by Judith Hudson Beattie
Winnipeg, Manitoba
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In September 1999, CBC Radio North, under the leadership of Mark Szyslo, formed a partnership with the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives in Winnipeg, where I was the Keeper, to broadcast readings from fur trade journals. It was after almost two years of weekly broadcasts that I turned my attention to William M. Chapman’s entries from the early 20th century. I was drawn to these writings because they were so different from the normal, sometimes terse and dry, business entries made by so many clerks. I had prepared his biographical sketch in 1986 and had already written a series of articles for the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society’s Newsletter Light & Airy based on excerpts from his journals dealing with the many dances at Norway House, so I was well aware of the lively and entertaining stories available in the pages of his journals. They provided me with more than enough material to make 37 five-minute broadcasts between July 2001 and March 2002.
Chapman was 20 years old when he signed his contract with the Hudson’s Bay Company in Winnipeg on 1 August 1907, though other sources say he was first hired in London when he was 18. He arrived at Norway House 10 days later [1] and for the next seven years he devoted his time to the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Keewatin District posts at Norway House, Nelson House, Split Lake, God’s Lake, and Little Grand Rapids. It did not take his superiors long to size up his prospects in the fur trade. Just a month after he arrived, his superior D. C. McTavish wrote of his new clerk that he would “never make a fur trader.” [2] But while he was not suited for the fur trade, his duties eventually presented an opportunity he could not resist to report on the life of a young bachelor at this busy northern post. In spite of reprimands from his superiors, he devoted most of his post journal entries not to the business of the fur trade, but to social columns where we get an intimate view of the leisure activities available at this Hudson’s Bay Company post.
During his first year at Norway House, William Chapman rarely kept the daily journal, and when he did, the entries were without much personal commentary. However, on Wednesday, 20 May 1908 he took up his pen again with a lively story of a fire in the Chief Factor’s residence, which took up four pages. Two women were featured: “the bell which Miss McLeanhad been heroically pulling became temporarily useless, and the water supply was running short. Mrs. Sinclair [3] rushed off to the archway and, mounting the steps, fixed up the bell and soon it was ringing again bravely.” [4] Today the Archway building, from which the Fort’s bell sounded the alarm, is one of the few surviving witnesses of that time.
A photo of HBC Chief Factor Donald Campbell McTavish (centre) and staff at Norway House is the only one in the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives that identifies William Chapman (far right) by name.
Source: C. C. Sinclair Collection, Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Archives of Manitoba, 1981/39/263.
In June 1908, he returned to England but took up his pen once more in October. [5] The occasional report on business is included, but social events tend to dominate, including fanciful references to the locals and their homes.
“Sunday 8 Nov. In the afternoon we all went to Budd Castle, where the master of that stately edifice was entertaining his most excellent friend Tommy Garson. Most of the time was spent in discussing the pros and cons of a tramway across Mossy Portage (on the way to Gods Lake). The Misses Budd, with their wonted shyness, did not put in an appearance, no doubt awed by the presence of the distinguished visitors. We left the residence some little time after 4 p.m. and found that the water in the river was overflowing the ice, so, after crossing Budd’s Creek, we took to the bush returning by that path to the Fort. Donald Flett remained at the Castle going on to Garson Hall later in the afternoon and returning here in the evening. Mr [C. C.] Sinclair & Mr McDonald at work on chess problems.” [6]
The first football game (closer to soccer) took place on Saturday, 14 November 1908, and his play-by-play of the action, in the snow, between the Rossville “Athletic Football Club” and the Fort A.F.C. took up several pages. [7] Full reports on every game followed. The weekly dances were also reported in detail with the attire of the young women as much the focus as the dance itself:
