PMB060 (CAMPING BANK OF RED RIVER) HAROLD HAMBER & GHS

PHOTOGRAPH
10 x 6 cm

Date: Not evident but likely about 1901

Publisher / Photographer: Unidentified

Notation: There are two people in the photo. The older gentleman at the entrance to the tent is identified as GHS. I haven't been able to discover his full name, but he is the same person credited with having the first motor boat on the Red River (shown in another photo in this series).

The young man on the left is identified as Harold Hamber. Born in 1883, Harold Hamber was 18 yrs old at the time of the 1901 census -which is likely when this photo was taken. His father was Frederick (Eric) Hamber - a math professor at St. John’s College. I am going to speculate that the Hambler family resided somewhere near the college - which would be in the immediate vicinity of this campsite. Being roughly the same age as Billy Drewry (pictured in the other of these campsite photos) and living in the same neighbourhood, I think it is likely that the two boys were friends and were visiting these campers on the same day.

At the time of the 1911 census, Harold was in the real estate business. In 1912, he married Nora Calquhoun. By the time of the 1916 census, Harold was an insurance broker. He and Nora were living at 140 Lilac Street with their three-year-old son Eric (presumably named after Harold’s father). Sadly Harold, a Captain in the Canadian Army, died in WWI on June 22, 1917.

For more information on Harold's father Frederick Hamber, see: www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/hamber_fem.shtml)