Ralph L.T. Chetwynd
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The Honorable Ralph L.T. Chetwynd (28 July 1890 - 3 April 1957) was British-Canadian businessman and provincial Minister of Railways. The town of Chetwynd, British Columbia was named in his honor.
Born in Staffordshire, England, he was the son of an English baronet. He came to Canada at the age of eighteen, and was soon in Ashcroft, British Columbia (west of Kamloops Lake). He received employment from the Marquess of Anglesey, Charles Henry Alexander Paget, to manage the marquis’s fruit farm holdings at Walhachin.
He fought in World War I, and received the Military Cross for his service.
After returning from Europe, he entered cattle ranching and the transportation business needed to get the cattle and other agriculture products to eastern markets. As a fruit grower and rancher he saw both the potential for the Cariboo and Peace River Country, but also the need for efficient rail transportation to serve the region.
In 1942 he became the public relations officer for Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE; later BC Rail and now part of the CN Rail system), a post he held until 1952, he also served as a director of the PGE. He was a big advocate for building a railroad to central British Columbia. Running as a member from the District of Cariboo, he was elected to provincial legislature in 1952. He was also named Minister of Railways that same year, until 1956. At the age of 66, ill health forced him to retire from politics.
Full of confidence, he once bet executives at PGE, and politicians (a new Stetson hat), that the new extension line for Peace River would leave North Vancouver on 11 June 1956 at 4:15 p.m. He had many takers, totaling more than $800 in hats. He won the bet, and got his picture in the newspaper wearing a stack of hats.
Chetwynd died at Victoria, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, 3 April 1957.
Rail service arrived in Little Prairie in April of 1958. It would bring an economic transformation to the area, which until then had to rely on trucks to get any goods, such as timber, out of the valley.
The Premier of Canada renamed the PGE station at Little Prairie to Chetwynd, in his honor, and the town of Little Prairie soon changed its name in 1959.