“The greatest social event of the winter season to date which took place this evening at 8:30, was the grand ball at the Norway House rooms. Donald Flett and Mrs Garsonled off and almost immediately a spirited dance was in progress. The bright eyes and flushed cheeks of the fair dancers surely represented a dazzling picture of the joy of youth whilst the less graceful display of enthusiasm on the part of the men suggested rather the joy of living. After several dances had taken place Messrs Sinclair & McDonald soon shewed themselves to be two of the most ardent supporters of this wholesome pastime. The chief feature of this dance was, perhaps, the small number of Red River jigs, there being no call for any until nearly mid-night, there cannot have been more than about three jigs in all this evening and it would be well for hostesses to remember this when making up dances this season. There was but one hitch in the proceedings and that was the breaking of a lighted lamp which fell off from the piano, in the middle of a “set”; fortunately there was no conflagration or explosion. The dance went on ceaselessly until 3 a.m. next day. Undoubtedly the accompaniments of Miss Budd at the piano added considerably to the success of the ball, and her social triumph was well deserved. The Sinclair String Band and the Budd Band were in attendance. Refreshments for the “outside” guests were served in the Bachelor’s Hall, whilst the Misses Flett had prepared a sumptuous repast in the dining room for the H.B. men and their immediate friends. Amongst those present we noticed Miss Budd wearing a fine white china silk waist relieved by a tasteful bow of blue chiffon, & a black dress brought up at the waist by a snappy belt, Miss Annie Budd similarly attired with the exception of the bow which was of pink chiffon, Mrs Garson a charming creation of black silk, the Misses Macleod in simple but effective gowns.” [8]
Even a diphtheria quarantine failed to interfere with the dances that increased in frequency as the Christmas season approached.
Chapman’s enthusiastic attendance at the Episcopal Church gave him another opportunity to meet with the local residents. On 15 November 1908, he wrote: “W. M. Chapman to keep the honour of the Fort intact, went to Dean Wilkins’ Church ... Dean Wilkins gave a very eloquent sermon in the morning on the 7th Commandment[“Thou shalt not commit adultery”] the breaking of which is a very prevalent sin at Norway House, and—’tell it not in Goth’—in the whole of this Canadian Siberia. W.M.C. stopped for lunch at the Deanery as did also Messrs. Fisher & Woods, all of them going on to the afternoon service which was conducted as usual by Chaplain Keam.” [9]
Chapman frequently turned his attention from his own ‘English Church’ to the Methodist Church in Rossville. One of the heroes of his stories was Reverend Edward Paupanekis. Paupanekis was born in 1840, the youngest son of William Paupanekis, and was baptised by the Reverend James Evans. It was not until the 1870s that he became a lay preacher and 1889 when he was the first Cree from northern Manitoba to be ordained. After serving at Oxford House and Cross Lake, he returned to Norway House in 1903 where he served until his death in 1911. Chapman’s story of events at Rossville Mission demonstrates that Paupanekis was still a man of action at age 68:
... for some little time the Rev. Ed. Paupanakiss has not been permitted to take the morning service (Mr Wright generally officiating in his stead) although he had been told to do so by the Rt. Rev. Albert Lousley D.D. [10] before that divine left Norway House this Fall. Mr Paupanakis had put up with the neglectful treatment he had been receiving at the hands of the authorities of the I[ndian] B[oarding] S[chool] for some time, but to-day, on seeing Mr Martin playing the Jacobean role viz that of supplanter, his indignation was poured forth in denunciatory words before the whole congregation, and, refusing to be pacified, the Rev. gentleman marched out of the church after declaring he would not enter its holy precincts until the return of its rightful pastor. [11]
The Roman Catholic Church also got its share of HBC attendees, though having to cross the river was hazardous in winter and they were often lured to the female attractions of “Budd Castle” instead. [12] However, in spite of the many outlets for religious expression, Chapman’s entry on one Sunday reads: “It is feared that the Fort is gradually drifting into an habituation of the ungodly for not only was it without a representative at any Church but also two of its dwellers were working at mail & correspondence. It is to be hoped that such a state of irreligion will not occur again & that there will always be henceforth at least one member at church on the Sabbath; the members of the Fort must ‘see to it’.” [13] He later lamented “Why oh why was there not one member of the HBCo at the church?” [14]
