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A pair of monument were erected on the former site of Bradwardine Consolidated School No. 1307, at Bradwardine in what is now the Municipality of Riverdale. The monument, one dedicated in 1970 and the other in 2003, commemorate the pioneers of the Ancrum, Tarbolton, and Bradwardine areas, and to those who built the Bradwardine Community Hall and the Bradwardine Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 179.
The first school at Bradwardine, a one-classroom structure, was built in 1905. Bradwardine Consolidated resulted from the 1915 consolidation of Bradwardine School with Ancrum School No. 329. A second classroom was added to the original building. Over the years, other rural schools in its vicinity closed and their students came here: Tarbolton School No. 297 (1948) and Spring Valley School No. 649 (1959). A new three-room school building was erected in 1956. It closed in 1961 and the Rolling River School Division arranged in July 1969 to move the building to Rivers where it was joined to the Rivers Collegiate.
Period
Principal
1916-1917
Perley Alister Murphy (1887-1964)
1918
Nellie Parsons
1919-1920
Clarence Record (?-?)
1920-1932
Cecil Victor Gunn (1894-1981)
1932-1936
Mr. A. E. Avery
1936-1943
Albert Lionel “Ab” Richardson (1910-1982)
1943-1944
Mr. B. Hodkinson
1944-1945
Miss Phoebe Belcher
1945-1946
Miss Corrine Middleton
1946-1947
Benjamin Franklin Olson (1898-1981)
1947-1950
Penelope Helena Mastaway “Nellie/Pennie” Tuba (1923-2019)
1950
Mr. D. F. Patterson
1950-1951
Alex Smith
1951-1954
Anton “Tony” Rittaler (1917-2008)
1954-1961
Arnold James Nicholls (1929-2003)
Among the early teachers who worked at Bradwardine School were Ruby F. Donald (Spring-Fall 1905), Leslie E. Grace (Spring-Fall 1906), Mary Noble (Spring - pt Fall 1907), Rev. Handcock (1907), Wallace Graham (1907), Helen Lee (pt Fall 1907), Miss Florence A. McNair (Spring-Fall 1908), Miss M. Dunbrock (1909), Mary C. Ormback? (Spring 1909 - Spring 1910), Bessie Archibald (Fall 1910 - Spring 1911), and Elsie Katherine Gardner (Fall 1911 - Spring 1915).
School Year
Teachers
1915-1916
Perley Alister Murphy (grades 1-8, January-June), Ellen A. Wall (grades 1-8, August-December)
1916-1917
Perley Alister Murphy (grades 5-10), Ellen A. Wall (grades 1-4)
1917-1918
Perley Alister Murphy (grades 6-10, September-December), Nellie Parsons (grades 6-10, January-June), Ellen A. Wall (grades 1-5)
1918-1919
Elizabeth B. Craig (grades 1-5, September-December), Marian M. Hurst (grades 1-5, January-June), Nellie Parsons (grades 6-10, September-December), Clarence Record (grades 6-10, January-June)
1919-1920
Marian M. Hurst (grades 1-6), Clarence Record (grades 6-10)
1920-1921
Cecil Victor Gunn (grades 8-10), Mary Mildred Leeson (grades 1-5)
1921-1922
Cecil Victor Gunn (grades 6-10), Mary Mildred Leeson (grades 1-5)
1922-1923
Cecil Victor Gunn (grades 6-10), Mary Mildred Leeson (grades 1-5)
The later staff of Bradwardine School included Miss Bell (1924), Mary Barr (1925), Miss Lund (1927), Miss Lambert (1929), Miss R. White (1932), Jean C. Hunter (1934), Miss A. B. Sedgewick (1936), Isabel Prowse Lamb (1941), Alva Richardson (1943), Mary E. Cole (1943), Joan Bunting (1944), Miss K. Reddon (1946), Louise Garnett (1947), Marie Hooey (1948), Molly Cormack (1949), Mary Lowe (1950), Gladys Graham (1955-1962), Mrs. Charles Howell (1956), Helen Milne (1958-1962), Josephine Wilkes (1962), Beatrice Hutton (1963), Graham Murray (1963), Mary Cole (1964-1968), Miron Paul Swintak (1964), Eldon Robinson (1966-1968), Mrs. Florence (1967), and Phyllis Leslie (1968).
The former Bradwardine School building (no date) by J. B. Morrison
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 95.
The former Bradwardine School building (circa 1986)
Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 257.
Bradwardine pioneers commemorative monuments (September 2011)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Bradwardine pioneers commemorative monuments (June 2023)
Source: Kathryn HyndmanSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.99715, W100.46264
denoted by symbol on the map above
“Teachers at the convention,” Brandon Sun, 15 October 1920, page 6.
“Tender,” Rivers Gazette Reporter, 3 July 1969, page 4.
“Teacher changes at R.C.I.”, Rivers Gazette Reporter, 21 August 1969, 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.
Bradwardine and District: A Century and More, 1880-2003 by Bradwardine History Book Committee, 2003.
Summative half-yearly returns for school districts (A 0051), GR0571, Archives of Manitoba.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
We thank Keith Maitland, Kathryn Hyndman, David Ford, and Darryl Toews for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 14 March 2026
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