Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Johathan Pemberton YARDLEY

Jonathan Pemberton Miller Yardley

Nov. 28, 1939 – April 24, 2015

You’d be hard pressed to find someone who loved life as much as Jonathan did. Whether learning a new piece of music for one of the many choirs he sang with, painting a foggy rain-soaked horizon, or helping to restore some of Canada’s most cherished heritage buildings, Jonathan always committed himself fully to everything he did.

Born in Lichfield, England, Jonathan made his home on Salt Spring Island with his wife Sue (née Wall) in 1974, renovating their beloved Southdown Farm, growing a massive veggie garden, and raising sheep, goats, cows, pigs, chickens, geese, horses – and three children.

In his life on Salt Spring, Jonathan always shared his warmth and joie de vivre with everyone around him, from hosting live Christmas nativities in the barn, to dancing the grapevine on the lawn to celebrate friends’ birthdays, to taking midnight dips in the pond just to see the stars.

A graduate of the Birmingham School of Architecture in England, Jonathan managed to quietly carve out an extremely successful career on the western edge of Canada. Though he was too humble to ever announce it, he received dozens of provincial and national architectural awards (including a lifetime membership award from the Architectural Institute of B.C.), and had a hand in the preservation of nearly every renovated heritage building in downtown Victoria and Vancouver (not to mention some of our most cherished ones here on the island – Ruckle Provincial Park, Mahon, Beaver Point and Fulford Halls, to name a few).

An avid traveller, he and Sue have explored many parts of this world, taking equal pleasure in the sublime (soaring cathedrals) and the simple (a baguette and wheel of hard cheese). Venice was a special spot they shared with their closest friends on a number of trips, but walking the Camino de Santiago across France and Spain in 2003 with eldest son Thomas was a life-defining experience.

Taken by prostate cancer too soon with still so much life to live, Jonathan will be desperately missed by wife Sue, sons Thomas (Michelle Yardley) and Ben (Jessie Carlson), daughter Emma (Daniel Squizzato), granddaughters Lucy, Lila and Grace Yardley, and sister Jennifer Chapman, as well as many relatives in England and the U.S.A.

The family would like to thank Dr. Manya Sadowsky and all the nursing staff at Lady Minto Hospital for their compassionate care. A private ceremony will be held for family. Please send your good memories of Jonathan to 316 Isabella Pt. Rd., S.S.I., B.C. V8K 1V4.

To honour Jonathan’s memory, the family requests that you speak to your health professionals and government representatives about Dying With Dignity (dyingwithdignity.ca), in the hopes that Canadian law will be amended to eliminate unnecessary end-of-life suffering.

More obituaries

GRIFFITHS, Robert John (Bob)

 Bob passed away peacefully in Victoria, BC, on February 17, 2024. Bob is survived by his son Jeffrey Griffiths and Jeffrey’s wife Anne and...

STRIKE, Arthur Kenneth (Ken)

 On Saturday March 16, 2024 our father, grandfather and great grandfather Ken, passed away peacefully at the age of 89, in the care of...

BRITT, Constance “Connie”

 Connie Britt passed away on March 6, 2024, at age 99. She was born into the Crandall family in Kalamazoo, Michigan, joining older sister...

PEAT, David Wood

 David Peat, aged 98, passed away peacefully on Thursday, March 7th at Heritage Place on Salt Spring Island with family present. Born in 1925 in...

Weather

Salt Spring Island
broken clouds
6.9 ° C
8.2 °
5.6 °
82 %
9.3kmh
75 %
Thu
7 °
Fri
7 °
Sat
8 °
Sun
10 °
Mon
10 °