Memorable Manitobans: Ebenezer Claydon (1880-1954)

Building contractor.

Born at Deeping, Lincolnshire, England on 7 September 1880, son of Benjamin Robert Claydon and Ann Kitchen, he emigrated to Canada in 1903 and formed the Claydon Brothers Construction Company at Winnipeg, in partnership with his brother Arthur Claydon, who was later killed while serving with the Royal Air Force during the First World War. He was President of the Winnipeg Builders Exchange and Vice-President of the Canadian Construction Association. On 16 April 1910, he married Lilian Emily Dines (1885-1962) at Winnipeg. They had five children: Gurth E. Claydon (1911-1969), Oliver Claydon (1912-1981), Margaret Claydon (b 1918, wife of T. J. Norquay), David Arthur Claydon (1921-1944), and Shirley Claydon (b ?, wife of John G. Slocombe). He and his wife were founding members of the Natural History Society and he was active in several religious organizations, including the Bethany Baptist Church, British and Foreign Bible Society, Gideon Society, and Shantymen’s Christian Association. He died at Vancouver, British Columbia on 26 February 1954 and was buried in the St. James Cemetery.

Some of his construction works in Manitoba included:

Building	Location	Year	Status
Dominion Bank Building	678 Main Street, Winnipeg	1907
William Whyte School	Manitoba Avenue, Winnipeg	1914	Demolished (1976)
Brandon Citizens’ Science Building	270 Eighteenth Street, Brandon	1922-1923
Hugh John Macdonald School	567 Bannatyne Avenue, Winnipeg	1929-1930
Birtle Indian Residential School	Birtle, Municipality of Prairie View	1930-1931
Air Observers School No. 5	Winnipeg	1940	Demolished (?)
Elementary Flying Training School No. 14 / Air Observers School No. 7	Southport, RM of Portage la Prairie	1940
Bombing and Gunnery School No. 7 Hangars	Paulson, RM of Dauphin	1940-1941	Demolished (?)
SFTS No. 33 Relief Field / Petrel Aerodrome	RM of North Cypress	1941
St. Matthew’s Anglican Church (restoration)	641 St. Matthews Avenue, Winnipeg	1945

Sources:

Birth and marriage registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.

1916 and 1921 Canada censes, Ancestry.

“Birthday congratulations to,” Winnipeg Free Press, 7 September 1933, page 13.

Death registration, British Columbia Vital Statistics.

“E. Claydon, contractor, dies at 73,” Winnipeg Free Press, 27 February 1954, page 34.

Obituary [Lilian E. Claydon], Winnipeg Free Press, 3 December 1962, page 34.

Obituary [Gurth E. Claydon], Winnipeg Free Press, 22 May 1969, page 32.

Obituary [Oliver Claydon], Winnipeg Free Press, 17 September 1981, page 70.

We thank Ed Ledohowski and Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 12 July 2017

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