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 1902 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 (1917-1992, wife of Thomas John Norquay), David Arthur Claydon (1921-1944), and Shirley Ruth Claydon (1925-1996, 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
Muir House	32 Balmoral Street, Winnipeg	1906
Broadway Baptist Church	706 Honeyman Avenue, Winnipeg	1906
Dominion Bank Building	678 Main Street, Winnipeg	1907
Assiniboine Park Pavilion	Assiniboine Park, Winnipeg	1908
Kennedy Building	317 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg	1909
Windermere Apartments	224 Kennedy Street, Winnipeg	1909
Welland Court	409 Balmoral Street, Winnipeg	1909	Demolished (?)
Christie House	365 Wellington Crescent, Winnipeg	1910
Kenilworth Court	44 Hargrave Street, Winnipeg	1910	Destroyed by fire (2015)
St. Elmo Apartments	177 Colony Street, Winnipeg	1910
Ackland Warehouse	67 Higgins Avenue, Winnipeg	1911
Brussels Apartments	150-156 Lilac Street, Winnipeg	1912
Anvers Apartments	758 McMillan Avenue, Winnipeg	1912
Brown Block	902 Home Street, Winnipeg	1912
DeBary Apartments	626 Wardlaw Avenue, Winnipeg	1912-1913
Speirs House	6 Middle Gate, Winnipeg	1912-1913
Hossie House	66 Waterloo Street, Winnipeg	1913
Sunnycrest Apartments	667 Wolseley Avenue, Winnipeg	1913
William Whyte School	Manitoba Avenue, Winnipeg	1914	Demolished (1976)
King George Hospital	1 Morley Avenue, Winnipeg	?-1914
Broadway Baptist Church (expansion)	706 Honeyman Avenue, Winnipeg	1914
Haffner House	71 West Gate, Winnipeg	1914
Eaton’s Mail Order and Catalogue Building (expansion)	333 St. Mary Avenue, Winnipeg	1920
St. Michael and All Angels Anglican Church	300 Hugo Street North, Winnipeg	1920
Lord Selkirk School No. 1 (renovations)	Brazier Street, Winnipeg	1921
Isaac Newton Junior High School	730 Aberdeen Avenue, Winnipeg	1921
Brandon Citizens’ Science Building	270 Eighteenth Street, Brandon	1922-1923
Eaton’s Mail Order and Catalogue Building (expansion)	333 St. Mary Avenue, Winnipeg	1926
Eaton’s Warehouse	130 Galt Avenue, Winnipeg	1927
Winnipeg Electric Desautels Substation	403-407 Rue Desautels	1927
Fairhaven Apartments	536 Broadway	1929	Demolished (?)
Hugh John Macdonald School	567 Bannatyne Avenue, Winnipeg	1929-1930
Birtle Indian Residential School	Birtle, Municipality of Prairie View	1930-1931
Arts Building	173 Dafoe Road, Winnipeg	1931-1932
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

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Claydon House (124 Chestnut Street, Winnipeg)

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.

Obituary [Shirley Ruth Slocombe], Winnipeg Free Press, 4 May 1996, page 49.

Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.

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

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 29 March 2022

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