Soon after he took over responsibility for the Norway House journal William Chapman had considered himself a reporter, faithfully recording activities in and around the Hudson’s Bay Company post. Near the end of 1908, however, he became unusually subdued in his comments. Then on New Year’s Day, 1909 he wrote:
“New Year’s day ... The censor has warned the editor of the Norway House News not to give such lengthy accounts of these social functions as heretofore, so in future if our readers desire to know all about any dance, marriage or any social function it will be necessary for them to be present at such, or else to be contented with inaccurate accounts from those who were present. It has been the pride of the ‘Norway House News’ that authenticity has been the first consideration and your editor, who is now retiring to take charge of the ‘Northern Star, Split Lake,’ thanks you (the readers of this Journal) for your continued patronage & trusts that you will put the same confidence placed in him in his worthy successor.” [15]
With these words, William Chapman ended his entries in the Norway House Journal. He left Norway House on 5 January and arrived at Split Lake where “Mr Drury reports bad trail & Chapman froze face badly.” [16] While at Split Lake, he made frequent trips to Norway House. He spent the winter of 1909 to summer 1910 at Nelson House, [17] but no journal has survived from that time, though he did send a photo home from inside the palisade.
William Chapman’s handwriting appears in the 1910 Split Lake Journal from 7 July, though he only arrived back there to take responsibility for the journal from Alexander Flett on 29 July. [18] Life at this small post was quiet and his entries were more subdued. About three weeks after he arrived most of the men left on a trip to Norway House, and until their return Chapman and the female inhabitants led a quiet existence, with occasional visits from the Railway team and Governor General Earl Grey’s police escort in need of supplies.
In October 1910, after a trip to Norway House, William Chapman settled into his home with the manager, Alexander Flett and his family, and by November, he seemed more comfortable with his role as reporter. The entries became more personal as he recounted the difficulties in hauling out the frozen-in sailboat and the glories of nature: “Every tree & every blade of grass bejewelled by Jack Frost.” [19]
On Christmas Day 1910, he celebrated the season by recording a lengthy poem:
Christmas-day in this lone Northland has at least the Christmas snow,
And the church with its bell ringing the glad tidings that we know,
There are Christmas trees in plenty, of Yule-tide logs there is no dearth,
But not the cheerful comfort of the roaring open hearth.The carol-singers, too come round to sing their joyful lay,
Of humanity’s redemption on the first Christmas day,
Chanting ‘Hark the herald Angels sing’ & then ‘Lead kindly light,’
From the pure gladness of their hearts and not for silver bright.Though we meet not round the festive board as in lands farther south,
Though no iced champagne is close at hand, foaming at the bottle’s mouth,
No essence from the vines of France, no ‘dew’ from the Highland moor,
No turkey sizzling on the dish and not a regal boar.Though the fancies of the palate may ne’er be granted here.
We have at least a Christmas feast Of the wild Northern deer,
And we pass around the flowing bowl, the wassail bowl of tea,
And we feel the Christmas in the air though its signs we cannot see.And churchwards then all people do gladly wend their way,
That they may hear the tidings dear that the parson’s sure to say;
Of how our great Redeemer came to visit this poor earth
To fulfill his wondrous mission that all might have a second birth.Though bitter sweet remembrance of the happy days gone by,
The days of childhood’s sunshine, may sometimes dim the eye,
On this happy Xmas day let us all our sorrows hide,
Yes & banish all sad thoughts away during bright Christmastide. [20]
This 1909 photo, labelled as “Family at Split Lake and Indian girls” shows post manager Alexander Flett (right) with Horace George (born 1907), his wife Edith McLeod Flett holding Islay Elizabeth (born 1906), with Alice Grace (born 1903) standing beside her. (See Leonard G. Flett, From the Barren Lands: Fur Trade, First Nations and a Life in Northern Canada, Winnipeg: Great Plains, 2015, page 42.)
