Photos of this week’s Throwback Thursday range from 1927 to 1980 and were taken in Canada and Punjab. You’ll notice some photo are of the same family, across time. Most photos are from The Reach, a gallery museum in Abbostford, British Columbia, Canada. If you have vintage photos of Sikh women, we’d love to post them! Share them with us at info@kaurlife.org. You can view all of the other vintage photos that we have collected here. Enjoy!
1929, Nand Singh Banga holds his oldest child, Bhagwan Kaur with his wife, Dhan Kaur. This photo was taken when the family lived in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. Nand worked in Queensborough at the Mohawk Lumber Company. The family moved to Abbotsford in 1951 when Nand and his sons returned from India. Dhan Kaur and Bhagwan stayed in India and did not return. Source: Thereach.ca
1938 & 1980. Nand Singh Banga and his wife, Dhan Kaur Banga. This is a manipulated image crated from two seprate images as Mr. Banga wanted a picture of him and his wife together, after she had passed away (30 years earlier). The photo of Mrs. Banga was taken in 1938, probably in New Westminister, before she returned to India. The photo of Mr. Banga was taken in Mission in the 1980s. Source: Thereach.ca
1970. A group of Sikhs in front of a Gurdwara. At the center front is Nand Singh Banga. At his right is Harnam Kaur Thandi and at his left is Gurdev Mastana. A the front right is Nand’s younger brother, Hardit Singh Banga. Source: Thereach.ca
1969. Ratan Kaur Dhariwal sits with her father Guljar Singh Gill. Punjab.
1927. Kartar Kaur (Chohan) Rai. This photo was taken at the time of her marriage at the age of 21 or 22. She grew up in the village of Budhipind, Punjab.
1931. Harnam Kaur Koka (left) and Ran Singh Koka (right) with their two daughters Karm Kaur (3 years old at left) and Tej Kaur (two years old). They are standing in front of the Chillwack General Hospital, British Columbia. Karm Kaur went on to marry into a Rai family and Tej Kaur married into a Gill family. Ran Singh Koka worked on his family farm in India but fled a plague that killed a number of his family members before coming to BC in 1905. He arrived as a stowaway in Vancouver with two other men from his village aboard a Japanese cargo ship. At the harbour he was confronted by police and dogs but managed to escape. He found work with the CPR and BC hop companies in Agassiz. He travelled back to India in 1922 and returned with his wife, Harnam Kaur in 1925. They later started a dairy farm and also grew corn, hay, alfalfa, clover and wheat. Source: thereach.ca
1949. Abbotsford Gudwara. Koka, Rai, and Gill familes after the double wedding of sistesr Karm Kaur Koka and Tej “Lucky” Koka. R to L: Ran Singh Koka, father of the brides, Gladys Koka, brides’ younger sister, Harnam Kaur koka, brides’ mother, Beverley Koka, brides’ youngest sister, Bobby Koka, brides’ youngest brother, Gian Rai, groom, Mangle Singh Gill, father of one of the grooms, Karm (Koka) Rai, bride, John Koka, brides’ oldest brother, Sewa Gill, groom, Atma Singh Rai, father of the groom, Tej “Lucky” Kok Gill, bride, George Koka, bride’s brother. Source: TheReach.ca
1944. Lakha Singh Sidhu and his wife Tej Kaur Sidhu in Vancouver. Source: Thereach.ca
1946. Lakha Singh Sidhu and his wife Tej Kaur. L to R: Harcharan Singh Sidhu, Lakha Singh Sidhu (father) born in Dhade Punjab, Naginder Singh, Tej Kaur (mother) born in Singo, Punjab, and Joginder Kaur. All of the children were born in Vancouver. Source: Thereach.ca
1944. Joginder Kaur Sidhu (girl in above photo), holds the hand of her little brother, Harcharan Singh Sidhu (boy in above photo) in Vancouver, BC. Source: Thereach.ca
1950. A Sikh wedding party. Source: Thereach.ca
1949. Kartar Kaur Gill’s passport photo. Source: Thereach.ca
1953. Vicky Gurjit Kaur Dhaliwal age 3 or 4. Source: Thereach.ca
