BCHF Scholarship Winners Announced

The British Columbia Historical Federation (BCHF) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2025-26 W. Kaye Lamb Award for Best Student Works. The $1000 first prize in the third-and fourth-year category was awarded to University of Victoria student Rebecca Meitz for her essay submission “Benevolent British Sisterhood: The Daughters of England in Late-Nineteenth-Century Victoria”. Rebecca is a recent graduate from the University of Victoria with a BA in History and Museum Studies. Throughout her degree, she has focused on local history by centering understudied documents and alternative approaches to archival research. Recently she defended her Honours thesis, where she researched the history of dress in 19th century British Columbia. Outside of classes, Rebecca has been working and volunteering at local museums and hopes to pursue further studies and a career in the field of public history.

For the 2025-26 year a $750 runner-up prize for the third- and fourth-year category was awarded to India Williams for her submission of exhibition panels that she created for the Lake Country Museum & Archives as part of her coursework. India is a UBC Okanagan student studying history and fine arts. She recently completed a year abroad studying at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and this summer will be working at the Friends of Fintry Manor House in Fintry, British Columbia. In September, she will undertake her honours at UBCO and will be researching the history of queer space and community organizing in Kelowna and the greater Okanagan region.

The W. Kaye Lamb Award is presented annually to outstanding post-secondary student projects relating to the history of British Columbia. The award has been presented since 1988, initially known as the BCHF Scholarship. It was renamed the W. Kaye Lamb Award in 2001. In 2004, the BCHF introduced two award categories: one for students in their first or second year of study, the other for students in their third or fourth year of study. The 2025-26 Lamb awards were presented on May 30, 2026 at the BCHF’s 2026 awards gala. The gala was part of the annual BCHF Conference, held in Vancouver this year.