72nd Regiment, Seaforth Highlanders of Canada engaged in Aid to Civil Powers for the Coal Miners' Strike on Vancouver Island, Nanaimo,1913 - 1914. Caption: "Chase River" 72nd Regiment soldiers posing at Chase River near Nanaimo, BC. The man on the right is Bernard Lunn. The Chase River is a river discharging into the Gulf of Georgia at the south end of Nanaimo Harbour. It is the namesake of the south Nanaimo neighbourhood of Chase River. In the winter of 1852-1853, a Scottish shepherd in the Saanich area, Peter Brown, was killed by two natives, one a Cowichan the other from the Nanaimo Band. The Cowichan was soon captured. The other man was easily pursued up this stream by nine of the HBC's French-Canadian scouts captured because of fresh-falling snow making his tracks easy to find. The Nanaimo native tried to shoot it out on the banks of the river. However, his powder was wet, and he was easily caught. The "chase" ended at this river. With his accomplice he was hanged on Gallows Point near Nanaimo. The Vancouver Island Coal Strike began on 16 Sept. 1912 when miners at Cumberland declared a "holiday" to protest the firing of Oscar Mottishaw. Canadian Collieries locked them out and hired Chinese and strike breakers. The issues were safety (gas explosions had killed hundreds) and union recognition. Other employers followed the pattern in resisting any union. By spring 1913, 3,500 miners from Vancouver Island were off work with the United Mine Workers of America providing leadership and strike pay. In the summer of 1912, the Vancouver and Nanaimo Coal Co., settled with its employees, but not before rioting, arsons and "shoot-outs" had broken out in all the coal towns. Peace was restored when the BC government sent in 1,000 militiamen. The withdrawal of strike pay in the summer of 1914 and the beginning of WW I ended the confrontation. By then the mines were running at almost pre-strike capacity using newly hired labour.