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Memorable Manitobans: Fred Melsom Gee (1882-1947)
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Fred Melsom Gee
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Musician, impresario.
Born at Cardiff, Wales in July 1882, he immigrated to Winnipeg in 1902 and worked as a piano accompanist and organist. In 1903, he joined the staff of the Winnipeg College of Music and served as a church organist for years. He was also a faculty member of the Imperial Academy of Arts and Music. He was organist for the Winnipeg Oratorio Society (1908-1928). In 1927 he became a full-time concert impresario and he promoted the “Celebrity Series” of recitals in the Winnipeg Auditorium starting in 1932 and running into the 1960s.
On 1 August 1906, he married Edith Minnie Williams (1885-?) at Winnipeg and they had eight children: Gladys Irene Dorothy Gee (1907-1971, wife of Gordon William Donaldson), Elizabeth “Bessie” Gee (1910-?, wife of George Brock), John Edward Fred Gee (1912-?), Arthur Kitchener “Bill” Gee (1914-?), Edgar M. Gee (1919-?), Robert W. “Bob” Gee (?-?), Melsom Henry Walter Gee (1921-1944), and David Gee (?-?).
He died at the Winnipeg General Hospital on 8 June 1947 and was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery. His “Celebrity Series” papers are at the Archives of Manitoba.
Sources:
Birth and marriage registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
1911 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
“Fred M. Gee, city impresario, dies,” Winnipeg Tribune, 9 June 1947, page 1.
“A hoard of mementos a lifetime in the wings,” Winnipeg Free Press, 23 November 1968.
Obituary [Gladys Irene Dorothy Donaldson], Winnipeg Free Press, 19 April 1971, page 11.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 31 March 2023
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