Over the next few months, he practised his poetic bent more frequently. At the end of March, he wrote a poem dedicated to Superintendent Withersof the Royal North West Mounted Police at Split Lake. [21]On 6 April, the signs of spring awaken his poetic instincts once more. [22] By May not a week went by without a new poem: first it was the trade (or lack of it); then a requiem for the sailboat that had been hauled out of the frozen lake with so much difficulty in November; and a long lament for the lack of mail and later for the lack of supplies. [23]
He made his final entry in the Split Lake journal on Monday, 10 July 1911, [24] and arrived at Norway House a week later. On August 23, the entry reads, “Mr Chapman left to take charge of God’s Lake.” [25] Unfortunately, Chapman’s journal for God’s Lake has not been located and none of his photographs are identified as being of that post. We hear of his activities only when he visits Norway House from 20–28 February 1912 and again from 4–16 July 1912 when he and John R. Moar were “en route Little Grand Rapids.” [26]
The Little Grand Rapids journal for October 1912 to November 1915 was donated to the Archives of Manitoba by Sven Budvinson in 1965 and has since been transferred to the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives holdings. Although it arrived in poor condition, it has since been worked on by the Conservation Lab and is more readable now. It holds his poetic and literary entries, and records more details on aboriginal ceremonies than any other journal. Most entries of the “editor of The Little Grand Rapids Guardian” were in poetic form, including two long poems in an October 9-12 account of the gathering for the dog-feast and sad odes on the coming winter. [27] During his years at Little Grand Rapids, Chapman devoted more ink to trading transactions than he had at other posts, but he still found time to record his observations about the community and nature.
After the boy, Blue Legs, died on Christmas Day he devoted a poem to him:
“Fri, 27 December 1912 We buried the deceased at noon. The poor boy had been blinded some little time ago by using poultices of Indian herbs on his forehead to relieve the headaches from which he used to suffer.
On Earth we had to lead him by the hand
For Indian herbs had made his vision dim.
Oft thought I when a sunset bright I scanned
Or moonlit waters: “These are hid from him.”
As phantom tapestries that memory weaves,
He saw Spring woods, & Summer forests green,
And autumn’s glory with its golden leaves
And the cold Northland bright with Winter’s sheen.
Lakes, rivers, rapids, & the wildernesses
Alike were as a dream – pictures – half-forgot;
He saw no smiles light up his loved ones faces;
By voice he knew his friends – he saw them not.
But now he sees thro’ all Earth’s pains & joys
Yet will not lead us by his distant voice. [28]
In 1913 he continued with a varied set of rather negative poems including a gloomy lament on the weather; on the sad state of womanhood in “To a Militant Suffragette of England (On hearing of the war-like tactics of her party)”; and on his inner turmoil, an increasing concern.His mood does not lighten as spring approaches with his poem “Solitude” expressing his melancholy. [29] An attack of the flu (or “La Grippe” as he termed it) had not stemmed the poetic flow, nor had the long winter days. But, paradoxically, the coming of spring cut it off completely and he was in frequent conflict with people in the settlement after he had been left in charge of the post.
Hudson’s Bay Company post at Split Lake.
In September 1913, we learn of Chapman’s imminent departure. When he left, his successor continued with his satirical style: “Monday 15 [September] Fine bright day. H. L. Belcher takes over from W. M. Chapman the editorship of the Little Grand Rapids Guardian, and the readers of the Guardian can look forward to a much improved paper from now on.” [30] He left for Berens River on 23 September and arrived at Norway House on the SS Highlander at 7:15 p.m. on 17 October.
