Memorable Manitobans: Richard Gardiner Willis (1865-1929)

Farmer, municipal official, MLA (1923-1927), MLA (1927-1932).

Born at Lombardy, Ontario on 10 February 1865, son of Joseph Willis and Frances Gardiner, he was educated at Smiths Falls High School and the University of Toronto. On 18 January 1891, he married Ella French, daughter of Henry French of Boissevain, Manitoba. They had two sons: Trevor Gardiner Willis and Errick French Willis. He served as Reeve of the Rural Municipality of Morton, Mayor of Boissevain, and President of the Union of Manitoba Municipalities. He was elected to the Manitoba Legislature in the 1922 general election. Conservative. Anglican. Address: Boissevain, Manitoba.

He died at Winnipeg on 24 February 1929.

Sources:

The Canadian Parliamentary Guide, 1929.

Death registration of R. G. Willis, Manitoba Vital Statistics.

“Province loses worthy member in R. G. Willis”, Winnipeg Tribune, 25 February 1929. [Manitoba Legislative Library, Biographical Scrapbook B8]

Pioneers of Manitoba by Robert Harvey (1970).

Profile revised: 29 November 2009

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