Found Foote Photo #11: Sunday School in Elmwood

Back in January, June Sanderson brought in a photo of her father, Henry James Hunter.

He is one of the boys in this 1920s-era group photo. June didn’t know which one. She knew this was of a Sunday school in Elmwood, but didn’t know which church it was.

June didn’t see these photos until after her mother’s death in 1985…so she couldn’t ask which little boy was her father.

Henry James – Jim to his friends – was a salesman for 3M before the war. June said she heard that he sold the first roll of tape in Winnipeg.

He joined the air force in 1942 and was in training all over Canada. He went overseas in March of 1945, toward the end of WWII. June was born while her father was away, though she notes he was there for her christening.

Post-war, Jim was a foreman in the baggage department for CPR and lived at 689 Moncton Avenue in East Kildonan. He died in 1956 at the age of 45.

A few months after our meeting, June contacted me again. Though she’d initially been leaning towards John Black Memorial United on Henderson Highway, she was now quite certain it was Gordon-King Memorial United.

Located on on Cobourg Avenue in Elmwood, the church was named in honour of Rev. Dr. Charles W. Gordon (also known as writer Ralph Connor), and his father-in-law, John Mark King. King was the first principal of Manitoba College (now the University of Winnipeg).

This supposition was confirmed by a search of the website for Gordon-King Memorial, which contains images of their meeting hall, which looks very similar to the room in June’s photo.

Thanks to June for sharing her photo…and her mystery!

Can any readers identify any of the other people in the photo? If Jim wound up with one, it makes me wonder how many other copies are in people’s attics and spare rooms in a box of old photos…