On 18 October, in the first entry made in the Norway House journal since May, he wrote:
“Mr Chapman takes over his appointment as Editor-in-chief of the ‘Norway House News,’ in addition to his other duties. Sir Hughie McDonald, of The Landing [31] , and several members of the crew a little indisposed to-day. Capt. Garson superintends unloading of S.S. ‘Highlander.’ Surveyors leave to-day. Business in store & office fairly brisk. Miss Griffiths takes over her appointment with the Ancient & Honourable Company. Right Rev. Bro Lousley honours the home of the ungodly, the Fort, with a visit. Bro. Blackford [32] also with him.” [33]
Two new clerks had entered the Company’s service in 1913: Donald Macoubrey(or as Chapman refers to him “Il Conti Donaldo Macoubrioni del Castello Norveggio”), and Stanley Dawson Ridley, [34] who arrived with Chapman on the Highlander. Chapman was anxious to introduce Macoubrey and Ridley, the other “merry bachelors” mentioned frequently in his journal, to fur trade life. Along with comments on the labour performed at the Fort, the journal he kept notes other activities such as the County Court session and the bridge tournament, which continued every night for a week. A record player seems to have been a much-appreciated novelty, since Chapman noted on 23 October “Signor Victrola gives concert in the Ross salon in evening and a very enjoyable time was spent.” and on Sunday, 2 November: “Mr & Mrs Talbot go to Very Reverend Bro. Lousely’s tabernacle; Mr Hamilton assisted by Rev. Victor Victrola, holds Church of England Service at Fort; Messrs Macoubrey, Ridley and the Editor visit Mr & Mrs Marshall in afternoon and stop to tea and supper at the vicarage.” [35] Occasionally a poem appeared including “Northern Dirge,” and weddings and dances were duly noted, but in general, the bulk of the entries concerned the fur trade. His entries become terser and lack his customary exuberance—perhaps a reaction to the cold weather that registered 50 °F below zero on 3 February 1914 and 65 °F below zero on the 9th, or perhaps due to the fact that business was dead, though his depression may have been related to his long absence from home or the lack of sunlight. On 2 March 1914 Chapman’s melancholy found expression in an uncharacteristic fashion: “Miserable and depressing day. Everyone more or less indisposed. Makes one wonder if life is worth living.” [36]
As spring 1914 approaches at Norway House, Chapman never regains his former enthusiasm, though he continues to enter interesting comments on local events. On 20 March, one of the entries reminds us that it was only after the present boundaries of the province of Manitoba were set in 1912 that most of the people living in the North were enfranchised: “Messrs Halcrow & Inkster, who have been taking names of those entitled to vote in the various districts of the hitherto unrepresented parts of the new Manitoba territory, are getting ready to leave to-morrow[for the North].” [37] On 1 April, Chapman notes: “The ancient fools-day stunt successfully carried out by several people who take a delight in such performances.” [38] However, his own former playfulness continues to elude him as he records the weather and trade, with hardly a reference to social activities. Even major holidays seem to lack their former appeal. On Easter Monday—the Easter half holiday—his normal enthusiastic description of the football game is replaced by the laconic entry: “Football match in village ended in fiasco, the ball continually becoming torn & useless.” [39] On 18 May, his two bachelor pals took leave of Norway House: “Messrs. Ridley & Macoubrey leave for Cross Lake Post, the former to take charge.” [40] Chapman immersed himself in taking inventory, an occupation of a full week’s work, followed by “Empire Day” when the store and offices were closed. In May, his main preoccupation, apart from the inventory, seems to be buying and reselling live foxes. [41]
The last entry in his hand was made on 29 June 1914 and on 30 June the new clerk notes: “W. M. Chapman leaves for Landing on way to England, having been 7 years in the Service.” [42] When he departed from Norway House at the end of June 1914, he had been in a melancholy mood for some time before he left, perhaps because of his longing for home and family. However, his time with them would be short and war was to play an important role in William Chapman’s life and the life of many of his companions in the Hudson’s Bay Company. The Company headquarters in London encouraged the men to enlist by offering them a month’s pay or three months’ half-pay on enlisting, as well as a promise of preferential hiring when the war ended. By November 1916, five men from Keewatin District were listed as serving in the war, including Chapman, Ridley and McCoubrey, the three merry bachelors. However, when the authorities in London tried to deliver Christmas parcels sent to them by the Fur Trade Department, only Chapman could be located. The covering letter noted: “The majority of numbers have been furnished by the military authorities at Ottawa, and although every endeavour has been made to verify the correctness of these, it is quite possible that in some instances, owing to similarity of names, the wrong numbers have been given.” [43]
