THE ADVOCATE 571
VOL. 80 PART 4 JULY 2022
NOS DISPARUS
By R.C. Tino Bella
The Honourable Frederick Allen Melvin
On the second day of December 2021, the B.C. legal
community lost one of its most talented and humorous
members when the Honourable Frederick Allen
Melvin passed onto a higher court.
Allen, as he was known, or just plain “Al”, was
born November 7, 1936, and died less than a month
into his 86th year. He graduated with bachelor of
commerce and law degrees in 1961 and articled for the firm Sutton, Braidwood,
Morris, Hall, and Sutton (later called Sutton Braidwood). Called to the
bar in 1962, Al worked at Sutton Braidwood practising criminal law until
1973 when he was appointed to the Regional Crown Counsel office for Vancouver
in a new province-wide system established by the Deputy Attorney
General David Vickers. Three years later, he was appointed to the Provincial
Court bench, where he remained until 1978, when he had the opportunity
to become a County Court judge in Nanaimo and Victoria (later called
the County Court of Vancouver Island).
Judge Melvin’s quick wit and agile mind made him an instant favourite
among the Nanaimo bar, particularly with counsel who appeared before
him. In 1982, after the writer was also appointed to the County Court of
Vancouver Island, we developed a fast friendship as we savoured many
lunches, took walks to the sea, and enjoyed rides on his sailboats and eventually
his yachts together. This friendship would last for almost 40 years,
even when physical proximity was disrupted when he moved down to Victoria
to take up the vacant office of Judge E. John “Jack” C. Stewart, who
retired in 1986.
The amalgamation of the British Columbia County Courts with the
Supreme Court of British Columbia took place on July 1, 1990. Chief Justice