D'Alton Corry Coleman

D'Alton Corry Coleman was born on July 9, 1879, in Carleton Place, Ontario. He was the oldest son in a family including six boys and one girl, to parents James Coleman and Mary Jane Doherty, who were first generation Irish Canadians.[1][2] At age four, his family relocated to Braeside, where he attended elementary school. As a youth, he enjoyed reading history books, Blackwood's Magazine, and had a subscription to The Times of London by age 13.[3]

Rural Braeside in winter

Coleman attended Arnprior District High School by walking five miles each day, and played football and baseball at school.[3] During summers he worked 11 hours per day at a local lumber yard, earning C$12 per month as a tallyman checking freight on flatcars. He left school at age 15 to work full-time at the lumber yard with a raise to $30 per month.[1][3]

Coleman saved his money from work then attended Belleville Business College to learn shorthand. After completing business college, he worked one year as a secretary for George Albertus Cox and Edward Rogers Wood at Central Canada Loan and Savings Company in Toronto.[2][3]

Coleman turned to journalism and became a reporter for The Belleville Intelligencer. Six months later, he was promoted to be city editor at age 18.[1][3] He later worked for the Port Huron Times as an editor.[2][4]

Coleman quit the newspaper business after two years and was accepted for an advertised position in Buffalo, New York. He spent his life savings on a rail ticket to get there, and turned down the job when he found out it was for selling pills. After a night of roaming the streets Buffalo to keep warm, he visited a restaurant where the female owner listened to his story, fed him a large breakfast and gave him money for a rail ticket to get to his relatives in Sarnia.[3]

The Montreal Forum c. 1945

Coleman maintained other business interests including the financial sector. He was a president and director of The Scottish Mortgage and Trust Company Limited when it ventured into North America. He served as a director of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of New York, the Bank of Montreal and Royal Trust.[1][2]

He also served as a director for the Canadian Marconi Company which operated wireless telegraphy, and was a member of the Canadian committee for the Hudson's Bay Company.[3]

When the Western Canada Hockey League was in financial trouble during 1926, Coleman offered assistance to the league but his letter to Lester Patrick and Frank Patrick arrived too late and the league disbanded.[10] After moving to Montreal, Coleman became a director of the Canadian Arena Company and was a vice-president of the Montreal Canadiens.[2] The company had built the Montreal Forum which was the home arena to the Canadiens.[11]

Coleman owned a horse racing stable and several thoroughbreds.[1][3] He owned Western Prince which won the Canadian Derby in 1943 at the Polo Park Racetrack in Winnipeg. According to an article in Maclean's, his horses were supported by fellow CPR employees and a porter once reportedly said to a passenger "See, sir, our horse won today".[3]

University of Manitoba administration building

Coleman served as chairman of the board of governors of the University of Manitoba from 1933 to 1934.[2][4] His leadership coincided with guiding the university through the financial strain of the Great Depression.[12] After relocating to Montreal in 1934, he served as a governor of McGill University and was on the executive committee of University of Bishop's College.[2][4] He stated in a 1944 interview that, "humanities should be sacrificed to so-called practical courses" and that "our medical men, engineers and others should have the best training obtainable in the world".[3]

Coleman served as president of the Manitoba division of the Navy League of Canada for 10 years. He also served as a governor for the Montreal division of the Navy League of Canada. Under his leadership, the Canadian Navy League Cadet Corps was described by British naval officer Gordon Campbell as the "best cadet corps in the British Empire".[2]

Coleman was a member of several gentlemen's clubs across Canada including the Manitoba Club. He was a president of the Canadian Club of Winnipeg, a non-profit speakers' forum. He served as vice-president of the City Improvement League of Montreal, and was a chairman of the Canadian committee of the Newcomen Society. He was a patron of the Royal Canadian Legion and the Royal Commonwealth Ex-Services League. He served as a governor for The Canadian General Council of The Boy Scouts Association, the Shawbridge Boys' Farm and Montreal Festivals.[2]

Coleman was a director for three hospitals in Montreal, including the Montreal General Hospital, the Royal Victoria Hospital and the Notre Dame Hospital.[2]

Royal Alexandra Hotel rotunda

Coleman married Anna Grant in 1906, and they had two sons including Rowan and Jim Coleman. Anna died in 1920, and Coleman was remarried in 1922, to Florence Lynch.[1][9] He moved frequently with his work and lived in suites at Canadian Pacific Hotels from Vancouver to Montreal.[13] He spent eight years at the Royal Alexandra Hotel in Winnipeg from 1922 to 1930.[14]

Coleman attending sports events in Canada and the United States with his sons, including the 1925 Stanley Cup Finals, horse races at Saratoga Springs, New York, and games at the World Series. His sons would ride across the country in the care of a train conductor to meet their father, often with a limousine waiting.[13][15] Jim Coleman recalled that he and his brother took turns sitting beside their father at games, and stated "It was a painful business. Dad didn't shout much but he body checked all through the game".[3]

Coleman made a hobby of recreational fishing at the Lake of the Woods. He gave up playing golf and contract bridge since he felt they were "a waste of time".[3] Jim Coleman stated that his father had a good memory, and could recall the minutes and seconds of world records held in horse racing, and knew statistics for British cricket players despite not seeing a match in person.[3]

Coleman kept a personal library on Canadiana and the history of Western Canada. The collection was reported by The Canadian Press to be the best in the country at the time.[1] He encouraged his sons to read about history and world events and started them with the New York Herald Tribune. His son Rowan became a soldier and served with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry during World War II.[3] His son Jim became a syndicated sports journalist who credited his father for a love of horse racing, ice hockey and Canadian football.[13]

Coleman's brother Ephraim Herbert Coleman served as the under Secretary of State for Canada from 1933 to 1949, was the Canadian Ambassador to Cuba and then Brazil between 1950 and 1954, and later was the Dean of Law at the University of Manitoba.[9][16]

Coleman died at home in Montreal on October 17, 1956, after an illness of several months. His funeral was held on October 20, 1956, at Douglas Church in Montreal, followed by burial in Arnprior, Ontario.[17]

Order of Saint John star

The Winnipeg Tribune described Coleman as "modest" and "affable" which "won him the affection of thousands of fellow workers and fellow citizens", and also credited him for developing the CPR into an efficient means of war time logistics for Canada.[12]

Coleman received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from the University of Manitoba in 1932,[18] and an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree from the University of Bishop's College in 1937.[2]

Coleman was invested as a Knight of Grace in The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in October 1943, by the Governor General of Canada the Earl of Athlone in recognition of contributions towards home nursing in Canada.[2] He was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in June 1946.[19]

Coleman was an honorary president of the Navy League of Canada and the Association of Canadian Clubs of Canada. He was a life member of the Canadian Club of Winnipeg, and was given the honorary tribal chief title of "Chief of the Iron Trails" by the Piapot.[2]

• Taylor, Jim (2005). The best of Jim Coleman: Fifty years of Canadian sport from the man who saw it all. Madeira Park, British Columbia: Harbour Publishing. ISBN 978-1-55017-359-8.
• Kidd, Bruce (2017). The Struggle for Canadian Sport. Toronto, Ontario: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9781487516857.