According to the Company’s personnel records, William M. Chapman served overseas as Private 117183 in the Canadian Mounted Rifles. However, in my efforts to track him on the Library and Archives Canada website list of participants in the First World War, I discovered that this information is incorrect. The person with this number was a William Henry Chapman who entered the service in 1915 and listed his birth date as 9 September 1874 in Wolverhampton, England. He indicated that he had one year’s service in the Canadian Mounted Rifles and that he was a rancher in Calgary with a wife, Edith, and three children. This would make him about 13 years older than our William, and not the merry bachelor W. M. Chapman. William Henry was discharged in October 1917 as “over aged” on the discovery that he was born in 1865, not 1874, making it even less likely that he is our William Chapman; so, perhaps the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Christmas package reached the wrong William Chapman. The only other possibility among the 74 William Chapmans serving in the Canadian contingent was a William Henry born in Portsmouth, England on 19 August 1884. He was single and a bookkeeper, who joined in Toronto on 21 February 1916. [44] However, our William Chapman proudly used the middle initial M., never simply William, and certainly not William Henry.
I have found his true identity through his great-niece, Anne Wallace, who lives in Mulgannon, Wexford, Ireland. In 2010, she found on the Internet an article on dancing that I had written in December 2006 for the Village Green English Country Dancers Newsletter, The Town Crier. She contacted me for information on her great uncle, William Murray Chapman, and I sent her the transcripts and CD recording of the broadcasts on CBC Radio North. Anne Wallace was able to add more family context to William’s story:
My grandfather, Percival, who was the youngest sibling of William, often talked about him being the joker and the sociable one in the family, whilst also regaling us with stories about his own champagne drinking and late night dancing in his own youth!
William’s siblings were Evelyn, never married. She was a piano teacher in Kenya, loved horses, and died of tic typhus in Kenya;
Oswald, married but no children, very clever apparently, was a brilliant linguist, translated during the Treaty of Versailles negotiations, and died of TB in Switzerland;
Then William, apparently his father’s favourite. His parents were devastated when he was killed;
Then Charles Sydney, a vicar/missionary, who died of some illness he got in Southern Africa.
He married Vera Fogerty, who was an author of mythical-type books, one of which was made into an animated film in the 1990s. They had a boy, now deceased no offspring, and a daughter, who had a girl [Mary Ter-Berg];
Marjorie [Beatrix], was a school secretary who I knew and loved. She married late and had no children, loved having visitors from all over the world, travelled extensively and brought the most marvellous presents back! She died of a heart attack on the way to her youngest brother’s golden wedding celebrations. She lived in the family home in Mill Hill and I visited her there quite often.
Then my grandfather, [Percival] a doctor, somewhat eccentric, who married and had 2 daughters, my aunt, Helen Burton who died at Christmas 2017, and my mother [Stella Murdoch], both of whom were fond of a party! [45]
She located a tribute to William Chapman on Blundell’s School website, which provides the following details of his war career:
William Murray Chapman, a Lance Corporal in the 1st/5th London Regiment (the London Rifle Brigade), was the second son of Dr. Charles W. Chapman, a heart doctor in Harley Street London, and Mary Wedderspoon (nee Murray), daughter of a Scottish solicitor. He was born in January 1887 in Fulham, Hammersmith District, London, and attended school at Winton House, Winchester and at Blundell’s School, a boarding school in Tiverton, Devon, from May 1902 - Christmas 1904. He also obtained a Diploma from the London Chamber of Commerce before entering the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company ... he came home with the intention of spending at least six months with his family. In a short time, however, war was declared and Chapman at once offered his services.
