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Fred Melsom Gee
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Musician, impresario.
Born at Cardiff, Wales in July 1882, he immigrated to Winnipeg in 1902 and worked as a piano accompanist and organist. In 1903, he joined the staff of the Winnipeg College of Music and served as a church organist for years. He was also a faculty member of the Imperial Academy of Arts and Music. He was organist for the Winnipeg Oratorio Society (1908-1928). In 1927 he became a full-time concert impresario and he promoted the “Celebrity Series” of recitals in the Winnipeg Auditorium starting in 1932 and running into the 1960s.
On 1 August 1906, he married Edith Minnie Williams (1885-?) at Winnipeg and they had eight children: Gladys Irene Dorothy Gee (1907-1971, wife of Gordon William Donaldson), Elizabeth “Bessie” Gee (1910-?, wife of George Brock), John Edward Fred Gee (1912-?), Arthur Kitchener “Bill” Gee (1914-?), Edgar M. Gee (1919-?), Robert W. “Bob” Gee (?-?), Melsom Henry Walter Gee (1921-1944), and David Gee (?-?).
He died at the Winnipeg General Hospital on 8 June 1947 and was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery. His “Celebrity Series” papers are at the Archives of Manitoba.
Birth and marriage registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
1911 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
“Fred M. Gee, city impresario, dies,” Winnipeg Tribune, 9 June 1947, page 1.
“A hoard of mementos a lifetime in the wings,” Winnipeg Free Press, 23 November 1968.
Obituary [Gladys Irene Dorothy Donaldson], Winnipeg Free Press, 19 April 1971, page 11.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 31 March 2023
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