The remarkable Winnipeg Soldier's Relatives' Memorial

Each year around Remembrance Day I try to feature  a person, place or event from Winnipeg's war past. Sadly, with Afghanistan, the 'past' is not very long ago.

On my Downtown Places blog this week I feature the Winnipeg Soldier's Relatives' Memorial at Broadway and Osborne. (You can also see my Free Press column about it here.) It's an often overlooked memorial but was once the focal point for Remembrance in Winnipeg, especially for smaller, personal ceremonies. 

Remarkably, it carries the name of every Winnipegger killed in World War I, a list that took a couple of years of public campaigning and research to compile.

Some of my past Remembrance posts:

- Manitoba Remembers Vimy Ridge, John Babcock Apr 2010

- The Life and Death Of William Harvey May 2008 (95 yrs ago !)

- Victoria Crosses at Shilo Feb 2009

- R.I.P Harry Patch Aug 2009

- 'First World War Soldier' monument, Portage and Main Sep 2009

- Winnipeg Soldier's Relatives' Memorial Nov 2010

Tomorrow

Photos: Manitoba War Memorials

Oh Bombers...what would Teddy the Chimp think ?!

Well, another stinker of a Bomber season has come to a close. I wonder what Teddy the Chimp would make of all this ?! Yes, long before Buzz and Boomer, the Bombers had a mascot who was a local celebrity in his own right !

"Teddy the Chimp" was born in Africa and shipped to Canada in 1957 at the age of seven months. His owners were Bob and and Lillian Page of 288 Waterloo Street who owned 16 other monkeys including macaques and a baboon, (which is surprising considering their home is listed at just over 1,000 sq ft !)

Bob, a local businessman, was heavily involved in the local sports scene. He coached rugby and figure skating. He was a founder and the first president of the Assiniboine Figure Skating Club in 1945 (and appears to have disappeared in the late 1980s.)

The Page children, Robert and Yvonne, were both high-level figure skaters at the Winter Club winning championships and eventually touring with professional shows.

Chimps were particularly popular and newsworthy at the time. Aside from their intelligence and entertainment value, they were now on the cutting edge of science and going into space.

The following year Teddy was old enough to be with the public and 'trained to perform all the clever and amusing tricks that you will find so hilarious'. The tricks included tricycle riding. Ads appeared in the classified sections encouraging his rental for trade shows and children's parties.

Teddy at The Bay (April 5, 1958 Wpg Free Press)

His early gigs included regular appearances in The Bay's toy department. Sometimes solo, sometimes with a collection of the smaller monkeys in another cage in a display called "Monekyland".

The monkey - Bay connection did not always go smoothly.

In 1957 three of the smaller monkeys escaped and spent a couple of days prowling the store. They were seen in the manager's office, peering down from the light fixtures onto customers in the dress shop and, more often than not, in The Paddlewheel swinging from the artificial trees or riding the moving paddle wheel.

In December 1959 Teddy escaped from his second floor cage and raced through the store finally coming to rest on a seat in the third floor beauty parlour. The 'Santa' who was working near Teddy was able to coax him out of the salon and into his arms. That appears to be the end Teddy's career and a Bay Man.

In October 1959 Teddy escaped from home and broke into a house at 799 Wellington Crescent. Police responded to find him sitting in the bedroom trying on the lady of the house's lipstick. Page was called to retrieve Teddy. The home owner told the Free Press: "...when the chimp's handler arrived he told him 'go over and tell the man your sorry for scaring him'. Then, the darn thing came and sat in my lap and tried to kiss me."

The homeowner refused to pose for a picture with Teddy for the paper.

Teddy ready for Grey Cup (Nov. 29, 1959 Wpg Free Press)

In 1958 the Bombers decided that they wanted a part of Teddy and called in him for a couple of games. The following season he was the team's 'Official Mascot'. One of his duties was to travel to the Grey Cup in Toronto with Miss Blue Bomber Judy Cox. Teddy was in the stands and atop the Winnipeg float in the Grey cup parade. The association with the Bombers lasted until 1962.