He enlisted in August 1914, and was speedily enrolled in the London Rifle Brigade. His battalion progressed so rapidly at Bisley that they were sent to France the following November on active service. He was wounded the next month and spent Christmas at Cambridge, returning to the front the following year. A second wound was received in April 1916 and a third one in September 1916 whereupon he was sent to Havre where he remained until the end of October. However, he was so anxious to return to his regiment that he volunteered for the advance on the Somme ... At the start of October the regiment was moved to the Lesboufs area and were bivouacked between Bernafay and Trones Wood on the 4th October from where they made an attack onto Hazy and Dewdrop Trenches on the 8th October.” [46]
It was during that attack that he received his fatal wound and died the next day “in the arms of his sergeant. ... [He] was buried in the field but the grave was lost in subsequent fighting and so he is commemorated on Thiepval Memorial Pier 9, face D, Somme, France” [47]
Just last fall Anne Wallace saved a box that her mother had suggested be thrown out. On investigation it included four of his war letters to the family. She has sent transcriptions or copies of them to me and they are touching records of his last days. The first letter to his father, dated 28 November 1914, was detailed and chatty, ending with the reassurance: “Well, I am in best of health and hope to be back home again before very long. I may say that our casualties have been quite small in spite of what rumors you may have heard, so there is no need to worry. Our regiment is the second of its kind to go into firing line. We are attached to very fine brigade whose regiments have greatly distinguished themselves though of course public are not allowed particulars!” This was written immediately before he was wounded and sent home to Cambridge to recuperate. In the next letter to both parents dated 6 December 1915 written from “Somewhere in Belgium,” “Willie” sent details of the mud and crowded conditions in the trenches but always in a light-hearted manner. A week later, in a letter to his mother marked “Private” from “Somewhere in Flanders,” he writes in his familiar teasing way with references to her Scottish heritage as he refers to his reputation as a porridge maker. However, the last letter to his father, dated 10 March 1916 from “Somewhere in France” was all business as he sent home souvenirs through his friend, Lance Corporal Reeve. This letter was written before he was wounded in April and September and before he insisted on returning to the front where he received his final, fatal, wound.
William Chapman’s hardships in Northern Manitoba would have been an inadequate preparation for the torments he would endure in France. The Battle of the Somme was infamous for its appalling conditions and heavy loss of life. At the end of September, Thiepval—the objective at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July—had finally been captured. The Memorial bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. More than 90% of those commemorated died between 1 July and 18 November 1916. William Murray Chapman who died 9 October 1916 and his friend, Lance Corporal Reeve, who died three days after him, were included in the later losses. A website dedicated to the Battle of the Somme encapsulates the losses: “Bogged down in mud, the Allied Forces could claim only to have taken ten kilometres of ground from the German defenders. The terrible cost was 600,000 casualties.” [48]
Although in 1907 his supervisor had determined that he would “never make a fur trader,” by the time he left in 1914 he had served in the store and depot at Norway House and at the smaller posts of Nelson House, Split Lake, God’s Lake and Little Grand Rapids. At Norway House, his duties included the traditional fur trading and hiring York Boat crews. By this time retail activities were beginning to be important, and he also spent time setting up shelf displays and creating advertisements to appeal to the inhabitants of the growing community, which included missionaries, nurses, police and school teachers. At the smaller posts, it was a more isolated existence, not as far removed from the fur trade of one hundred years earlier.
Throughout his service with the Company, William Chapman used his position as clerk to record his observations about his surroundings: the land, the weather and the people around him. He did this with humour and skill, participating in the dances, picnics and religious services, but always with a sharp eye and a ready pen to record his experiences. We are able to observe the daily life in the North thanks to his writings. After he escaped the closer supervision at Norway House, he turned his hand to poetry at the more isolated posts of Split Lake and Little Grand Rapids with subjects varying from tributes to favourite people, to celebrations of the changing seasons, observations about the daily trade and teasing competitors. If the journals he kept at Nelson House from 1909–1910 and God’s Lake from 1911 to 1912 could be located, they might reveal similar local daily life. Occasionally the subject matter concerned the native peoples around him, and here he often revealed some of the biases and prejudices that were not his alone. However, he also could show great empathy for his First Nations neighbours, such as in his poems about the dog feast, an aboriginal love story, and the sensitive eulogy to Blue Legs reproduced here.
