Grain merchant.
Born at Brantford, Ontario on 30 May 1887, son of Robert Purves and Isabella Gattie, he attended school at Brockville. He came to Winnipeg in 1906 and became involved in the grain industry the following year. In partnership with Edward James, he founded the Inter-Ocean Grain Company in 1918 and was its President and General Manager from 1928 to his death.
In 1953, he went into automobile sales, establishing Purves Motors Limited with himself as President. On 17 June 1925, he married Helen Kathleen McPherson (1903-1987, daughter of Peter McPherson) at Winnipeg and they had three sons: Robert Peter Purves, David Alexander Purves (1930-1997), and Ian Glen Purves. The family lived at 117 Grenfell Boulevard, Tuxedo. He was a member of the Manitoba Club, Winnipeg Winter Club, St. Charles Country Club, Masons (St. John’s Lodge), and Khartum Shriners.
He died at the St. Boniface Hospital on 29 November 1962 and was buried in the Garry Memorial Park. His honorary pallbearers were Thomas William Grindley, Dr. A. C. Abbott, D. Clark, H. B. Boreham, J. J. Nolan, Justice A. M. Campbell, Dr. P. H. T. Thorlakson, H. Whittaker, Kenneth A. Powell, W. G. Rait, Dr. D. F. McIntyre, J. D. Bulgin, J. Harris, and C. G. Smith.
See also:
Manitoba Business: Inter-Ocean Grain Company
Ontario birth registration, Ancestry.
Marriage registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 30 November 1962, page 30.
Obituary [Helen Kathleen Purves], Winnipeg Free Press, 11 September 1987, page 40.
Grain: The Entrepreneurs by Charles W. Anderson, Winnipeg: Watson & Dwyer, 1991.
Death registration [David Alexander Purves], British Columbia Vital Statistics.
Obituary [David Alexander Purves], Winnipeg Free Press, 20 October 1997, page 14.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 29 March 2024
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