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 (1926) by Charles Ignatious Meyers Source: Jane McDonald, 2019-0005 Belmont School (no date) by William Stanley Lockhart Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 56. Belmont School (August 1967) Source: Archives of Manitoba, Architectural Survey, Belmont. 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 ?. Source: Jane McDonald 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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