Manitoba Organization: Lakewood Country Club

Link to:
Presidents | Members | Sources

The Lakewood Country Club at the western edge of Delta Marsh was founded in March 1909 by Winnipeg businessman Fred Brydges. Brydges acquired the property and erected a building that he called Buddakhana. He soon decided to organize his friends into a club to help offset the costs, which became the Lakewood Country Club.

Brydges married a divorcée from the wealthy Allen shipping family of Montreal and was in the real estate and insurance businesses. He enlisted William Martin, president of the Manitoba Gypsum Company, as a founding member and the club’s secretary. The club’s constitution restricted membership to a maximum of 12 and the original members were literally a who’s who of the rich and powerful of Winnipeg society, including such notables as lumber merchant (and later Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba) Sir Douglas Cameron, grain merchant George A. Carruthers, wholesale merchant John Galt, realtor Fred W. Heubach (responsible for the development of the Tuxedo suburb), hardware merchant F. Morton Morse, lawyer John H. Munson, politician Robert Rogers, and investment bankers Sir Augustus M. Nanton, Hugh F. Osler, and William Whyte.

Through the years, hefty annual fees maintained the club’s exclusivity, and meant that numerous prominent Canadians (and the odd American or Briton) were counted among its members, including a Canadian Supreme Court Chief Justice (R. G. Brian Dickson), a Manitoba premier (Sterling R. Lyon), the President of Canadian Pacific Railway (William A. Mather), the President of Ford Canada (Rhys M. Sale), another Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba (W. J. “Jack” McKeag), the President of Federal Grain (George H. Sellers), and George T. Richardson of James Richardson and Sons. Today’s club members include retired chief executives from such noted corporations as Cargill and Great West Life. Ironically, one of the club members, Conrad S. Riley, was a grandson of Robert T. Riley, who began a successful business career in the 1880s by draining Big Grass Marsh, west of Lake Manitoba near Langruth. The restoration of Big Grass Marsh in the 1930s was Ducks Unlimited Canada’s first major wetland project, funded by duck hunters.

After the Lakewood Country Club was formed, Brydges’ original lodge was supplemented by outbuildings for additional accommodation and storage of gear. In 1905 the club employed James and Mary Kissack as caretakers, who lived on site and looked after the members until retiring in 1946.

A long narrow hallway was constructed between the main lodge and the kitchen building. In 1999, a bell was installed so members could summon the staff from the kitchen, but over-use of the bell resulted in it being disconnected to avoid having the cook quit her job. The original lodge survived, in increasingly decrepit condition, until being replaced in 2007.

Unlike the Wendigo Club, which owned a relatively small tract of marsh land, the Lakewood Club acquired large areas of the westernmost part of Delta Marsh, owning some 2,600 acres by the 1980s. The Lakewood Club remains active and continues to employ a married couple as caretakers who live onsite.

Presidents

Period	President
1909-1914	Frederick Henderson Brydges (1852-1928)
1915-1923	Frank Morton Morse (1861-1931)
1924-1925	Frank George Simpson (1853-1941)
1926-1930	William Martin (1856-1932)
1931-1940	Edward James (1866-1940)
1941-1955	Hugh Phillipps (1875-1963)
1956-1961	Richard Reeve Collard (1886-1963)
1962	Henry Eugene “Harry” Sellers (1886-1970)
1963-1971	Ernest Hutchison Moncrieff (1909-2000)
1972-1979	?
1980	Allan E. Robertson
1981-1982	William John “Jack” McKeag (1928-2007)
1983-1989	Conrad Sanford Riley (1916-1999)
1990-1994	G. Allan Mackenzie
1995	K. Bruce MacMillan (1924-2014)
1996	Sterling Rufus Lyon (1927-2010)
1997-2000	Stuart A. Murray
2001-2004	James William “Jim” Burns (1929-2019)
2005-2009	?
2010	Kerry Lloyd Hawkins (1940-2017)
2010-present	?

Members

Edward Anderson (1867-1955)

Robert Hall Arkell (1878-1957)

Ralph Dennistoun Baker (1895-1960)

William F. Bell

Richard Arthur Northwood “Dick” Bonnycastle (1934-2023)

Frederick Henderson Brydges (1852-1928)

James William “Jim” Burns (1929-2019)

Douglas Colin Cameron (1854-1921)

Charles A. Campbell (?-1972)

George Andrew Carruthers (1876-1957)

Richard Reeve Collard (1886-1963)

Willard John “Bill” Condo (1913-1980)

James Nathaniel Connacher (?-1989)

James R. Connacher

Robert George Brian Dickson (1916-1998)

Bryce W. Douglas

Douglas Donald Everett (1927-2018)

Horace Everett (1893-1977)

Samuel Robert Ewart (1920-2000)

John Galt (1856-1933)

Frederic Theodor Gaspard (?-2008)

Kerry Lloyd Hawkins (1940-2017)

Claude Campbell Heubach (1886-1955)

Frederick William Heubach (1859-1914)

Roderick Oliver Alexander Hunter (1915-2001)

E. G. Jackson (?-c1947)

Edward James (1866-1940)

S. Ross King

Robert M. Kozminski

Douglas Laird (1884-1946)

Norman Lawrence Leach (1876-1949)

Sterling Rufus Lyon

G. Allan Mackenzie

K. Bruce MacMillan (1924-2014)

Anthony Douglas MacTier (1867-1940)

William Martin (1856-1932)

William Martin (1886-1954)

William Allan Mather (1885-1961)

Francis Alexander Lavens “Frank” Mathewson (1905-1994)

William John “Jack” McKeag (1928-2007)

Charles Russell Medland (1883-1970)

Michael A. Miller

Ernest Hutchison Moncrieff (1909-2000)

Furry Ferguson “Ray” Montague (1884-1950)

Herbert Henry Gatenby Moody (1903-1991)

Frank Morton Morse (1861-1931)

Stanley Cumming Morse (1890-1993)

John Henry Munson (1859-1918)

William Arthur Murphy (1884-1968)

Stuart A. Murray

Augustus Meredith Nanton (1860-1925)

Charles E. Neill (c1873-1931)

Hugh Farquharson Osler (1881-1943)

Philip Featherstone Osler (1901-1992)

Gerald F. Pearson (?-?)

Charles Frederick Pentland (1880-1963)

Hugh Phillipps (1875-1963)

Robert G. Puchniak

G. David Richardson

George Taylor Richardson (1924-2014)

Conrad Sanford Riley (1916-1999)

Conrad Sanford Riley II

Conrad Stephenson Riley (1875-1960)

Allan E. Robertson

Robert Rogers (1864-1936)

Robert George Rogers (1889-1945)

Rhys M. Sale (1897-1980)

George Henry Sellers (1914-1986)

Henry Eugene Sellers (1886-1970)

Frank George Simpson (1853-1941)

Sidney Thomas Smith (1878-1947)

John Walker Spears (1883-1940)

William Andrew Travers Sweatman (1879-1941)

William Whyte (1883-1960)

W. Terrence Wright

See also:

Manitoba Organization: Portage Country Club

Sources:

Delta: A Prairie Marsh and Its People by Glen Suggett, Gordon Goldsborough, and the Delta Marsh History Group, 2015.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 18 March 2023