Formed in late 1886 as the Winnipeg Skating Club, the first club meeting was held at the Royal Ice Rink on 13 December 1886. Initial membership drew mostly from the Rowing Club, Tennis Club, and St. George’s Snow Shoe Club. They operated two nights per week out of the Royal Rink, and later at the McIntyre Rink. The club appears to have ceased operation by 1901.
Four years later, a club by the same name was reconstituted. They acquired ice time at the old Winnipeg arena, and later the Winnipeg Amphitheatre prior to completion their Smith Street site in 1924, for which the club formed the Winnipeg Skating Club Company Limited at a 5 September 1924 meeting in the Marlborough Hall.
In 1929, the Winnipeg Winter Club formed from the Skating Club, following their expansion to include other indoor activities. Following incorporation on 7 May 1929, they opened an expanded and improved facility, with initial membership limited to 650 and a limit of 700 shareholders. The expanded site was sold in 1942 to the Royal Canadian Navy for use as a training facility, with the $256,000 proceeds from the sale being reinvested into War Bonds. The Winter Club opened their new home in 1949 on the former site of the Children’s Home of Winnipeg.
Period
President
1906-1908
Robert Rogers
1908-1910
?
1910-1911
George M. Patterson
1911-1923
?
1923-1925
Richard Bingham
1925-1929
?
1929-1930
John Crichton “Jack” Green-Armytage (1872-1943)
1930-1938
?
1938-1939
George Harold McIvor (1894-1991)
1939-1941
?
1941-1942
E. B. Frost
1948-1949
Alexander Robertson (1909-1985)
1966-1967
James W. Abbott
?
Albert Clifford Abbott (1897-1983)
?
John Leonard Condra (1932-2010)
?
James Andrew Dowler (1880-1947)
?
David Anderson Ritchie (1917-2010)
?
Harold St. Clair Scarth (1889-1971)
?
George Edward Sharpe (1908-1985)
?
Gordon A. Stovel (1894-1942)
?
Arthur Frederick Sheldon “Shel” Arnett (1910-1981)
?
William Andrew Travers Sweatman (1879-1941)
?
William Stanley “Bill” Dunlop (1912-1991)
?
John Derek Riley (1922-2018)
?
Frank Daniel MacCharles (c1887-1964)
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Children’s Home of Winnipeg / Children’s Home School (198 River Avenue, Winnipeg)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Hudson Bay House / Winnipeg Skating Club / Winnipeg Winter Club / HMCS Chippawa / Naval Museum of Manitoba (51 Smith Street, Winnipeg)
“City and Province [ice-skating club],” Manitoba Daily Free Press, 14 December 1886, page 4.
“City and Province [The skating club],” Manitoba Daily Free Press, 21 December 1886, page 4.
“Local sport [Winnipeg skating club],” Manitoba Daily Free Press, 27 October 1887, page 1.
“The Royal Rink,” Manitoba Daily Free Press, 27 October 1887, page 4.
“City and country [Winnipeg Skating Club],” Manitoba Daily Free Press, 3 November 1887, page 4.
“City and general [Winnipeg Skating Club],” Manitoba Morning Free Press, 1 February 1900, page 6.
“Skating,” Manitoba Morning Free Press, 1 February 1901, page 5.
“[A skating club],” Winnipeg Tribune, 6 October 1905, page 5.
“The Skating club,” Winnipeg Tribune, 9 November 1905, page 5.
“Winnipeg Skating Club,” Winnipeg Tribune, 4 December 1905, page 8.
“[Winnipeg Skating Club],” Winnipeg Tribune, 1 November 1906, page 12.
“Winnipeg Skating Club,” Winnipeg Tribune, 14 January 1907, page 4.
“Skating,” Winnipeg Tribune, 30 November 1907, page 6.
“Skating Club officers,” Winnipeg Tribune, 5 November 1910, page 12.
“Skating Club names officers,” Winnipeg Evening Tribune, 29 March 1924, page 10.
“Skating Club plans new home,” Winnipeg Tribune, 9 September 1924, page 3.
“Four companies ask for incorporation [Winnipeg Skating Club Limited],” Winnipeg Tribune, 11 September 1924, page 6.
“Winnipeg Skating Club Limited,” Manitoba Free Press, 16 September 1924, page 16.
“Skating Club to ask for tenders on $30,000 rink,” Winnipeg Tribune, 8 October 1924, page 1.
“Application to legislature,” Winnipeg Tribune, 1 May 1929, page 19.
“$200,000 Winnipeg Winter Club to be built at once,” Winnipeg Tribune, 20 June 1929, page 3.
“Winnipeg now has one of the finest club buildings,” Winnipeg Tribune, 11 December 1929, page 14.
“Informal opening tonight of Winter Club’s new home,” Winnipeg Tribune, 11 December 1929, page 12.
“President,” Winnipeg Tribune, 4 June 1938, page 7.
“Ottawa offers to buy Winter Club for Navy,” Winnipeg Tribune, 5 October 1942, page 1 and 10.
“Winter Club purchase approved,” Winnipeg Tribune, 23 October 1942, page 13.
The Winnipeg Winter Club Incorporation Act, Royal Statues of Manitoba, 1990.
We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 4 August 2023
