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John Stoughton Dennis was a surveyor, soldier, and public servant. Born in Kingston, Dennis had a long surveying career in Ontario and Manitoba, as well as serving as a militia officer, and public servant. He was appointed Canada’s first surveyor general in 1871. In addition, he was an active entrepreneur. The documents in this collection are related to a timber felling venture on the Magnetawan River near Parry Sound, Ontario.

Henry Giroux, an American sociologist, cultural critic, and political activist, is one of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy.

Born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1943, Giroux excelled at athletics and attended Gorham State Teachers' College on a basketball scholarship. After graduating in 1967 he went on to pursue a Master's degree in history at Appalachian State College, an experience he would later describe as foundational owing to his exposure to radical politics as a teacher's assistant to a politically progressive professor. After completing his master's, he taught social studies at secondary school level for a number of years before completing his Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon in 1977.

Since that time, Giroux has held positions at Boston University, Miami University, and Penn State University; in 2005, he accepted a new post as the Global TV Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University. He has also held visiting professorships and teaching fellowships at a number of institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, Northeastern University, and Tokyo Metropolitan University.

A leading theorist of critical pedagogy, Giroux's work touches on cultural studies, youth studies, critical pedagogy, popular culture, media studies, social theory, and the politics of higher and public education. According to his faculty biography at McMaster University, "…he is particularly interested in what he calls the war on youth, the corporatization of higher education, the politics of neoliberalism, the assault on civic literacy and the collapse of public memory, public pedagogy, the educative nature of politics, and the rise of various youth movements across the globe."

A prolific writer and speaker, he is the author of over 60 books and more than 400 papers.

Charlotte Gray is a British-born Canadian author of non-fiction, specifically literary biographies and works about Canadian history. She has published 11 books and numerous articles.

Born in Sheffield, England in 1948, Gray went on to read history at Oxford, graduating in 1969. Following the completion of a post-graduate diploma at the London School of Economics, Gray embarked on a career in journalism, writing for The London Daily Standard and editing Psychology Today (UK edition).

In 1979, Gray immigrated to Canada, where she became a freelance magazine writer. From 1986-1993 she served as Ottawa editor for Saturday Night magazine, contributing articles for monthly issues of the magazine. In 1997 she shifted her focus to book-length works, releasing her first biography, Mrs. King: The Life and Times of Isabel Mackenzie King, to critical acclaim.

Gray’s non-fiction books have won or been shortlisted for most of the major non-fiction awards in Canada, including the Governor-General’s Award for Non-fiction (shortlisted, 1998), the Trillium Award (shortlisted), the Nereus Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Award (shortlisted), the Canadian Authors Medal for Non-fiction, the Canadian Authors Award for Canadian History, the Donald Creighton Award for Ontario History, the Ottawa Book Award, the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Non-Fiction Crime Book, and many more. Gray’s first five volumes were best sellers, and several of her works have been adapted for television, including Sisters in the Wilderness: The Lives of Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Trail (1999) and Gold Diggers: Striking it Rich in the Klondike (2010).

Gray appears frequently on radio and television as a commentator, and in 2004 participated in CBC’s The Greatest Canadian television series as an advocate for Sir John A. MacDonald. Since 2005, she has also held an appointment as Adjunct Research Professor in Carleton University’s Department of History.

Additional noteworthy accolades of Gray’s include honorary doctorates from Mount Saint Vincent University, the University of Ottawa, Queen’s University, York University, and Carleton University. In 2007, she became a Member of the Order of Canada, and in 2009 a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

List of Gray’s non-fiction books:

Mrs. King: The Life and Times of Isabel Mackenzie King (Penguin Viking, 1997)

Sisters in the Wilderness: The Lives of Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Trail (Penguin Viking, Canada and Duckworths (UK) 1999)

Flint & Feather: The Life and Times of E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) (HarperCollins Canada, 2002)

Canada: A Portrait in Letters (Doubleday Canada, 2003)

The Museum Called Canada: 25 Rooms of Wonder (Random House Canada, 2004)

Reluctant Genius: The Passionate Life and Inventive Mind of Alexander Graham Bell (HarperCollins Canada and Arcade Publishing (US), 2006)

Nellie McClung (Penguin Canada, 2008)

Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike (HarperCollins Canada and Counterpoint (US), 2010)

