Historic Sites of Manitoba: Westbourne School No. 11 (Westbourne, Municipality of WestLake-Gladstone)

Link to:
Principals | Vice-Principals | Teachers | Photos & Coordinates | Sources

A mission school operated in the vicinity of Westbourne as early as 1859. The Westbourne School District was organized in July 1871. A second school building was constructed in 1874, being replaced in 1903 by a third school that operated until 1954. The present building operated from 1955 to 2000. Through the 1970s, the older grades were moved to schools in Portage la Prairie until, by 1971, only elementary grades were being taught at Westbourne. In 2000, with declining student enrollment, the school was closed and its building was sold by the Portage la Prairie School Division to what is now the Municipality of WestLake-Gladstone for one dollar. It was later sold to a private individual and, as of 2012, is being used as a music recording studio.

On the former school grounds is a monument commemorating the rural schools which operated in the vicinity of Westbourne: Adelaide School No. 32, Longburn School No. 93, The Landing School No. 951, Dundonald School No. 1322, and Nora School No. 1551.

Principals

Period

Principal

1908-1926

John Dawson Evelyn (1862-1942)

1926-1927

Jonathan Hughes Arnett (1879-1953)

1927-1928

Frederick Donald MacKenzie (1882-1970)

1928-1929

Hugh Francis Reed (1874-1932)

1929

John Cunningham Anderson (1862-1929)

1929-1931

Alfred Blakely Gillespie (1870-1939)

1931-1936

Jacob Truthwaite Norquay (1884-1976)

1936-1938

C. C. Coleman

1938-1939

John Leslie “Jack” Morrow (1896-1989)

1939-1941

Claude Amnesty Joyce (1908-1997)

1941-1942

Walter George Crane (1906-1979)

1942-1944

?

1944-1945

Mary J. Perry

1945-1946

Emmanuel Victor Edmond “Ed” Emond (1917-2000)

1946-1950

?

1950-1952

Michael Richard Firman (1909-1977)

1952-1954

Alex Sabeski (c1923-2014)

1954-1955

Leo Priebe Barkman (1925-2015)

1955-1956

Douglas V. Birch

1956-1957

F. L. Davey

1957-1958

Douglas Birch

1958-1964

Ronald Leslie Chalmers

1964-1966

D. A. Porter

Teachers

Among the early teachers of Westbourne School was William Edgar Pye (1901).

School Year

Teachers

1954-1955

Miss Helen Bates (junior), Mrs. Vincent Munro (intermediate), Leo P. Barkman (high school)

Photos & Coordinates

Westbourne School

Westbourne School (no date) by C. K. Rogers
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 5.

Westbourne School

Westbourne School (circa 1913)
Source: Education Department Report, 1913, Manitoba Legislative Library.

Westbourne School teacherage

Westbourne School teacherage (circa 1913)
Source: Education Department Report, 1913, Manitoba Legislative Library.

The former Westbourne School building

The former Westbourne School building (September 2010)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough

Westbourne area schools commemorative monument

Westbourne area schools commemorative monument (September 2010)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough

Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.13105, W98.58523
denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.

“Teacher’s home is classroom at Westbourne,” Winnipeg Free Press, 3 September 1954, page 12.

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.

Rural Schools of Portage la Prairie School Division #24 by Muriel Wright, 1996.

“School closure chance for city hall to act,” Portage Daily Graphic, 2007.

We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 3 January 2022

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