The Rev. Canon Harry Gee Cartlidge was born in Congleton, England June 8, 1889. He immigrated to Canada at the age of 17.  He worked at farming and logging while earning his secondary school diploma and then taught school to indigenous children on Manitoulin Island.  Harry Cartlidge then studied at St. John’s College in Winnipeg, Manitoba and subsequently became a deacon and then priest of the Church of England.  His first posting was at Waswanipi in Northern Quebec where he served the Cree as missionary and school teacher, 1915-1927.  He was instrumental in the building of St. Barnabas Church in Waswanipi and translated hymns and scriptures into Cree.  His father, Frank Cartlidge visited Harry in Waswanipi and assisted him with the construction of the church.

In 1927, the Rev. Harry Cartlidge married and moved to a multi-point parish in rural Manitoba based in Popular Point. He remained there for 35 years (1927-1962).  After retiring, he lived the rest of his life in Winnipeg and died August 7, 1988.

Fonds consists of diaries of Harry G. Cartlidge; travel diaries of Frank Cartlidge, Harry’s father; correspondence; printed material; sermons; and photographs.  The majority of the textual material and the photographs pertain to Harry Cartlidge’s time in Waswanipi.  Printed material includes a copy of Light on the Water: A pictorial history of the people of Waswanipi, by Susan Marshall.

Fonds arranged in the following series:

I. Cartlidge Diaries. — 1911-1928.

II. Cartlidge Correspondence. — 1945-2005.

III. Printed Materials. — 1962-1988.

IV. Harry G. Cartlidge Sermons. — 1923-1926, [ca.1986].

V. Cartlidge Photographs. — 1900, 1918-1927, 1970.

Title based on contents of fonds.