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Born at Bristol, England on 6 August 1860, he worked for several years as a photographer and retoucher for the British firm of Russell & Sons before immigrating to Canada in 1891 with his wife Fanny Hazelby (1862-1912) and son Robert Henry Clarke (1887-1961). Based initially at Calgary, North West Territories [now Alberta], as the “Manager of Portraiture Department” for the photography firm of Boorne & May, he moved to Winnipeg in 1892 where he was a partner in the photography firm of Steele & Wing. After dissolving the partnership after just a few months, he worked as a printer for the Stovel Company. In 1895, he moved to Selkirk where he appears to have remained for the rest of his photography career although he continued to travel throughout western Canada, sometimes as an official photographer for the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1897, he accompanied a group of Manitobans going to find their fortunes in the Klondike Gold Rush as far as Victoria, British Columbia, afterward returning to Selkirk. He returned to Winnipeg in 1909 and worked as a salesman for Duffin & Company. He died of pneumonia at the Winnipeg General Hospital on 14 February 1923 and was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery.
Year(s)
Address
1895
473 McDermot Avenue, Winnipeg
1895-1909
Selkirk, Manitoba
Postview view of Rainy River, Ontario (circa 1907)
Source: Butch Pearson
Advertisement, Calgary Herald, 17 May 1891, page 6.
Advertisement, Calgary Herald, 15 July 1891, page 4.
“People we talk about,” Winnipeg Tribune, 19 April 1892, page 4.
“Notice of dissolution,” Manitoba Free Press, 17 October 1892, page 4.
Henderson’s Winnipeg and Brandon Directories, Henderson Directories Limited, Peel’s Prairie Provinces, University of Alberta Libraries.
1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
Obituary [Fanny Hazelby Clarke], Winnipeg Tribune, 29 April 1912, page 8.
Obituary, Manitoba Free Press, 16 February 1923, page 6.
Obituary, Winnipeg Tribune, 16 February 1923, page 17.
Obituary, Selkirk Weekly Record, 16 February 1923, page 1.
Attestation papers [Robert Henry Clarke], Canadian Expeditionary Force, Library and Archives Canada.
Obituary [Robert Henry Clarke], Winnipeg Free Press, 12 December 1961, page 27.
Selkirk: The First Hundred Years by Barry Potyondi, 1981, page 88.
We thank Butch Pearson and Jeff Gunn for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Rob McInnes.
Page revised: 27 August 2020
Manitoba Photographers: 1858 to Present
A list of professional photographers who have worked in Manitoba, from 1858 to the present, compiled by the Manitoba Historical Society.
© 2006-2023
Gordon Goldsborough & Manitoba Historical Society. All rights reserved.
