One of the things I always enjoyed experiencing on a clear bright summer day, was the sputtering of a distant engine, then seeing Dr. Cowburn’s bright yellow Tiger Moth biplane slowly fly over. When we moved to McBride in 1977, Dr. Cowburn was the Valley’s only doctor. He owned a Tiger Moth biplane, and periodically he would entertain himself by flying around over the valley.
He had owned his plane for decades, and in those early years, when he went off flying around, if there was an emergency at the hospital, the staff would stretch a white sheet on the roof of the hospital, to signal to him that he needed to land and come to the hospital. There were a few times during those early years, when Dr. Cowburn would make a “house call” to a rural residence by traveling to the farm with the Tiger Moth, landing in a pasture or field.
When Dr. Cowburn died, a couple of men who grew up in McBride and lived in Prince George, bought the Tiger Moth, and although it is now in Prince George, it sometimes returns to the skies of the Robson Valley for special events.
Below is a photo of Dr. Cowburn in his beloved plane.
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