The Massey Murder: A Maid, her Master, and the Trial that Shocked a Country (HarperCollins Canada, 2013)

The Promise of Canada: People and Ideas That Have Shaped Our Country (Simon & Schuster Canada, 2016)

Murdered Midas: A Millionaire, His Gold Mine, and a Strange Death on an Island Paradise (HarperCollins Canada, 2016)

Norman Penner was born in Winnipeg, into a Mennonite family from Ukraine. He is the son of Jacob Penner, a revolutionary socialist and organizer of the Winnipeg General Strike, and Rose Shapack, a Russian Jewish immigrant. His parents met at an address by Emma Goldman. His father was a founder of the Social Democratic Party of Canada and the Communist Party of Canada and was elected to Winnipeg city council in 1933. As a child, Norman became a celebrated orator with the Young Pioneers. After high school, he worked as a full-time officer of the Communist Party of Canada from 1938 to 1941. He enlisted in the Canadian Army and served overseas during World War II. After returning to Canada, he became National Youth Director of the Communist Party. He unsuccessfully ran for office in the 1951 Ontario election and the 1953 federal election. He broke from the Communist Party in 1957 and later returned to school, earning a doctorate from the University of Toronto. He became a Political Science professor at York University’s Glendon College until his retirement in 1995.

Keith Patrick was born on Sept 22, 1918, in Saint John New Brunswick. He was the son of Hugh and Lily Patrick, and had six brothers: W.E. Robinson, Ronald, Edmond, Raymond, Kenneth Roland, and Murray. He received an elementary and high school education in Saint John, West Haven, Connecticut, and Lynn, Massachusetts. He was employed by American News Co. in Lynn at the outbreak of war, prompting him to return to New Brunswick to enlist. Keith served in the R.C.A.F. from 1940 to 1945 as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner. He received training at Wireless School in Calgary and Bombing and Gunnery School in Macdonald, Manitoba. His overseas postings included Operational Training Units and Ferry Command in England; in Egypt with the RAF 108 Squadron; and in France with the 427 Lion Squadron.

He was on his second tour with the RCAF 427 Squadron when his Halifax bomber was shot down in Pas-de-Calais, France, on the night of June 12, 1944. Seriously injured, he and his pilot, Don Fulton, were sheltered by members of the French Resistance. They were liberated in September 1944. Keith retired from the RCAF in February 1945 at the rank of Flight Lieutenant.

After the war, he had a successful career as a Purchasing Manager with Ford Motor Co. in Saint John, Canadair in Montreal and Fleet Manufacturing and Horton-CBI in Fort Erie.

Keith married Phyllis Taylor on June 29, 1946. They had three children, Charmian, Janet, and Philip. Keith self-published his memoirs, To the Stars, with his daughter Janet Lee MacNeil in 2014. Keith passed away in 2021, in Kitchener, Ontario.

Samuel Nickle was born in Winnipeg in 1913/14 to Olga and Sam Nickle. The family moved to Calgary in 1917. In 1935 he started the Nickle Map Service Ltd. In 1935 in response to the Turner Valley oil boom. During the Second World War he served in the Calgary Highlanders and was commissioned in the Intelligence Corps in 1943.

Following the war he resumed his mapping business working in the oil and gas industry. He continued to support the Calgary Highlanders and was appointed to Honorary Colonel. He passed away on 26 January 1994.

Robert Jack Mutart was born on 7 May 1923 to Reginald and Carrie Mutart. Following the death of his father in 1929, his mother remarried a man named A. Lebert. Robert enlisted for service in the Second World War on 25 March 1942, and served in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve. Attaining the rank of Leading Signalman, Robert would serve in the Atlantic Theatre on minesweeping and convoy missions. He was honourably discharged on 25 October 1945, but continued to serve as a reservist until 1957. On 12 May 1945 he married Anne Mattiuz, with whom he had three children: Donna, Bobby, and Jimmy. After the war, Robert would become a dentist in Hamilton. Robert died on 3 February 1962 in Detroit, Michigan, at the age of 38.

Sarah Elizabeth Russell was a granddaughter of Bertrand Russell, philosopher and peace activist. Her father, John Conrad Russell, was Bertrand Russell’s first son from his marriage to Dora Black. Her mother, Susan Lindsay, was the daughter of American poet Vachel Lindsay.

