Memorable Manitobans: Charles H. Dancer (1850-1939)

Civil servant.

Born at Manchester, England in April 1850, he was educated at Old Trafford School and St. Owens College where he received a degree in civil engineering. He emigrated to Minnesota in 1880 where he worked on construction of the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway in Dakota Territory. In the following year he moved to Winnipeg and began work for the Canadian Pacific Railway. From 1885, he worked for about twelve years in the Manitoba and North-Western railway, based at Portage la Prairiea, and was in charge of construction of a railway line from Minnedosa to Yorkton. In 1897 he went to British Columbia where he was in charge of construction of twenty miles of railway in the Crow’s Nest Pass. He returned to Winnipeg in 1897, and in 1898 joined the Department of Public Works where he became chief engineer in 1905 and deputy minister in 1907. He retired in 1916 and was succeeded by S. C. Oxton.

He was married with two children, Charles J. and Kathleen. His wife Emma died in 1936.

He died in Winnipeg on 25 September 1939.

Sources:

Pioneers and Early Citizens of Manitoba, Winnipeg: Manitoba Library Association, 1971.

“Charles H. Dancer, Former Provincial Official, Succumbs”, Winnipeg Free Press, 28 September 1939. [Manitoba Legislative Library, Biographical Scrapbook B9]

Profile revised: 13 September 2009

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