George Harold (Harold)
Simpson
Male
Canada
1892-06-04
Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada
1979-03-03
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Harold Simpson, as he was known, was born in the town of Battleford, Saskatchewan, in June 1892, one of the five surviving children of Sidney Seymour Simpson, a farmer and English immigrant to Canada, and Margaret Ann Simpson (née Spears), who was born in Ontario.
In 1918, Harold Simpson married Florence Elizabeth Risdale (1895-1920), popularly known as Florrie, a native of the town of Northampton in England, whose family emigrated to Canada circa 1905, eventually settling in Saskatchewan. Florence Simpson was also a lawn tennis player. She and Harold had three children together, including Dorothy, who later became a medical doctor and wrote a memoir of her and her parents’ early lives. The following extracts are taken from that memoir:
This first section is taken from one of the six copies I have of Harold’s 86-page memoirs printed in September 1973. This small portion is written, as there, in the first person:
In my family there were six, Sid, two years older than myself and three younger sisters, Myrtle, Ruby and Rita. A brother, Basil, died in infancy. The first home I recall was a log house about one mile from the Police Barracks at Battleford where father was the head cook for the men stationed there. Attached to our house was a bake-house with a brick oven in which a wood fire was lit and when enough heat was generated the wood was removed and the loaves of bread placed in it. The bread was sold to the barracks and also in town.
A team of dogs, Billie and Bouncer, slept next to our home and when the barracks’ bugle sounded they howled to waken father. He hitched up the dogs and drove to the barracks to prepare breakfast for the men. The dogs were turned around to go home where they pushed their front paws against the collars to free themselves. The dogs would later be re-harnessed to take us the two miles to school. After our dinner a large box with bread was placed in the sleigh and we delivered it to town.
Billie’s worst habit was when running behind and under the democrat. If he saw a woman walking ahead, he would dart out barking furiously. On overtaking her, he would throw his hindquarters sidewise so as to knock the woman over. We were never able to cure him of this habit.
One of the pioneers in Battleford was a man called John Todd. He was a mail carrier who took the mail from Battleford to Edmonton in the 1880’s. He travelled by Red River cart in summer and dog team in the winter. He would have the Saskatchewan Herald in Edmonton twelve days after it was published.
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Among Harold’s many amusing stories is this one:
One day a substitute team had to be hired for a funeral. At the church bearing the casket, the horses became frightened and ran away. When the husband arrived where the team finally stopped he said, “Gee-by-cry. My old woman, she sure have one hell of a fast ride that time!”
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Homesteads are frequently mentioned in pioneer days. A homestead consisted of a quarter section of land, secured by the payment of $10.00. It was then required to “prove up” on the homestead by breaking the minimum of ten acres within three years’ time. The patent could then be obtained for the homestead. Harold’s book tells about two crops on his homestead. One stood two-and-a-half feet high, ready to thresh and produce a high yield. A hailstorm struck and in half an hour totally destroyed the crop. Rust ruined another crop, ready to thresh. Later, rust-resistant wheat was developed, which solved this problem.
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My Personal Memories of my Father, Harold Simpson.
I grew up in the “Dirty Thirties”. One of my early remembrances was of crouching behind Dad and Granddad as they gazed at the dark clouds toward the west, hoping for the needed rain. As the clouds faded away the timeless remarks were, “They’re just the empties going home”. And yet never did I feel there was a sense of despair. Always there was the certain faith that better times would come. What joy to walk the nearby fields with Dad while he pointed out to me the various stages of the growing crop. The “shot blade” was something eagerly looked for and then signs of the actual head.
My father is probably best remembered for his skill at tennis. I know his and mother’s tennis exploits in only scattered ways. They regularly participated in tournaments in the town of Wilkie, which was fifty or more miles from Battleford. The nine silver cups and many medals now distributed amongst my children and grandchildren, and won by both mother and father, date from 1915 to 1926. Except for the Provincial cup, Wilkie Lawn Tennis awarded all the small cups.
Our family of five played tennis when opportunity arose but that was infrequently. That my tiny, four-foot-ten-and-a-half mother was able to compete and win at the game always astonished me. She had the most amazing service. The underhand stoke delivered with an exquisitely graceful flick of her wrist invariably took her opponents by surprise. Equally astonishing was her father’s, Granddad Risdale’s, agility and skill, which lasted until he put up his racquet at age eighty.
Dad’s capture of the Provincial Championship of Saskatchewan in 1926 was more than popular with the general public but not with the Regina elite. Most of Dad’s practice was against a barn wall after a hard day’s work on the land. To be bested by an unknown farm boy did not sit well with them. Presentation of the cup at matches was normally followed by a banquet at which the winner was honored. The only recognition Dad received was to be handed the cup on the tennis court.
Following the Provincial Championship little is heard of tennis again. I guess it was because in 1926 the Lindquist Saskatchewan Wheat Pool Elevator was opened three quarters of a mile from our farm and Dad became the agent. I would be four or five when I went there regularly to feel the excitement of grain being delivered. The elevator was connected to the office basement by a raised walkway beneath which ran belts connecting the two. As soon as we saw a load approaching Dad would go down steps to the basement to start the engine. Was it a gas can or an oil can he used? Then he would stand within the huge wheel and give it a mighty pull. Slowly, slowly the engine would start to power everything in the elevator itself.
Doors would be opened, boards curled around the vehicle wheels and it was raised to empty the grain into a pit, from which a vertical shaft elevated the grain to a numbered bin above. Grain cars on an adjacent rail track would eventually receive the grain. The cars were “coopered” with thick sheets of brown paper and as the cars filled, doors were added to the top. Finally, car doors from each side were closed and sealed with stamped aluminum strips. Cars were moved by hand down the track with a large winch, where they waited to be picked up by the next train.
1926 - 1927
1
2
1
1926 - Saskatchewan Championships (Amateur)
Final
Walter Melville Martin 1 *
George Harold (Harold) Simpson
6-1
6-2
6-1
Final
George Harold (Harold) Simpson 1 *
Dr Charles Henry Weicker
6-8
2-6
7-5
6-3
7-5