Sarah was the first daughter born to John and Susan (birthdate 16 January 1947), and the second child in their family (the first child, Anne Russell, was born to Susan Lindsay and adopted by John Russell prior to Sarah’s birth).

Sarah’s family initially lived in a small flat in Cambrian Road, Richmond, but by 1950, they had moved to the main floor of 41 Queen’s Road in Richmond with Bertrand Russell (Monk 316-317). In December 1952, Bertrand Russell married his fourth wife, Edith Finch, and soon after she moved into the Queen’s Road home, Sarah’s parents moved out of it (Monk 355). Sarah’s parents separated in 1954 and divorced by 1955 (Monk 359-360).

Thereafter, Sarah and her sisters became the subjects of a protracted family custody dispute, the result of which was that Bertrand and Edith Russell won full custody of the children in 1961, with their father, John Russell, retaining visitation rights (Monk 400).

Sarah attended Kingsmuir School, a boarding school in Sussex, while the family resided at 41 Queen’s Road (Griffin 503). In 1956, Bertrand and Edith Russell moved the family to Plas Penrhyn, their home in Wales. Following this move, Sarah and her sisters attended Moreton Hall, a private girls’ boarding school in Shropshire (Monk 370; Griffin 503). Near Russell’s home in Wales lived the Cooper-Willis family: mother Susan Williams-Ellis, a renowned potter; father Euan Cooper-Willis, and daughters Siân and Anwyl, who were close friends of Sarah and her sisters.

Sarah left Moreton Hall, possibly as early as 1961, to complete her studies at Dartington Hall, a progressive co-educational boarding school in Devon. In 1966, she commenced a program in English Language and Literature at the University of Reading. She appears to have taken a break in 1970, when she was diagnosed with schizophrenia (Monk 500). Sarah returned to her program in 1977, and in 1979, she was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in the second division of the second class.

In 1975, Sarah’s younger sister Lucy died by self-immolation (Monk 501-502). This event had a significant impact on Sarah and is addressed in her diaries (see Series 2).

Little is known of the later period of Sarah’s life, though Ray Monk, biographer of Bertrand Russell, writes that Sarah spent much of her life in psychiatric care (500).

A native of Hamilton, Percy McDonald graduated from McGill in 1913 in Civil Engineering but never practiced this profession. He became a war photographer with W.J. Johnson during the First World War. In 1923, McDonald earned a degree in dentistry from the University of Toronto and practiced dentistry until the outbreak of World War II, when he again took up military photography.

Sources: https://archivalcollections.library.mcgill.ca/index.php/percy-ellicott-mcdonald-fonds

Martyn Burke (1942-) is a novelist, journalist, film director, documentarian, and screenwriter. He graduated from McMaster with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences (Economics) in 1964. After graduation, he travelled to Vietnam as an independent freelance journalist covering the war. His dispatches were printed in the Toronto Telegram “Martyn Burke’s Vietnam War Diary,” and later became the basis of his first work of fiction. He is the author of several fiction books: The Laughing War (1980), Ivory Joe (1991), Tiara (1995), The Commissar’s Report (1984), The Shelling of Beverly Hills (2000), The Truth about the Night (2006), and Music for Love or War (2015). Following the Vietnam War, Burke returned to Canada to work as a producer at CBC television.

Burke is best known as a documentarian and his work has been broadcast by the CBC, BBC in the United Kingdom, TF-1 in France and CBS's 60 Minutes. In 1977, he co-produced Connections: An Investigation into Organized Crime in Canada, a two-part documentary series on the Mafia with CBC/Norfolk Communications Ltd. In 1988, Burke directed Witnesses, a documentary film which provided a behind-the-scenes view of the Soviet war in Afghanistan. His documentary film, Under Fire: Journalists in Combat, featured interviews with journalists and photographers who had experienced war first-hand and won a Peabody Award in 2011.

His film and cable television credits include: co-writer of the cult comedy Top Secret; writer, HBO’s satirical The Second Civil War (1997); and writer/director of the Emmy-nominated television film, Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999).

Burke divides his time between Toronto and Santa Monica, California.

