Richard Henry Gardyne Bonnycastle1

#188, (1903 - 1968)
FatherAngus Lorne Bonnycastle2 (1873 - 1941)
MotherEllen Mary Boulton2 (1875 - 1955)
Relationship3rd great-grandson of John Bonnycastle
Pedigree
Charts5 Generations of Descendants of Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle (1791-1847)

Family

Mary Frances Margaret Northwood
Children
  • Richard Arthur Northwood Bonnycastle1
  • Honor Bonnycastle1
  • Judith Augusta Bonnycastle1 (1940 - 2000)

Life Events

OccupationRichard 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).
RHG Bonnycastle Elementary School in Winnipeg is named after him. 
BirthHe was born on 25 Aug 1903 in Manitoba.2
 
(with Parents) 1906 CensusHe appeared on the 1906 Census of Manitoba with his parents. He was 2 years old and born in Manitoba.3 
(with Parents) 1911 CensusRichard 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 CensusRichard H appeared on the 1916 Census of Russell, Manitoba with his parents. He was 12 and born in Manitoba.5 
(with Parents) 1921 CensusRichard appeared on the 1921 Census of Dauphin, Manitoba with his parents. He was 17, born in Manitoba, and was a student.6 
MarriageHe married Mary Frances Margaret Northwood on 28 Nov 1931 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.7
 
(Mentioned) ObituaryHe was mentioned in his father Judge Angus Lorne Bonnycastle's 1941 obituary as son Richard H G Bonnycastle, Winnipeg.8 
(Mentioned) ObituaryHe was mentioned in Ellen Mary Bonnycastle's 1955 obituary as son R H G Bonnycastle in Winnipeg.9 
Item. Dick and Mary visited Weedon, Buckinghamshire in the 1960s and made notes regarding the Bonnycastle family there.10 
Newspaper Published 9 Apr 1965 in the Toronto Daily Star.

Winnipeg's Metro chairman - RHG Bonnycastle - yesterday asked for and received a 10 per cent cut in his $12,000-a-year salary.
Mr Bonnycastle - in a surprise move - told a regular meeting of council that the demands made on his time and energies had dropped off sharply since the first four-year term of his Metro office.
He said because of this he believed it was fitting that his salary be cut from $12,000 a year to $7,200 a year.11
 
DeathRichard died in 1968.2
 
Note.RHG Bonnycastle Elementary School in Winnipeg is named after him. 
BiographyRichard 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 
Last Edited27 Jan 2022

Citations

  1. Letter from Angus Bonnycastle, Calgary, Alberta, to J Kolthammer, dated 1997.
  2. Online, Manitoba Historical Society. <http://www.mhs.mb.ca
  3. 1906 Census for Northwest Provinces. Image from Library and Archives Canada viewed at Ancestry.com. Manitoba, Marquette (5), subdist 17, page 10, line 31.
  4. 1911 Census for Canada. Image from Library and Archives Canada viewed at Ancestry.com. Manitoba, Winnipeg City (24), subdistrict (12), page 3.
  5. 1916 Census for Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Image from Library and Archives Canada viewed at Ancestry.com. Manitoba, Marquette (25), Page 20.
  6. 1921 Census for Canada. Image from Library and Archives Canada viewed at Ancestry.com. Manitoba, Dauphin, SD 5, Page 25.
  7. Province of Manitoba online indexes to Vital Records. Richard Henry Gardyne Bonnycastle & Mary Frances Margaret Northwood marriage, #1931-051050.
  8. Obituary of Judge Angus Lorne Bonnycastle in The Winnipeg Evening Tribune, 9 September 1941. Digital image viewed online at manitobia.ca.
  9. Obituary of Ellen Mary Bonnycastle in Dauphin Herald, 17 November 1955.
  10. Letter from Angus Bonnycastle, Calgary, Alberta, to J Kolthammer, dated 1997, June 1998.
  11. Toronto Daily Star, 9 April 1965, page 58. Image viewed at Toronto Star archives.