Near the end of his time in the North, his tone had become more sombre. No hints enter the journals about his feelings towards war, but when we learn that he has joined up it is not a complete surprise, given the mood of his last year with the Company. In spite of the apparent carefree life of the three “merry bachelors” during that last year, all three had enlisted by 1916, and by the end of the war at least one of them was dead. As William Chapman himself wrote in a tribute to a relative, “Requiescat in pace,” may he rest in peace. [49]
The photos in this article were provided by Anne Wallace of Mulgannon, Wexford, Ireland, a great-niece of William Murray Chapman, with kind permission of Mrs. Burton, Mrs. Murdoch & Mrs. Ter-Berg, three of Chapman’s nieces. It is believed they were sent by Chapman back to his family during his residence in northern Manitoba.
Where possible, the author has provided biographical details about known persons mentioned in the text.
1. Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Winnipeg, MB, Archives of Manitoba, B.154/a/83 (hereafter HBCA, AM)
2. HBCA, AM, D.38/20 fo. 66
3. Islay Colcleugh Sinclair, wife of C. C. Sinclair, Accountant at Norway House (HBCA, AM, Biographical sheet)
4. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/84 fo. 13d–15
5. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/84 fos. 18, 28
6. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/84 fo. 30–30d
7. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/84 fos. 32–33
8. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/84 fos. 34d–35d, 17 November 1908
9. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/84 fo. 33d
10. J. Albert Lousley was born in Peterborough in 1870 and ordained in Brandon in 1900. He was Principal of the Norway House Indian Boarding School, 1902–1916.
11. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/84 fo. 33d–34
12. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/84 fo. 34, 37
13. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/84 fo. 46
14. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/85 fo. 1b
15. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/85 p. 2
16. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/85 p. 5
17. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/85 pp. 18–19, 24.
18. HBCA, AM, B.207/a/7
19. HBCA, AM, B.207/a/7 fo. 7
20. HBCA, AM, B.207/a/7 fo. 11
21. HBCA, AM, B.207/a/7 fo. 18
22. HBCA, AM, B.207/a/7 fo. 20
23. HBCA, AM, B.207/a/7 fo. 27, 30
24. HBCA, AM, B.207/a/7 fo. 32
25. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/86
26. Ibid.
27. AM, MG1 C5 pp. 45–46 (now H2-133-4-5)
28. AM, MG1 C5 p. 67–68
29. AM, MG1 C5 p. 104
30. AM, MG1 C5 pp. 133–4
31. This is a joke about a local man who shared a name with Hugh John Macdonald, son of Sir John A. Macdonald.
32. James T. Blackford worked as a missionary for the Methodist Church, spending more than 25 years in northern Manitoba. He was also employed by the federal government as a Superintendent in the Forestry Service, and on his retirement became Principal of the Norway House Residential School 1921–1930.
33. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/86 fo. 59d
34. Stanley Dawson Ridley entered the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company in June 1913.
35. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/86
36. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/86 fos. 62d, 72
37. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/86 fo. 73
38. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/86 fo. 74
39. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/86 fo. 74d
40. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/86 fo. 76d
41. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/86 fo. 77
42. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/86 fo. 80d
43. HBCA, AM, A.12/FT 340/3 fo. 55–56
44. Library and Archives Canada, Box 1631–38 #916163
45. Using emails dated 7 May 2010 and 30–31 January 2018.
46. www.blundells.org – in memoriam
47. Blundell’s School and Commonwealth War Graves Commission web sites
48. www.stemnet.nf.ca/beaumont/somme.htm
49. HBCA, AM, B.154/a/86
We thank Clara Bachmann for assistance in preparing the online version of this article.
We thank S. Goldsborough for assistance in preparing the online version of this article.
Page revised: 23 March 2021
