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Interview of Charles Humphries

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Side A damaged/distorted; Side B a lot of fuzzy crackle; rest of audio file missing)
May 18 2004
Charles Walter Humphries (Galt, 20 August 1932).
Charles was a “Depression Baby”. He had a younger sister (b. 1936), although she developed a blood condition and later died in 1985/6. He remembers there being three Presbyterian churches in Galt—Knox, Central, and St. Andrews—that were flooded with Scots. But this merely reinforced the Scottish nature of the town. He also remembers that this Scottish community in Galt instilled in him a deep respect for education. This Scottish ethos of this community stayed this way until the end of the WWII when younger locals migrated out and immigrants from elsewhere, especially Portuguese, came to settle too. He went to Central Elementary. He talks about the Protestant-Catholic divide in the town. For example, there were four public schools (all Protestant) and one Catholic school; Catholics were therefore heavily outnumbered. His grandfather on his mother’s side installed into him a sense of anti-Catholic bias. He talks of his grandfather being annoyed that he had a Catholic friend, Ray Middleton, and looked down on his mingling with Catholic girls. He then went to Galt Legion High School and then went to Mcmaster University in 1950 to study History. After graduating in 1954, he completed his high-school teacher training certificate in Toronto and got a job teaching at Pilsenberg (?) (1955-7). He then went to the University of Toronto in 1957 and studied for a Masters in Politics. This led him to on to a Ph.D program researching Ontario politicians. He married his wife, Vivian Janzen, whom he had met at the College of Education in Toronto in 1954, in August 1956.
His father was Walter Humphries (Poole, England, September 21 1905). He came over to Canada in 1922; he was 17. But Walter has suspicions that his dad was fathered by another man; although he's sure his grandmother, Florence, was the mother.
His mother was Irene Isabel Cuthiell (January 10 1907, Ontario). She was heavily involved in the Church in Galt. He was also secretary for the BOM Victoria Nurses.
His grandmother on his mother’s side was Mary Hay Stewart (Kirkcubright, Scotland, 4 Sept, 1874). She was a domestic servant in Glasgow.
His grandfather on his mother’s side was Charles Cuthiell (Drip Bridge, Stirling, Scotland, October 17 1881). He was a blacksmith. He married in Glasgow just before making trip out to Canada on 10 June, 1905. Two of his brothers came out around the same time: one went to Calgary, one to Edmonton, and Charles went to Galt, Ontario. He worked as a janitor in Central School. He later became a waterworks superintendent. His politics had religious overtones: the Liberal party was seen as being too friendly towards Catholics. He wasn't going to be a Socialist, so he had to vote Conservative – the lesser of two evils.
His grandfather on his father’s side was George Henry Humphries.
Keywords: Galt; religion;

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