Historic Sites of Manitoba: Westbourne School No. 11 (Westbourne, Municipality of WestLake-Gladstone)

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

A mission school operated in the vicinity of Westbourne as early as 1859. The Westbourne School District was organized in July 1871. A second school building was constructed in 1874, being replaced in 1903 by a third school that operated until 1954. The present building operated from 1955 to 2000. Through the 1970s, the older grades were moved to schools in Portage la Prairie until, by 1971, only elementary grades were being taught at Westbourne. In 2000, with declining student enrollment, the school was closed and its building was sold by the Portage la Prairie School Division to what is now the Municipality of WestLake-Gladstone for one dollar. It was later sold to a private individual and, as of 2012, is being used as a music recording studio.

On the former school grounds is a monument commemorating the rural schools which operated in the vicinity of Westbourne: Adelaide School No. 32, Longburn School No. 93, The Landing School No. 951, Dundonald School No. 1322, and Nora School No. 1551.

Principals

Period	Principal
1908-1926	John Dawson Evelyn (1862-1942)
1926-1927	Jonathan Hughes Arnett (1879-1953)
1927-1928	Frederick Donald MacKenzie (1882-1970)
1928-1929	Hugh Francis Reed (1874-1932)
1929	John Cunningham Anderson (1862-1929)
1929-1931	Alfred Blakely Gillespie (1870-1939)
1931-1936	Jacob Truthwaite Norquay (1884-1976)
1936-1938	C. C. Coleman
1938-1939	John Leslie “Jack” Morrow (1896-1989)
1939-1941	Claude Amnesty Joyce (1908-1997)
1941-1942	Walter George Crane (1906-1979)
1942-1944	?
1944-1945	Mary J. Perry
1945-1946	Emmanuel Victor Edmond “Ed” Emond (1917-2000)
1946-1950	?
1950-1952	Michael Richard Firman (1909-1977)
1952-1954	Alex Sabeski (c1923-2014)
1954-1955	Leo Priebe Barkman (1925-2015)
1955-1956	Douglas V. Birch
1956-1957	F. L. Davey
1957-1958	Douglas Birch
1958-1964	Ronald Leslie Chalmers
1964-1966	D. A. Porter

Teachers

Among the early teachers of Westbourne School was William Edgar Pye (1901).

School Year	Teachers
1954-1955	Miss Helen Bates (junior), Mrs. Vincent Munro (intermediate), Leo P. Barkman (high school)

Photos & Coordinates

Westbourne School (no date) by C. K. Rogers Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 5. Westbourne School (circa 1913) Source: Education Department Report, 1913, Manitoba Legislative Library. Westbourne School teacherage (circa 1913) Source: Education Department Report, 1913, Manitoba Legislative Library. The former Westbourne School building (September 2010) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Westbourne area schools commemorative monument (September 2010) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.13105, W98.58523 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

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

“Teacher’s home is classroom at Westbourne,” Winnipeg Free Press, 3 September 1954, page 12.

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.

Rural Schools of Portage la Prairie School Division #24 by Muriel Wright, 1996.

“School closure chance for city hall to act,” Portage Daily Graphic, 2007.

We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 3 January 2022

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