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Firm Names | Office Locations | Sources
In 1882, Isaac Pitblado, the fifteen-year-old son of a Presbyterian minister, arrived in the booming frontier town of Winnipeg from his home in Nova Scotia. He would later reminisce that at the time of his arrival, “the population of Winnipeg was about 8,500 and living conditions were terrible. It was a veritable mud hole in rainy weather ... there were only a few wooden sidewalks, no sewers or water works ... houses had no modern conveniences.” He enrolled in Manitoba College to further his education in Latin, French and Greek then, in 1886, he joined the law firm of Aikins, Culver and Hamilton as an apprentice because there was no formal Law School in Manitoba. In 1903, now a fully trained lawyer, Pitblado moved to a firm founded 21 years earlier by Francis Beverley Robertson, which then assumed the name of Campbell, Pitblado, Hoskin and Grundy.
The partnership has undergone numerous changes of personnel and name since 1903, finally becoming known simply as Pitblado LLP in 2002, comprising over 60 barristers and solicitors, located in offices within eyesight of the original Robertson firm location on Main Street. Its legal activities over the years have been wide-ranging, in the areas of labour, agriculture, mining, transportation and trade, among others. Members of the firm have also been involved actively in provincial politics and civic administration, as well as public philanthropy. Isaac Pitblado and his son Edward Bruce Pitblado, also a partner in the firm, were active in the founding of Ducks Unlimited Canada in 1937.
An MHS Centennial Business Award was presented to Pitblado by David Deane in January 2004.
Period
Firm Name
1883-1888
Robertson Campbell and Crawford
1888-?
Campbell and Crawford
?-1903
Campbell Pitblado and Company
1903-?
Campbell Pitblado Hoskin and Company
?-?
Pitblado Hoskin and Company
2002-?
Pitblado LLP
Period
Office Location (Winnipeg)
?-1966
?
1966-?
220 Portage Avenue (Royal Bank Building)
Member
Period
Oscar Samuel Alsaker (1897-1965)
1925-1965
Edwin Henry Bennest (1875-1971)
1902-?
Colin Howell Campbell (1859-1914)
1883-1900
Horace Edgar Crawford (1858-1903)
1883-1903
Humphry Ringler Drummond-Hay (1886-1965)
?-?
William Cooper “Bill” Gardner (1922-2003)
?-?
Henry Platt Grundy (1874-1956)
1901-1953
Alfred Erskine Hoskin (1872-1960)
1903-?
George Richard “Dick” Hunter (1917-1995)
1947-?
Duncan James Jessiman (1923-2006)
1971-?
Arthur Eaton Johnston (1884-1975)
?-1972
Wilfred Stanley McEwen (1891-1961)
?-?
John Percival “Price” Montague (1882-1966)
1913-1932
Edward Bruce Pitblado (1896-1977)
?-?
Isaac Pitblado (1867-1964)
?-?
Francis Beverley Robertson (1851-1894)
1883-1888
John Ambrose Scollin (1927-2015)
?-1966
Alan Travers Sweatman (1920-2012)
?-?
Archibald Kerr Twaddle (1932-2015)
1972-1977
See also:
F. Beverley Robertson: The Tragic Life of Poundmaker’s Defence Counsel by Ross D. Petty
Manitoba History, Number 73, Fall 2013
Information for this page derives, in part, from the privately published book Learned Friends, Reminiscences - Pitblado & Hoskin 1882-1974 by Anna Tillenius, 1974.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 6 July 2026
