Memorable Manitobans: Martin Kavanagh (1895-1987)

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Martin Kavanagh
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Educator, historian.

Born in County Wicklow, Ireland on 16 December 1895, he was educated at Annacurra, Wexford, Dublin and London. He came to Canada in 1923 and was Principal of Tummel Consolidated School (1923-1924), Greenridge School (1924-1926), Treherne High School (1927-1929), and teacher of Latin and Commercial Geography at Brandon Collegiate (1929-1963). He was one of the founders of the Brandon Public Library. He was interested in the early history of the prairies, and in preserving the story of the pioneers. He wrote The Assiniboine Basin: A Social Study of Discovery, Exploration and Settlement (1946) and La Verendrye - His Life and Times (1967). In 1970, he was awarded the Manitoba Centennial Medal by the Manitoba Historical Society. In 1984 he was inducted into the Manitoba Order of the Buffalo Hunt for his writings on La Verendrye. He was married twice, first to Katherine Power (1897-1954) with whom he had two children, including Kevin Patrick Kavanagh, and second to Mary O'Malley (1898-1986). He died at Brandon on 2 June 1987 and was buried in the Assumption Roman Catholic Cemetery.

See also:

Martin Kavanagh Arrives in Brandon by Martin Kavanagh, Kevin Kavanagh and Sean Kavanagh, introduced by Jim Blanchard
Manitoba History, Number 56, October 2007

Sources:

Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.

Obituary [Mrs. M. Kavanagh], Brandon Sun, 28 July 1954, page 12.

Obituary [Mary Kavanagh], Brandon Sun, 6 January 1986, page 17.

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 4 June 1987, page 52.

Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 3 November 2022

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

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