Construction supervisor.
Born at Sandiacre, Derbyshire, England on 12 April 1915 to Lucy Brown (1891-1983) and master builder Charles Few (1891-1967), he and several of his brothers followed in their father’s footsteps in the construction business. In 1936 he married Frances Lorna Hallett (1914-1979) and they went on to have two daughters. During the Second World War, he was seconded to the Royal Engineers and served in Kenya, supervising hangers for Royal Canadian Air Force planes and training local militia. Since he was not in a fighting zone when the war ended in 1945, he did not return to England until early 1947.
He eventually joined the construction firm of Racy McCallum which, in May 1956, sent him to Canada, specifically to North Bay, Ontario, to oversee work on the Distant Early Warning System (DEW Line). Over the next few years, construction took him to many parts of the country.
In 1964, he joined a Netherlands-based concrete manufacturing company, Schokbeton (later to become Schokbeton Saramac, based in Quebec). The project was to build the Olympic stadium in Montreal for the 1967 Summer Olympics. After that, he moved to Winnipeg to supervise construction of the Richardson Building, Board of Grain Commissioners Building, and several apartment blocks. The Olympic contract was directly responsible for a subsequent commission with Rod Robbie Architects Limited to plan, develop, and supervise the building of the SkyDome at Toronto. This project became a personal favourite of his.
In retirement, while still living in Toronto, he visited and kept in touch with his extended family in England, and enjoyed Canadian football, his favourite team being the Toronto Argonauts. He moved back to Winnipeg when in his 90s to be closer to family. A few months before his death, he felt honoured to receive a phone call from Argos quarterback Michael “Pinball” Clemons.
He died at Winnipeg on 29 May 2012.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 2 June 2012.
“Leslie Few,” Flint Family Tree, Ancestry.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 14 March 2026
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