Freddie Matthews of Barriere, B.C. was admitted to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops Nov. 12, 2011, suffering from esophagial hemorrhaging precipitated by liver failure. He passed away Dec. 7, 2011 at the age of 59 years.

Freddie was born in Vancouver July 24, 1952. He attended school in Ladner through Grade 12, then the University of British Columbia where he majored in business administration. He was a good athlete playing football, baseball and hockey to Junior A level while living on the family farm in Delta.

Freddie and his younger brothers Marty, Carey and little sister Lori had registered Welsh ponies, showing them at the Pacific National Exhibition, he also ran chariots and chuckwagons at Pony Association events throughout British Columbia and Washington State.

In his travels Freddie enjoyed Alaska, Africa, the United States and Mexico.

His favourite song was Mothers Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys and his favourite hymn was Amazing Grace.

Through the years that followed Freddie drove the stagecoach at Barkerville, B.C., he was a big game guide in northern British Columbia and the Yukon, he was an instructor at a camp in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta training British Army soldiers to ride horses, plus packing and gun use while finding their way around in the wilderness.

Freddie owned and operated a Kenworth truck and traveled coast to coast hauling general cargo for a few years. He operated a grain farm in Neville, Sask. from 1993-97 for a family friend who was disabled by a heart attack.

Then he bought a ranch in the Peace Country at Sunset House where he had a bison herd of up to 400 head in partnership with his father.

Some of the people of the Sunset House area, Norm and Susan Aldrich, Dan and Doreen Bloomfield, Peter Villebrun and family, the Hubar family, all the other neighbours, names lost from our memories whose friendship and help were so appreciated by Freddie in his life’s journey.

The ranch was sold for health reasons in 2005 and Freddie returned to Barriere.

Freddie is survived by: Aunt Margaret Gidlinski of Kamloops; brother Martin (Robin) and nieces Jaclyn, Krista and Melanie, of Surrey, B.C; Carey (Kathy); and nephew Jesse, son of Lori, predeceased, of Edmonton; stepsister Arlene Ladd (Stephen) and stepbrother Richard Woods (Heather) of Chilliwack, B.C.