Archives of Manitoba
The 100th anniversary of the First World War is now finished but the records will continue to be preserved at the Archives and accessible to current and future generations who want to know more about the time period. In addition, this blog will remain on our website as an additional resource.
June 2018 Posts:
- 18 June: “Canukeenas let us holler”: The Canukeena Club of Winnipeg
- 7 June: Hudson's Bay Company's Chartering Department
- 4 June: Making more connections: “Staff of original Provincial Air Service” photograph
18 June 2018
“Canukeenas let us holler”: The Canukeena Club of Winnipeg
The First World War severed many relationships as families were torn apart, friends were lost, and loved ones never returned home. Throughout the war, however, soldiers formed bonds of friendship that carried over into peacetime. In Winnipeg, a group of ex-soldiers wanted to maintain these connections after the war.
On August 13, 1919, 20 veterans established the Canukeena Club of Winnipeg to assist former soldiers in reintegrating back into society, rebuild old friendships, and to maintain the sense of camaraderie that existed in the military. The name Canukeena was a combination of the words “canuk” (a slang term for Canadians) and “keen.” Put together, Canukeena means Canadians (i.e. canuks) who are keen in assisting in the betterment of Canada.
The club hosted social functions and conducted community service activities. Public service initiatives included furnishing wards in the Salvation Army’s Grace Hospital and Deer Lodge Veteran’s Hospital. In 1929, the club established the welfare committee to work with families of ex-soldiers and provide financial assistance for children who lost their fathers in the First World War. Other activities included the Canukeena Concert Party, sporting events, and inviting guest speakers.
Other branches of the club were eventually established throughout Canada, including ones in Calgary, Toronto, and Ottawa. The Canukeena Club of Winnipeg ceased its operations by the 1990s.
Search Tip: In Keystone, search “Canukeena Club” to find these records.
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7 June 2018
Hudson's Bay Company's Chartering Department
The Hudson’s Bay Company’s (HBC) wartime shipping operations for the French, Russian and Belgian governments were managed by various departments, which all operated out of HBC’s Threadneedle House office in London. While HBC used many of its own ships for this business, it also relied on ships leased from other owners to help keep up with shipping demands. The Chartering Department was established around 1914 to manage voyage and time charters for HBC.
A voyage charter is a contract to hire a ship and its crew for a particular voyage, while a time charter is a contract for the use of only the cargo space of a ship. The Chartering Department was also responsible for settling insurance claims for chartered ships that had sustained damage while in use by HBC.
Among the records created by the Chartering Department are six volumes of scale drawing plans of ships. These plans include statistics on the dimensions, hold capacities, water ballast capacities, bunker capacities, cargo capacities, loading scales, and particulars on hull and machinery.
full size
The plan shown above is for the S.S. Don Diego, owned by HBC the Buenos Ayres & Pacific Railway Co. Ltd. It is found in a volume of time chartered steamer plans.
Search Tip: Search “Chartering Department records” in Keystone for more information about records created by the Chartering Department.
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4 June 2018
Making more connections: “Staff of original Provincial Air Service” photograph
While researching for this blog and for displays and events related to our commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the First World War, we found many interesting and unexpected connections between records held at the Archives of Manitoba.
In the 1 May 2017 and 24 July 2017 blogs , we wrote about two soldiers – Frank Leathers and Herb Francis – whose letters are held at the Archives but for whom we didn’t have (or didn’t think we had) photographs. When we found photographs of the men in other records, we were very excited!
A similar connection was made last month when an archivist was working on some records and came across a large mounted photograph of the staff of the original Provincial Air Service, later known as the Manitoba Government Air Service (MGAS). A colleague quickly recalled that J. C. Uhlman, a pilot during the First World War whose diary was recently donated to the Archives of Manitoba (see the 8 January 2018 blog post), was one of the original pilots in the provincial air service and there he was in the photograph (far left)!
We were thrilled to see this photograph of him in his post-First World War career, which all began when he learned to fly during the war.
(2 images)
We do not know who donated this photograph to the Archives (although a black and white copy was made from a photograph in the possession of H. P. Smith of Lac du Bonnet in 1971), or whether it came in with anything else, so the photograph has been described as an item in our Keystone database and the digitized image is linked online.
Search Tip: Search “Provincial Air Service” in Keystone for more information. Search James Uhlman to find out more about his diary.
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