Richard Henry Gardyne Bonnycastle1
#188, (25 August 1903 - 1968)
| Father | Angus Lorne Bonnycastle2 b. 3 Nov 1873, d. 1941 |
| Mother | Ellen Mary Boulton2 b. 11 Jan 1875 |
Richard Henry Gardyne Bonnycastle|b. 25 Aug 1903\nd. 1968|p188.htm|Angus Lorne Bonnycastle|b. 3 Nov 1873\nd. 1941|p67.htm|Ellen Mary Boulton|b. 11 Jan 1875|p187.htm|Richard H. Bonnycastle|b. 30 Dec 1843\nd. 2 Nov 1911|p24.htm|Charlotte K. Cassan|b. 31 Aug 1843\nd. 10 Jul 1930|p27.htm|Charles A. Boulton|b. c 1841\nd. 15 May 1899||Augusta Latter|b. 9 Feb 1851|| |
| Relationship | 3rd great-grandson of John Bonnycastle. |
| Occupation | Richard Henry Gardyne Bonnycastle was a lawyer, chief fur trader with the Hudson Bay Company, businessman who was with Harlequin from day one, chairman of Winnipeg Metropolitan Corporation, first chancellor of the University of Winnipeg (see biography below). |
| Birth | He was born on 25 Aug 1903 in Manitoba.2 |
| (with Parents) 1906 Census | He appeared on the 1906 Census of Manitoba with his parents. He was 2 years old and born in Manitoba.3 |
| (with Parents) 1911 Census | Richard H G appeared on the 1911 Census of Winnipeg, Manitoba with his parents. He was 7, born Aug 1903 in Manitoba, and did not attend school.4 |
| (with Parents) 1916 Census | Richard H appeared on the 1916 Census of Russell, Manitoba with his parents. He was 12 and born in Manitoba.5 |
| Marriage | He married Mary Frances Margaret Northwood.1 |
| Item. | Dick and Mary visited Weedon, Buckinghamshire in the 1960s and made notes regarding the Bonnycastle family there.6 |
| Death | Richard died in 1968.2 |
| Note. | RHG Bonnycastle Elementary School in Winnipeg is named after him. |
| Biography | Richard Henry Bonnycastle was born near Dauphin, Manitoba on 25 August 1903, the eldest of six children of Angus Lorne Bonnycastle, the local magistrate, and Ellen Mary Boulton. Educated at Trinity College in Toronto, Richard later earned B.A. and law degrees from Oxford University in 1924. A star athlete at Oxford, Richard toured Europe as a member of the world champion Oxford hockey team along with team mates Roland Michener (later Governor General of Canada) and Lester Pearson (later Prime Minister). Bonnycastle returned to Winnipeg and after a short stint with a law firm the lure of adventure pulled him to the Hudson's Bay Company. From 1926 to 1937 he toured the western arctic where he rose quickly to the position of Chief Fur Trader. A keen observer of great curiosity and energy, his arctic diaries, published in 1984, vividly recount his harrowing travels and the challenges of rejuvenating the far-flung Hudson Bay empire in rapidly changing times. Bonnycastle returned to Winnipeg as a senior manager and worked for the Company until 1945 when he left to become Managing Director for Advocate Printers. During the next 10 years, he put together the beginnings of what is now the world's largest publisher of romantic fiction, Harlequin Enterprises Ltd. A leader in the Winnipeg business community, Bonnycastle sat on several corporate and charitable boards and served as President of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, First Chairman of Winnipeg's Metropolitan Corporation, and First Chancellor of the University of Winnipeg. Bonnycastle died at the controls of his floatplane in 1968 after landing on Long Island Bay in the Manitoba wilderness he loved. Richard Bonnycastle gave generously of himself in the cause of conservation. The outdoors was an important part of his life from boyhood onwards and after returning from the arctic another Oxford hockey team mate, Winnipeg lawyer Edward B. Pitblado, helped draw Dick to service with Ducks Unlimited Canada. Bonnycastle joined the Board in 1955. His talents and energy were quickly recognized and he was elected President in 1957, serving four full terms through 1960. First as President, then as Chairman of the Board (1961-1962), and later as Chairman of the Executive Committee (1962-1968), Bonnycastle offered Ducks Unlimited outstanding leadership during a period of challenge and change. He is credited with leading the Directors to a more active and business-like role in the conduct of DU affairs. Bonnycastle led the push for enhancing reconnaissance and surveys to provide information to guide long-range conservation planning; he played a key role in bringing the company under firmer administrative and fiscal control; and he initiated a tradition of meeting away from corporate board rooms, in the field, with the people actually delivering DU's conservation programs. At the DU annual meeting in 1958, Bonnycastle posed the unorthodox idea of engaging an independent agency to examine and evaluate active DU projects so that the company "would have an impartial appraisal of the effectiveness of their work". In his view this would be helpful to management and would aid the Board in determining the extent to which expenditures were being wisely made and objectives achieved. Frustrating attempts to arrange for these evaluations with government agencies ended in 1964, but Bonnycastle's vision of a group dedicated to providing scientific leadership for conservation was realized in 1991 with the establishment by Ducks Unlimited of the Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research. The above biographical information is used with the kind permission of Ducks Unlimited Canada.2 |
Family | Mary Frances Margaret Northwood |
| Children |
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| Charts | 5 Generations of Descendants of Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle (1791-1847) |
| Last Edited | 11 Jun 2009 |
Citations:
- Letter from Angus Bonnycastle, Calgary, Alberta, to J Kolthammer, dated 1997.
- Online, Manitoba Historical Society. <http://www.mhs.mb.ca
- Online image of the 1906 Census for Northwest Provinces (Library and Archives Canada, http://www.collectionscanada.ca/02/020122_e.html), Manitoba, Marquette (5), subdist 17, page 10, line 31.
- Online image of the 1911 Census for Canada (Library and Archives Canada, http://www.collectionscanada.ca/02/020122_e.html), Manitoba, Winnipeg City (24), subdistrict (12), page 3.
- Online image of the 1916 Census for Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta (Ancestry.ca), Manitoba, Marquette (25), Page 20.
- Letter from Angus Bonnycastle, Calgary, Alberta, to J Kolthammer, dated 1997, June 1998.
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