Teddy an honourary Petty Officer (Oct 13, 1962, Wpg Free Press)

Teddy made a number of other appearances around the city in his heydey. He was at the 1960 national badminton championships at the Arena. He entertained before a number of Rainbow Stage performances between 1959 and 1962 and made news when the past president of MTC brought him to a show as his companion ! In January 1961 he presented ribbons to the winners of a YMCA swim meet at the Sherbrook Pool. In October 1962 he was made an honourary Petty Officer in the Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps.

In late 1962 Teddy disappears from the Winnipeg scene and I cannot find anything more on him. There are two possibilities.

The Page family did move to California, though I don't know when. After 1962 I cannot find mention of any family members in the Free Press including the children who appeared regularly in the sports pages. They may have moved then, taking Teddy with them.

If the family did stay in Winnipeg, by 1962 Teddy was almost five years old. A mature male chimp is 3 - 4 feet tall and weigh over 100 lbs. Perhaps he was shipped somewhere that could better take care of him.

In Teddy's five season association with the Bombers, 1958 - 1962, they won the Grey Cup four times.

In 1981 son Robert Kingsborough Page died in Canyon County, California. Bob Page passed away on July 29, 2000 in Arcata, California. He was survived by wife Lillian and daughter Yvonne.

Visit In Flanders Fields on Remembrance Day

 

If you haven't been to Canada's second largest military museum, (or haven't been there since they expanded few years back), the RCA Museum in Shilo, Manitoba is offering free admission on Remembrance Day.  
 
Two poignant things to see that day would be:  
 
The original printing plate for the poem In Flanders Fields (from Punch Magazine, Dec 8, 1915).
 
The Victoria Crosses of two of Canadian soldiers, one a Manitoban.  
 
Links:  

- Veterans Week 2010
- More info on RCA Museum's hours.
- John McCrae's Manitoba connections.

- 2009 Free Press article on the expanded museum.

Tall ship medicine and other online exhibits from the U.K.

The U.K. 's National Archives have created a number of special research projects that give a fascinating glimpse into topics that you don't normally hear a lot about.

The most recent project is called Royal Navy Medical Officers Journals with online exhibits dating back to the 1790s. 

A recent write-up in the Canadian Medical Association Journal says of the collection:

"Some of the medical treatments offered on naval ships during these years were highly unusual, even for that era. One surgeon, for example, thought that the health of a man who barely escaped drowning would benefit from exposure to tobacco smoke. Bites from tarantulas and scorpions were doused in rum. Blood letting was also common, with one pneumonia patient being relieved of 3.5 pints of blood in three hours, which resulted in him “rapidly proceeding to a fatal termination.”

Fascinating stuff !

Other special collections include:

Living the Poor Life - A digitization of  the Poor Law Union 'correspondence' volumes held at The National Archives.

"Here we may find allegations of cruelty to individual paupers, instances of workhouse disturbances, accounts of political and Chartist activities, letters referring to children sent to the northern mills, reports on medical matters, accounts of those suffering breakdowns and other mental health problems, and so much more".

Out There - A portal to identify archive resources for the study of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) history in the U.K..

Remembering Gerry Gray

I missed this in the paper from a couple of weeks back. Gerry Gray passed away on October 8, 2010.  Gray, one time owner of Blackwoods Beverages and philanthropist, was 80 years old. 

Likely the most noticeable recipients of his generosity are the Gray Academy and the Waddell Fountain in Central Park.

Last year I referred to him as a Central Park hero for stepping up with $1m to refurbish the fountain. A beautiful, yet off-the radar piece of our heritage in what was a written-off part of the city. It is too bad that he isn't able to spend a summer enjoying it.

Related:

Philanthropist wasn't flamboyant  Winnipeg Free Press

Philanthropist Gray dies suddenly Jewish Post and News

Hear about Winnipeg's 'Rooster Town'

The Skywalk Concerts and Lectures series is back at the Millennium Library. At noon on Wednesday, November 3rd Prof. David Burley will speak on Rooster Town: Winnipeg's Lost Suburb.

Winnipeg Free Press,December 20, 1951

"Rooster Town" was an informal community situated on Winnipeg's southern edge, near present-day Grant Park Shopping Centre, from about 1930 to 1959. it was home to around 200 mostly Metis and Aboriginal people, though its size and ethnic make up varied at times, who lived in homes built of scarp wood form the near by rail yards. it had no city services like water or electricity.

