Lancelot R. “Lance” Warn (1882 – 1919) / Stanley Harcourt Warn (1883 – 1974)
Lance Warn was born and raised in Southampton, England. He immigrated to Canada in 1900 and was working as a domestic servant in Winnipeg in 1901. Lance’s younger brother Stanley (1884 – 1974) immigrated to Canada in 1902 and moved to Vancouver in 1903.1)
Lance and Stanley Warn travelled to the Yukon in 1909 in a quartz mining venture promoted by Harry Waugh. Waugh had a quartz mining concession on the Peel River. The party of seven included another brother Harold E. Warn and Oscar Nuhn who was charged with setting up a wireless telegraph on the Peel River. The men travelled from Athabasca down the Mackenzie to the delta where they were lost before backtracking over the mountains and into the Peel watershed. They had seven tonnes of machinery, to set up a quartz mill, and eight tonnes of supplies. Lance and Stanley remained on the Peel until the spring of 1910 when, hearing of Waugh’s suicide, they travelled to Dawson. Lance returned to the Peel property the following season while Stanley returned to Vancouver.2)
Both brothers fought in the First World War. Lance died of typhoid in England, and Stanley was wounded and returned to live in Victoria and then Vernon, British Columbia.3)
The Dawson City Museum holds the diaries of both brothers. Lance’s diary spans June 1909 to February 1912, while Stanley’s diary spans June 1909 to April 1910.4)