The Kilmaster family lived in Brantford, Ontario. There are documents relating to three family members in this fonds: George B., W.G., and Eliza, the widow of George A. Kilmaster. The only document pertaining to Eliza is her funeral notice of 23 January 1904. She died in South Walshingham. W.G. Kilmaster is noted as acting in the same play as George B. The remaining documents are all addressed to either George B. or Mr. Kilmaster. George Kilmaster was a Lance Corporal with the Dufferin Rifles of Brantford in the 1880s.

George Francis Clingan (1894-1964) of Virden, Manitoba joined the Canadian military in October 1915. He remained in the military, serving with the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa during World War II. He was Commanding Officer in 1942. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. His daughter Peggy married Lt. Colin Murray who served with the 27th Canadian Infantry Brigade at the time it was based in Hannover, Germany as part of Canada's contribution to NATO.

Percy Thomas Caiger was born on 3 November 1889 and entered the Post Office as a boy clerk in 1905. He became a career Civil Servant, retiring as Staff Officer with the Ministry of Food in 1947. During World War I he served as a Sergeant with the 60th (London) Divisional Cyclist Co. He was a founding member and Hon. Secretary of the Old Comrades' Association. He died on 27 February 1953.

L/Cpl. Eric Caiger served in the Royal Suffolk Regiment of Great Britain during World War II.

Samuel (1696-1779) and Nathaniel Buck were English engravers and print makers known for their depictions of castles and landscapes.

In 1727, Samuel Buck and his brother Nathaniel commenced sketching and engraving a series on the architectural remains of England and Wales. This series included 83 engravings of 70 principal towns in England and Wales. This endeavour took 28 years to complete, and differences in their style can be noted over time. Later engravings often include figures and subtler landscapes in the foreground. In 1774, Robert Sayer obtained the plates, added page numbers to them, and published them as Buck's Antiquities.

Samuel Beckett was an Irish author and playwright, born at Foxrock, near Dublin on 13 April 1906. He was educated at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, and at Trinity College, Dublin, where he read English, French, and Italian. He lived mainly in France from 1932 onwards. His most famous play, En attendant Godot was published in 1952. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1969. He died in Paris on 22 December 1989

Anthony Burgess, novelist, critic, and composer, was born John Anthony Burgess Wilson on 25 February 1917 in Manchester. He was educated at the University of Manchester. His A Clockwork Orange was published in 1962 and made into a film by Stanley Kubrick in 1971. He died in November 1993 in London, England.

E. Pauline Johnson, poet and platform entertainer, was born on the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Canada West (Ontario). Her poems first appeared in the New York magazine, Gems of Poetry, and thereafter in numerous British and North American journals. Her books include The White Wampum (1895), Canadian Born (1903), Flint and Feather (1912), Legends of Vancouver (1911), The Shagganappi (1912), and The Moccasin Maker (1913). She died at Vancouver on 7 March 1913.

André Girard, artist, was born on 25 May 1901 in Chinon, France and educated at Ecole Nationale des Arts Decoratif and Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts. He studied with George Rouault and Pierre Bonnard. In 1939 he came to the United States to paint murals for the French Pavilion at the World's Fair. He returned to France and served with the Resistance during World War II. He settled in the United States after the war where he painted windows and murals for many American churches. He was also a serigrapher. Girard developed a new technique for painting on film. He died on 2 September 1968 in Nyack, New York. Additional biographical material on Girard is contained in the master file, including an article by William Ready.

Albert Mansbridge was born in Gloucester on 10 January 1876 and educated at the Battersea Grammar School. He founded the Workers' Educational Association in 1903 and remained First Secretary until 1915, extending its operations to Australia.

Until his death at Torquay on 22 August 1952, Mansbridge was associated with numerous socialist, co-operative, and church organizations, although education always remained his main interest. In his later years he was President of the World Association for Adult Education. His publications include An Adventure in Working Class Education (1920) and his autobiography, The Trodden Road (1940).

Walter McRaye, as he called himself, lecturer and entertainer, was born in Merrickville, Ontario on 31 December 1876. He was the great grandson of Major Thomas Smyth, founder of Smiths Falls. He acquired through his lectures and informal talks the sobriquet "The Apostle of Canadianism". McRaye toured with E. Pauline Johnson in Canada, Britain and the United States from 1901 to 1909. He often recited the Habitant poetry of Dr. W. H. Drummond. He wrote his memoirs, Town Hall Tonight, in 1929. Pauline Johnson and Her Friends was published posthumously in 1947. He died in 1946.