An Old Identity Passes

We were walking along Bridge Street one day about four years ago when we stopped to talk to a little old man wearing a huge, red plastic ten-gallon Stetson hat. During the conversation he said: "You know, I'm better known in Nelson than the Mayor and Stan Whitehead. Every man, woman and child knows Archie Gascoyne." And he was correct. There was no more familiar sight in Nelson than "Archie", whether riding his ladies' bicycle, or eating an ice cream or wearing one of the huge variety of hats he owned. Nor was it surprising to learn than the person responsible for the sweet music flowing from a piano in Beggs was Archie Gascoyne, who would frequently drop in, ripple off a tune or two, and walk out. He was familiar, also, trundling his little pushcart laden with firewood along Bridge Street, and we are sure that this photograph of him will revive many memories of a man who lived 86 very full years, most of them here in Nelson. It matters not that he was the second cousin of the Marquess of Salisbury and the Duke of Argyll. To all Nelsonians, he was just "Archie" and his passing in December, we are sure, did not go unnoticed in many Nelson province homes.

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