Chilliwack's Placenames

Rexford

Mount Rexford

Mount Rexford is named after Trooper Douglas Milton Rexford.

Douglas Rexford was among the first men of the district to enlist during the Second World War. He came to Chilliwack in 1932 when his family decided leave Mission City, B.C. and return to the family farm on Vedder Mountain Road. He was well liked by his schoolmates in Sardis and many would recall his red hair and outgoing personality. Particularly adventuresome, he desired to experience everything the world had to offer. Apart from being a daredevil, Doug found time for lacrosse, hunting and fishing and operated his own trap line. Doug chose not to go on to high school and went to work at Eddies Nurseries where he was employed in previous summers. He was on occasion paid in plum trees that were taken home and planted on the family farm. On a visit to see his sister in Edmonton in September 1939, he attempted to join the Edmonton Regiment, but as his father informed the army that Doug was only 16, he was discharged in December 1939. In March 1940, he joined the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada and this time his father remained silent. Overseas Doug served with the 8th Reconnaissance Regiment as a despatch rider. Trooper Rexford was fatally injured in England, during a blackout night on December 15, 1941, when the motorcycle he was driving crashed into a truck (Ferguson, 2009).

In 1947, geographical features were named by an agency of the federal government, the Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographical names after receiving a list of names of Canadian servicemen from Chilliwack who were killed during the Second World War From Canada’s Department of National Defence. The names were divided by province and were to be assigned to geographical features close to the place of enlistment (Grainger, 1998, p.82).

Mount Rexford is located west of Chilliwack Lake about eight km south of Chilliwack Lake Road.

Photograph caption: Trooper Douglas Milton Rexford [Chilliwack Museum and Archives].