Memorable Manitobans: Ellen Gillies Cooke (1908-1994)

Scholar.

Born near Garson on 26 November 1908, daughter of Benjamin Charles Cooke and Annie Maud Thompson, she had a life-long interest in Manitoba history. She received BA (1941) and MA (1943) degrees from the University of Manitoba, writing a thesis on the 1896 federal election in Manitoba. Over the years, she operated a rooming house and worked as a stenographer and reporter. On 26 May 1933, she married psychologist Peter J. Paetkau (?-1980) at St. Philip’s Anglican Church in St. Boniface and, on 30 November 1938, they changed their surname to Hampton. The couple filed for divorce in 1942 and it was completed on 26 August 1943. She died at Winnipeg on 4 November 1994 and was buried in the Chapel Lawn Memorial Gardens.

Her articles for the Manitoba Historical Society:

Norquays in the Red River Disturbances
Manitoba Pageant, Volume 21, Number 2, Winter 1976

See also:

A Premier, a Tin Box, and a Landlady: Ellen Cooke and the Norquay Papers by Gerald Friesen
Manitoba History, Number 77, Winter 2015

Sources:

Birth registration [Ellen Gillies Cooke], Manitoba Vital Statistics.

“Notice of application for a change of name,” Winnipeg Tribune, 7 November 1938, page 17.

Winnipeg divorce files, #298/1942, Ellen Gillies Hampton vs. Peter Peter Hampton, Archives of Manitoba.

“Master of Arts,” Winnipeg Free Press, 13 May 1943, page 3.

“Final decrees,” Winnipeg Tribune, 28 August 1943, page 4.

Obituary [Peter J. Hampton], Winnipeg Free Press, 25 October 1980, page 51.

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 7 November 1994, page 14.

We thank Gerald Friesen, Lewis Stubbs, and Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 17 April 2024

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

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