The Holyrood School District was organized in April 1885. A school building was erected, which served the educational and religious needs of the community, being the location of the founding meeting for Starbuck United Church. The school was consolidated into Starbuck Consolidated School No. 1150 and continued to be used through 1910. The location of the former school site was not recorded in official school records so the location shown here, in the Rural Municipality of Macdonald, is approximate.
Among the teachers of Holyrood School were W. M. Newton (Spring 1885), Ada Shafer (Fall 1885 - Spring 1886), Frank Fincham (Fall 1886 - Fall 1888), A. P. Ledingham (Spring 1889), William McCraig (Fall 1889 - Spring 1890), Thomas Laidlaw (Fall 1890 - pt Fall 1891), Isabel Irving (pt Fall 1891 - pt Fall 1893), Alex Dunn (pt Fall 1893 - pt Fall 1894), W. G. Lyall (pt Fall 1894), Robert M. Neilson (Spring 1895), Charles E. Armstrong (Fall 1895 - Fall 1898), David Palmer (Spring 1899 - pt Spring 1901), Matthew Rodgers (pt Spring - Fall 1901), records not available (Spring 1902 - Fall 1904), George Whetham (Spring 1905), Lucy I. Brett (Fall 1905 - Spring 1906), Pearl Nama Broadworth (Fall 1906 - pt Spring 1908, pt Spring 1909), William A. Larter (pt Spring 1908), and Ethel D. Pope (Fall 1908), Mary Hodgson (pt Spring 1909), and Gertrude I. Gray (Fall 1909).
Holyrood School (circa 1888)
Source: Starbuck United Church
Holyrood School (no date but probably circa 1909)
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photos GR2664, C65.
Holyrood School commemorative sign (September 2014)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.75416, W97.56719
denoted by symbol on the map above
One Hundred Years in the History of the Rural Schools of Manitoba: Their Formation, Reorganization and Dissolution (1871-1971) by Mary B. Perfect, MEd thesis, University of Manitoba, April 1978.
Board of Education registers (A 0050), GR7643, Archives of Manitoba.
Summative half-yearly returns for school districts (A 0051), Archives of Manitoba.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Holyrood School District No. 391 Daily Registers, GR0638, Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Starbuck School District No. 1150 Daily Registers, GR0638, Archives of Manitoba.
Financial support for research reported on this page was provided by the Manitoba Heritage Grants Program (grant 12F-C101, 2012-2013).
We thank Leonard H. Goldsborough for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 3 November 2025
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