Educator, historian.
Born at Banbury, Oxfordshire, England on 2 June 1889, in 1915 he was commissioned as a Major to the Norfolk Regiment and later transferred to the machine gun corps. He was awarded the Military Cross and Bar, and mentioned in despatches. He came to Canada in 1921 and was the Principal of Russell School at Russell for eleven years, then taught at Birtle College from 1932 to 1938. He served with the Canadian army, in Canada and Europe, from 1939 to 1943.
Returning to Canada, he served as a teacher at the Manitoba Normal School, edited the Manitoba School Journal for a few years prior to 1955, after which he was director of curriculum revision. He retired in January 1960. In retirement, he was a staunch supporter of weekly community newspapers, being commissioned in 1967 to write The Story of Manitoba’s Weekly Newspapers. In 1970, he was awarded a Manitoba Centennial Medal by the Manitoba Historical Society.
On 11 July 1922, he married Ethel Winnifred Roberts (1898-1981) at Russell and they had four children, including Kenneth Reginald Dixon Pratt.
He died at his Norwood (Winnipeg) home on 16 April 1972 and was buried in the St. Vital Cemetery. He was remembered fondly by “many former pupils and colleagues as an inspiring teacher, accomplished writer, artist and classical scholar, and soldier of distinction.” He is commemorated by Major Pratt School in Russell.
His articles for the Manitoba Historical Society:
Early Manitoba Rural Newspapers
MHS Transactions, Series 3, 1957-58 Season
Birth and marriage registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 18 April 1972, page 31.
Obituary [Ethel Winnifred Pratt], Winnipeg Free Press, 6 January 1981, page 43.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 19 June 2021
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