Isabel Sweeny

July 1973

Isabel Sweeny, nee Bell -Irving, 1889-1974, was one of ten children in a prominent and well-known Vancouver family. Her father, Henry Ogle Bell-Irving, emigrated from Scotland in 1882, and came to Winnipeg where he signed on to work as a civil engineer for the CPR as it pushed west. After he arrived in Vancouver, he formed the Anglo-British Columbia Packing Company. During some of her childhood summers, she and several of her siblings were sent to Sechelt with a servant, nanny and nurse to stay at Herbert Whitaker's hotel. In 1903, Isabel and several of her siblings travelled to England to be educated. During WW1 she was a nurse at St. George's Hospital in London. She married Ben Sweeny, son of a prominent bank manager in Vancouver. They had two daughters and two sons.