George Robinson Coldwell (1858-1924)

Lawyer, MLA (1908-1910), MLA (1911-1914), MLA (1914-1915).

Born in Clarke Township, near Newcastle, Ontario on 4 July 1858, son of William Edward and Mary Coldwell, he grew up on his parent’s farm in Hullet Township, Ontario near the village of Constance (now Kinburn). He attended the Kinburn Public School, Clinton Grammar School in Clinton, Ontario and Trinity College in Toronto, where he received a BA degree.

In 1882, Coldwell moved to Winnipeg, where he finished his legal apprenticeship with the firm of Kennedy and Sutherland. He was called to the Manitoba Bar in November 1882. He partnered with Thomas Mayne Daly in 1883.That same year he married Annie Anderson, with whom he subsequently had at least seven children: Edward Coldwell (b 1887), Elizabeth Mary Coldwell (b 1888, wife of George G. Washbon), George Alfred Coldwell (b 1891), Thomas Coldwell (b 1893), John Robson Coldwell (b 1896), Victoria Ann Coldwell (b 1898), and Robert Henry Coldwell (b 1901). From 1896 to 1924, the Coldwell family lived at 122 - 18th Street in Brandon - now restored and operated as Daly House Museum.

He was an active community member, serving as an alderman on the Brandon City Council from 1888 to 1908, and Rector Warden at St. Matthew’s Anglican Church from 1898 to 1904. He was a founding member of the Brandon Opera House Company and an original director of the Brandon Winter Fair and Livestock Association. He served as a Bencher for the Law Society of Manitoba and he attending the 1905 founding meeting of the Union of Manitoba Municipalities. In 1907, he was elected by acclamation to the Manitoba Legislature for the Brandon City constituency and was appointed the Provincial Secretary, Minister of Municipal Affairs (1907-1915), and Minister of Education (1908-1915).

He died on 24 January 1924 in Brandon. He is commemorated by the Rural Municipality of Coldwell in Manitoba.

Sources:

Who’s Who in Western Canada: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of Western Canada, Volume 1, 1911. C. W. Parker, editor. Canadian Press Association, Vancouver.

Obituary, Manitoba Legislative Library, Biographical Scrapbook B7, page 234.

This profile was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Profile revised: 7 February 2010

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