Memorable Manitobans: Walter Earle Robertson (1898-1989)

Grain executive.

Born at Westover, Ontario on 29 April 1898, son of Russel Robertson (1870-1910) and Ella Jane McFarland Nicholson (1871-1962), he entered the grain business in 1916, working in Winnipeg for 16 years with the Alberta Pacific Grain Company, before moving to Calgary in 1930 to be Assistant Manager, and later Manager (1943). He returned to Winnipeg in 1949, and took employment with Federal Grain Limited and became Assistant General Manager. He served as Commissioner (1953-1964) of the Canadian Wheat Board following the Board’s expansion to a four-member body. He was married twice, first to Isabella Margaret Patterson (c1896-1958) on 16 July 1919 at Winnipeg, with whom he had two children. He later remarried, to Violet Labey at Winnipeg on 18 August 1962. He died at Winter Haven, Florida on 9 June 1989.

Sources:

1901 & 1921 Canada censes, Ancestry.

Marriage registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.

“City man gets grain board job,” Winnipeg Free Press, 13 November 1953, page 4.

“Funeral Tuesday for Mrs. W. E. Robertson,” Winnipeg Free Press, 13 October 1958, page 5.

Obituary [Ella Jane Nicholson], Winnipeg Free Press, 25 June 1962, page 26.

“Engagements,” Winnipeg Free Press, 28 July 1962, page 12.

“Robertson - Labey,” Winnipeg Free Press, 25 August 1962, page 16.

“Earle Robertson retires from Wheat Board,” Winnipeg Free Press, 15 December 1964, page 15.

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 6 May 1989, page 39.

Winnipeg Estate file PR90-01-17787, Walter Earle Robertson, Archives of Manitoba.

Tonja McFarland family tree, Ancestry.

This page was prepared by Nathan Kramer.

Page revised: 1 November 2022

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

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