Historic Sites of Manitoba: Craigilea School No. 441 / Belmont Consolidated School No. 441 (Belmont, RM of Prairie Lakes)

Link to:
Principals | Vice-Principals | Teachers | Photos & Coordinates | Sources

The Craigilea School District was formally established in February 1886 and it continued with this name until July 1917 when it became Belmont Consolidated School. It occupied a six-classroom, brick building erected in 1904 on a design by Winnipeg architect H. S. Griffith, in Belmont in what is now the Rural Municipality of Prairie Lakes. Over the years, several rural schools were consolidated with it: Alma School No. 668, Clifton Bank School No. 777, Delta School No. 669, Huntly School No. 477, Mount Hope School No. 1302, Pelican Lake School No. 337, and Woodbine School No. 1189. The building closed in 1968 when high school students were transferred to Glenboro, and the structure was demolished. A seniors home was built on the site and, in August 1989, a commemorative monument was unveiled here, along with the bell from the former school. A replacement school building is located to the southwest.

Principals

Period

Principal

1901-?

Lilburne Lorne Dawson (1877-1942)

?-1907

?

1907-1913

Sidney Irvine Mott (1871-?)

1913-1914

E. Richardson

1914-1919

Winfred Elmore Marsh (1872-1932)

1919-1921

C. W. Spencer

1921-1923

George C. Simpson

1923-1924

Wilfred Inglis Stewart (1898-1964)

1924-1930

Clarence Lorne Kerr (1897-1973)

1930-1931

George Gilbert Perry (1892-1971)

1931-1934

Wilfrid Gatley Booth (1904-1986)

1934-1937

Axel Vopnfjord (1902-1993)

1937-1939

Gordon Henry Duncan (?-?)

1940

David S. Shellenberg (?-?)

1940-1941

John Michael “Big John” Kozoriz (1917-2006)

1941-1946

Robert Stanley “Stan” McGill (1909-1994)

1946-1947

Hilton Clarence Harper (1914-2005)

1947-1948

?

1948-1952

Henry Lambert Williams (1890-1976)

1952-1953

Michael William Tataryn (1922-2014)

1953-1954

Mrs. B. Criddle

1954-1956

Stanley Robert Kitchen (1915-1988)

1956-1957

S. R. Ritchie

1957-1959

Samuel Stewart Bryan (1889-?)

1959-1964

J. B. Robertson

1964-1968

G. McWilliams

After 1968

See Belmont School

Vice-Principals

Period

Vice-Principal

1941-1942

Miss J. Jackson

1942-1960

?

1960-1961

Audrey Webster

Teachers

School Year

Teachers

1910-1911

Martha Harrison (sister of Frederick William Harrison), ?

1911-1941

?

1941-1942

Miss J. Jackson, Mr. Sadler, Ada ?, Name?

1942-1945

?

1945-1946

Lionel Clench, Miss Kate Playfair, Miss Shorthose, Miss Williams

1946-1947

Joyce E. Black, Eleanor Box, K. Chapman, Margaret Elgar, Albert Goebel, Margaret McNabb, Margaret O. Nicol

1947-1948

Joyce E. Black, Glen Eyford, Mary J. Fraser, Della M. Gray, Rosman Kroiter, D. A. MacDonald

1948-1949

Joyce E. Black, Mary Fraser, Ada Gray, Agnes McDonald, Elisabeth Nash

1949-1950

A. J. Delany, Ruth M. Mabon, D. A. MacDonald, Melvin McCulloch, Lorne McKinstry

1950-1951

Agnes Cline, Matthew Samuel Pritchard Glowe, Ruth Mabon, Melvin McCulloch, Verna Murray

1951-1954

?

1954-1955

Miss Armstrong, Joyce Bowman, Eva Calverley, Mr. Laing, Miss L. Matchett

1955-1959

?

1959-1960

Clara McLean (grade 1), Inez Leckie (grade 2), Anne Young (grades 3, 4), Joan Sandven (grades 5, 6), Jean Williamson (grade 7), Audrey Webster (grade 8), Dorothy Scott (grade 9), Lynne Dandy (grade 10), Gordon McWilliams (grade 11)

1960-1961

Miss B. Brooking (grade 2), Clara Myers (grade 1), Doreen Renwick (grades 5, 6), Louise Waldon (grade 3, 4), Audrey Webster (grade 8), Jean Williamson (grade 7)

1961-1968

?

After 1968

See Belmont School

Among the other teachers of Belmont School were Albert E. Buttress (1891), Miss Mary Arnold (1916-1917), Miss E. Greenwood (1919), and Ermina Shier.

Photos & Coordinates

Belmont School

Belmont School (1926) by Charles Ignatious Meyers
Source: Jane McDonald, 2019-0005

Belmont School

Belmont School (no date) by William Stanley Lockhart
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 56.

Belmont School

Belmont School (August 1967)
Source: Archives of Manitoba, Architectural Survey, Belmont.

Belmont Consolidated School commemorative monument

Belmont Consolidated School commemorative monument (October 2011)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough

Teaching staff of Belmont School, 1941-1942: (left-right) Miss Jackson, Stanley McGill, Mr. Sadler, ?, Ada ?.

Teaching staff of Belmont School, 1941-1942: (left-right) Miss Jackson, Stanley McGill, Mr. Sadler, ?, Ada ?.
Source: Jane McDonald

Teaching staff of Belmont School, 1948-1949. Elisabeth Nash is third from left and Principal Henry L. Williams is at right.

Teaching staff of Belmont School, 1948-1949. Elisabeth Nash is third from left and Principal Henry L. Williams is at right. (May 1949)
Source: Carol Hooper

Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.40832, W99.45496
denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Belmont School (Belmont, RM of Prairie Lakes)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Lloyd George School No. 453 (RM of Thompson)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Belmont School (525 Belmont Avenue, Winnipeg)

Sources:

“Locals,” Belmont News, 15 September 1910, page 16.

Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.

“Belmont, Man,” Western Canada Fire Underwriters’ Association map, September 1916, Archives of Manitoba.

“Some of the pioneers of Belmont district,” Belmont News, 18 September 1952, page 1.

“Trustees of Belmont School hold meeting,” Belmont News, 17 June 1954, page 1.

One Hundred Years in the History of the Rural Schools of Manitoba: Their Formation, Reorganization and Dissolution (1871-1971) by Mary B. Perfect, MEd thesis, University of Manitoba, April 1978.

The Path of the Pioneers: Belmont and District, 1889-1989 by Belmont History Committee, 1989. [Legislative Library of Manitoba, F5649.B44 Pat]

We thank Nathan Kramer, Colin Myers, Carol Hooper, and Jane McDonald for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 27 March 2023

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