Farmer, businessman, municipal official.
Born at Napanee, Ontario on 20 November 1882, the son of Willington J. Perry (1852-?) and Mary A. Perry (1860-?), he took up farming and saw service in the militia with the 47 Regiment of Canada as a Sergeant. In December 1901, he enlisted for the South African War with Canadian Mounted Rifles, 525 Strathcona Horse Regiment, B Squadron, 2nd Battalion, where he earned the Queen’s South African Medal with three clasps.
He married Ella May Smith (1884-1949) in Ontario, and they moved to Winnipeg where they lived for a while. The couple had five children: Fredrick Meredith “Fred” Perry (1909-1990), Helen Mary Ella Perry (1912-2005, wife of Arni Thorlacius), Dora Margaret Perry (1913-2003), Wellington “Pat” Perry (?-1983), and Harold Reginald Perry (1925-2013). Unhappy with city life, they moved to a homestead at Silver Bay in the fall of 1910 and began farming. Within two years, he put his carpentry skills to use constructing the school building for the Silver Bay School District, where he was Secretary Treasurer (c1918-1948). He farmed for 38 years, and the latter years of which he became an insurance agent for the Portage la Prairie Mutual Insurance Company. He sat on the Siglunes Hospital Board of Directors and served as Reeve (1920-1922, 1927-1941) of the Rural Municipality of Siglunes. In 1948, he retired from farming and moved to Ashern where pursued insurance work full-time.
He died at the Siglunes Hospital in Ashern on 15 August 1958 and was buried in the Ashern United Church Cemetery.
Birth registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
1901 and 1916 Canada censes, Library and Archives of Canada.
South African War, Service Files, Library and Archives of Canada.
“Mrs. Reginald Perry,” Winnipeg Free Press, 29 October 1949, page 15.
Death notice, Winnipeg Free Press, 15 August 1958, page 24.
“Reginald Perry of Ashern dies at 76,” Winnipeg Free Press, 19 August 1958, page 4.
Obituary [Wellington Perry], Winnipeg Free Press, 9 August 1983, page 30.
Obituary [Fred Perry], Winnipeg Free Press, 23 January 1990, page 32.
Obituary [Dora Margaret Perry], Winnipeg Free Press, 10 February 2003, page C9.
Obituary [Helen Thorlacius], Winnipeg Free Press, 1 March 2005, page 21.
Obituary [Harold Reginald Perry], Winnipeg Free Press, 4 January 2014.
Taming a Wilderness - A History of Ashern and District by the Ashern Historical Society, 1976.
This page was prepared by Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 22 April 2014
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