Hunt, William Harold

  • From “Manitoba Historical Society Archives – Memorable Manitobans”: See full biography at: http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/hunt_wh.shtml
  • Biography:
    • Civil engineer.
    • Born at Lennoxville, Quebec on 24 November 1884, son of William Francis Hunt (c1861-1905) and Catherine Maria Ives (c1865-1942), his early education was at Lennoxville. Of Irish extraction, his grandfather the Reverend Francis Hunt was a pioneer Methodist minister and one of the first in Quebec province, being ordained in 1842, and his father was an agent for the New York Life Association Company at Lennoxville who came to Winnipeg in 1900 as District Agent for the company.
    • He attended Wesley College, paying for his education by working on survey parties of the Hudson Bay Railway, and was in the first graduating class in Civil Engineering from the University of Manitoba. He served an apprenticeship with the Northern Iron Works of Manitoba, American Locomotive Works at Montreal, and two years with the Canadian Pacific Railway.
    • He was Assistant Engineer with the Canadian Northern Railway (Bridge Department) and Assistant Engineer of the City of Moose Jaw for three years before, in 1916, being appointed to the position of District Engineer with the Good Roads Board of Manitoba. In 1920, he moved to Selkirk where he served as President of the Selkirk Board of Trade (1925). In 1940, he enlisted in the Canadian military, first with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, then transferring to the Royal Canadian Engineers and serving at Petawawa, Dundurn, Chilliwack, and Wainwright. He was a supervising engineer for construction of the Trans-Canada Highway in Saskatchewan as of 1950, afterward returning to Winnipeg to work in private consulting.
  • Second Great Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=7344
  • Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/122714863/william-harold-hunt