A Winnipeg Free Press story in December 1951 said that "It had its boom when everything else was in a slump - during the depression." Rooster Town was definitely off-the grid and infamous for bush parties complete with home brew and cock fighting, (the latter is believed to be how it got the moniker.)

As the city's boundaries grew, conflict with Rooster Town was inevitable. The post-war housing boom brought residential development right up the CPR tracks near Corydon. These children and those from Rooster Town attended Rockwood School, much to the chagrin of suburban parents afraid of disease and social maladies.

Winnipeg Free Press, December 10, 1961

Rooster Town's end began in 1957 when the railway sold off the land for development. The construction of Grant Park High School in 1958 - 1959 drove out the last fourteen families who were paid $75 each by the city welfare department to relocate. Construction began on Grant Park Plaza (now called Grant Park Shopping Centre) in 1962.

This should be an interesting talk on a very little known part of Winnipeg's history. 

Related:
Rooster Town: A Métis Road Allowance Community
Remembering Rooster Town - Public Help Wanted

Shenanigans of Halloweens past

The Voice, 1906

The earliest mention of formal Halloween events taking place in Manitoba can be found in the November 1, 1882 Winnipeg Daily Sun. It was a festival of the Scots and usually meant a concert and dinner put on by the likes of the St. Andrews Society. By the mid 30s and through the 40s these intimate gatherings became mainstream and a multi-day Scottish Halloween Carnival was held at the Winnipeg Auditorium. 

Hallowe'en as a night for 'boyish pranks' seems to come about much earlier. The Manitoba Free Press of October 31, 1874 reminded readers that "prudent people are taking in their cabbages" lest they go missing that evening.

Boyish pranks, though, could get out of hand.

In 1901 the Morning Telegram, in an editorial called Halloween Excesses, detailed some of the Halloween night damage done in the city. Windows were broken, gates ripped off of hinges and other 'vicious depredations upon property'. They called on Winnipeg to look at what Minneapolis did that year, an evening curfew for boys on October 31st. (Though I believe the Minneapolis curfew had to do with the killing of a streetcar driver by a gang of kids).

Manitoba Free Press, Nov. 5 1901

A few hooligans were caught for the 1901 actions and went before the courts. Fourteen year-old Harold Hutchings, however, was able to turn the tables on an adult, (see above).

Through the decades, the major Halloween pranks remained broken windows, gates ripped off hinges and hay piles set on fire. Pranksters did keep up with new technologies such as opening fire hydrants and calling in false alarms to the fire department.

Minnedosa Tribune, Oct 22, 1922 (source)

Halloween during he Depression was a low key affair. Money for peanuts and apples was simply not there and communities and charitable organizations held central parties, such as the Scottish one mentioned above.

After the Depression and before the war, Halloween was back. Many of the pranks were the same, there were just more people out doing them. The police began the practice of hiring 'specials' to complement the existing force (also).

Some 'culturally insensitive', winning costumes of 1939 (source)

In 1939 Winnipeg's shenanigans included the usual false alarms and broken windows plus what would have been the odd site of youths riding horses up and down the sidewalks of Luxton Avenue. That year was particularly bad in Brandon. Youths barricaded streets, cut power lines and rearranged boxcars on the tracks.

November 2, 1942, Winnipeg Tribune

World War II would again put a damper on Halloween. Some communities called 'Halloween truces', either not going out or collecting spare change to go toward Christmas packages for the troops rather than candy and apples. Killarney called theirs a "Shell Out".

November 1, 1940 and 1941, Winnipeg Tribune

November 2, 1942 and November 1, 1944, Winnipeg Tribune

In Winnipeg, though, the tradition carried on through the war. In 1940 and 1941 the weather played havoc. By 1942, things were back on track.

 October 29 and November 1, 1946, Winnipeg Tribune

In 1946 there was a chilling warning form police for boys to travel in groups after two boy scouts had been murdered earlier that year and was still at large. That year was one of the worst for vandalism in a decade.

Compared to other cities that had riots, murders and shootings, Halloween in Manitoba has been a pretty calm affair !

Have a safe and happy Halloween ! (Especially you, Mr. Gunnarson !)

P.S. whatever happened to Harry the Halloween Moose ?!