Memorable Manitobans: Edward Francis Head (1854-1924)

Architect.

Born at Cork, Ireland on 9 June 1854, he was educated at Trinity College. He articled in civil engineering at London then came to Canada in 1879. He came to Brandon where he had an office on Rosser Avenue before moving to Minnedosa after 1883. By 1889 he was in Portage la Prairie and, in 1893, was in an architectural partnership with Joseph Henry Bossons. It dissolved in early 1894 and he relocated to Rat Portage (now Kenora), Ontario.

By 1897, he was working with Samuel Frank Peters in Winnipeg. This partnership was short-lived and Head practiced on his own until moving to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario in 1899 where he was the company architect for a pulp and paper company. He went back into private practice in 1902 and returned to Winnipeg sometime after 1910. For the last seven years of his life, he worked in the engineering department of the Canadian National Railway. He retired due to ill health in August 1923.

He and wife M. Dorothy Head (1878-1940) had eight children, a son and seven daughters, including Dorothy Edith Head (1900-1984, wife of Bjarne Beyer), Kathleen Head (1901-?, wfe of Ernest Reginald Brock, daughter-in-law of Jeffry Hall Brock), Edward John Head (1905-?), Shelagh Head (1910-?), and Audrey Marguerite Head (?-?).

He died at his Winnipeg home, 770 McMillan Avenue, on 17 December 1924 and was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery.

Some of his architectural works in Manitoba included:

Building	Location	Year	Status
Minnedosa Town Hall	Minnedosa	?
Portage Land Titles Building	103 Third Street NE, Portage la Prairie	1889
Costigan Block	104 Saskatchewan Avenue W, Portage la Prairie	1893	Demolished (?)

Sources:

1911 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.

Marriage registration [Dorothy Head, Bjarne Beyer], Manitoba Vital Statistics.

Death registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.

Obituary, Winnipeg Tribune, 18 December 1924, page 5.

“Brock – Head,” Winnipeg Tribune, 26 September 1927, page 9.

Death registration [Dorothy Head], Manitoba Vital Statistics.

Obituary [Dorothy Head], Winnipeg Tribune, 14 February 1940, page 8.

Obituary [Dorothy Edith Head Beyer], Winnipeg Free Press, 23 August 1984, page 47.

Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada, 1800-1950 by Robert G. Hill, Toronto.

This page was prepared by Robert Hill and Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 26 May 2023

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