Memorable Manitobans: William Arthur Irish (1872-1941)

William Arthur Irish Click to enlarge

Building contractor.

Born at Yarker, Ontario on 17 September 1872, son of George and Catherine Irish, he came to Manitoba with his parents in the early 1890s and worked at Carberry and Virden before coming to Winnipeg where he operated a contracting business in partnership with his brother-in-law John Alexander Saul. They also operated a brickworks at Virden in the 1890s. He was later President of the W. A. Irish & Company, President of the Builders’ Mutual Supply Company, President of the Western Savings and Loan Association, and a Director of the Equitable Trust Company.

On 28 January 1922, he married Mary Edith Fares (1890-1980, daughter of William Henry Fares) at Winnipeg and they had three children: William C. “Bill” Irish (1922-2015), Elizabeth Irish, and Gwendoline Joyce “Gwen” Irish (wife of James Eno Pompilio). He was a member of the Manitoba Club, Motor Country Club, and Southwood Golf Club. In 1930, he was involved in a bitter dispute over the will of his friend Alexander Macdonald.

He died at his Winnipeg home, 755 Wellington Crescent, on 1 November 1941 and was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery. His pallbearers were J. S. Currie, N. Brewer, E. D. Pratt, G. Dummert, H. S. Stidston, and R. Pollock. His honorary pallbearers were Clarence Day Shepard, Robert Dunbar Guy, Edwin Henry Bennest, A. J. Brown, W. McLandress, W. Griffith, and H. Darling.

Some of his construction works in Manitoba included:

Building	Location	Year	Status
Blue Ribbon Building (Anne Building)	87 King Street (88 Arthur Street), Winnipeg	1901
Parkhill House	182 Spence Street, Winnipeg	1904
Ideal Bedding Building	288 Princess Street, Winnipeg	1904	Demolished (2017)
Ivanhoe Court	277 Balmoral Street, Winnipeg	1909
Linda Vista Apartments / Birchmont Apartments	171 Vaughan Street, Winnipeg	1910	Demolished (?)
Spera House (move)	2 Middle Gate, Winnipeg	1929
Safeway Store	893 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg	1929
Scarsdale Apartments	71 Kennedy Street, Winnipeg	1930

Sources:

1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.

Who's Who and Why, Volumes 6 and 7, 1915-1916, page 661.

Marriage registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.

“Whereabouts of Irish and Forlong unknown,” Winnipeg Free Press, 25 February 1930, page 17.

“W. A. Irish, contractor, dies aged 69,” Winnipeg Free Press, 3 November 1941, page 6.

“W. A. Irish leaves $229,101 estate,” Winnipeg Free Press, 2 January 1942, page 2.

Death registration [James Eno Pompilio], British Columbia Vital Statistics.

Obituary [Mary Edith Irish], Winnipeg Free Press, 10 April 1980, page 49.

John Hamilton Parkhill, 182 Spence Street by Murray Peterson, Peterson Projects, February 2009.

Obituary [William C. Irish], Winnipeg Free Press, 30 April 2015.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 30 October 2021

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