A Life Not Chosen

Dr Ethlyn Trapp was that woman, a Canadian medical pioneer in cancer care. She was the first radiotherapist in British Columbia and instrumental in the opening of the British Columbia Cancer Institute. This is the story of her life and not a medical treatise. A world traveller, she gained the respect and friendship of intellectuals, colleagues and children. A friend of Emily Carr, she named her home on the Capilano River in West Vancouver, Klee Wyck, in honour of her famous friend. The subsequent gift of the property to the municipality is just one example of her generosity. Never married, a youthful wartime love only revealed in correspondence half a century later with the words, "my life has been fortunate in so many ways - though not as I would have chosen."

Within seven years of leaving his native England, Thomas Trapp, Ethlyn's father, had crossed an ocean and a continent, sailed from California to Alaska, trekked to the interior of British Columbia and crossed the Rockies in winter. He worked as a ditch digger, prospected for gold, ranched and finally settled into a prosperous business career in New Westminster. In ten years from the age of 45 he fathered four sons and four daughters, one of whom died in infancy. Three boys, all pilots, were killed in the Great War. The story is that of a classic British Columbian pioneer family and a British Columbian woman too little remembered.