uncle Arnold Lejeune. – After 3 months in California with Uncle Arnold and Auntie Gladys, was driven to Seattle and took the ferry to Victoria.
1934	Started the Library for Boys and Girls in a street level apartment on Newport Avenue in Oak Bay, Victoria, BC. Wrote a weekly article in the local paper in exchange for free advertising of her Library. The Library being open only in the afternoons, worked at the Oak Bay Library and Bookshop in the Windsor Block. Lived at 849 Burdette.
1935	Moved the Library for Boys and Girls to the Windsor Block. On the weekends visited friends at Cherry Point near Cowichan Bay. Met Lawrence Eldon Chambers
1937	June 5, 1937 – married Lawrence Chambers at the Law Courts in Victoria
1938	Moved to Ladysmith, BC to stay with Lawrence’s parents in house on Victoria Crescent (renamed to Dogwood Drive). Bought the next door house, on 4th Ave Extension, and lived there until 1952 move to 4317 Blenkinsop Road, Victoria, BC.
1938	November 13, 1938 – Birth of Russell Eldon Chambers at the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, BC
1938 – 1939	Marion (Lejeune) Enke, mother of Ruth, had come over from Belgium to be with Ruth for Russell’s birth and to see her son Stephen who was living and working in Victoria. The plan was that Marion would stay for two or three months. But because of the threatening events in Europe her stay was extended and, when war broke out, she took an apartment at #1 Cook Street where she remained until her husband Max Enke returned to Victoria (having stayed in Belgium, been interned from 1940-1945 in various prisons since he was a British citizen -see his story under Max Enke).
1940	January 1 – Stephen Enke marries Jean Sheriff in Helena, Montana
1941	December 7 – Pearl Harbour December 11 – Max Sieben Enke born in Helena, Montana [Father Stephen Enke, mother Jean (Sheriff) Enke]
1942	January 3 – Derek and Bruce Chambers born in Ladysmith, BC. Twins were completely unexpected. This was supposed to be a girl, to be name Judith Marion.
1942 – 1950	Ladysmith, BC See here for details. Wrote and sold short stories to various magazines as well as radio scripts to CBC Radio.
1951	In early months, Ruth and Lawrence traveled to England (train to Toronto and New York, Queen Mary to Southampton, Queen Elizabeth upon return). While in New York visited the New York Public Library.
1952	Bought property at 4317 Blenkinsop Rd, Victoria, BC to be farmed by Lawrence (Madrona Farm). Lived there until her death in 2002.
1954	Began writing first one a week and then, less than a month later, more often, a column for the Victoria Times called A Woman’s Outlook under the pen name Ruth Enke. Wrote for 6 years until headaches became unbearable
1961	January 13 – Ruth taken by ambulance to Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria suffering from a cerebral aneurysm and was in a coma for two weeks and partially paralyzed. Underwent a series of operations to remove a clot and to redirect blood vessels to bypass damaged area (an operation never before performed in Victoria). Her surgeons were Dr. J. Harvey and Dr Hiro Nishioka (with whom she stayed in touch annually for years afterwards). Because a portion of her skull was removed in order to access the damaged site Ruth subsequently said the title of her autobiography should be “A Hole in My Head”. November 21 – Mother Marion Lejeune Enke died at Royal Jubilee Hospital, Victoria, BC
1963	January – son Derek married Wendy Joan Diment (father Fred, mother Elizabeth) in Victoria, BC July 26 – Twin grandsons Mark and Bruce Chambers were born – first grandchildren for Ruth and Lawrence (father Derek, mother Wendy Joan)
1964	June 4 – visit to cousin Margaret (Margy) Armstrong and Uncle Peter Armstrong at Horam, Sussex, during which on the day following her arrival Ruth fell, cracking her pelvis in two places. Bedridden for the rest of her stay (left July 5). Saw Godfrey (brother to Margy) and his wife Denise (née Piron)
1966	May – son Bruce married Wendy Rona Le Mare in Quamachin, BC
1967	December 29 – son Russell Eldon married Maria Augusta Luchin in Trail, BC
1970	May 12 – Birth of twins Michael and Lea Chambers (father Russell, mother Mary)
1971	January 29 – father Max Enke died at Royal Jubilee Hospital, Victoria, BC (March 12, 1884 – January 29, 1971) July 30 – Birth of Lawrence Chambers (father Russell, mother Mary)
1972	February 26 – Birth of Morgan Chambers (father Bruce, mother Wendy Rona)
1974	June 1 – son Derek, having earlier divorced Wendy Joan, married Anne Molnar née Coleman in Kamloops, BC, acquiring step-children Paul and Jane Molnar September 21 – death of brother Stephen Enke in Palo Alto, CA
1975	June 19 – Birth of David Chambers (father Bruce, mother Wendy Rona)



1982	November 28 – Death of husband Lawrence in Royal Jubilee Hospital, Victoria, BC
1983	March 9 – Death of daughter-in-law Mary, wife of Russell, mother of Michael, Lea and Lawrence in Royal Inland Hospital, Kamloops, BC




2002	January 11 – Ruth died at her home, 4317 Blenkinsop Rd, Victoria BC, aged 91.