The Cavanagh / Hurtig Residence
11218 100th Avenue
Originally: “1137 Victoria Avenue”
Constructed: 1912
This home’s first occupants were the Cavanaghs, George Edward and Elizabeth. As the North Bay Nugget remembered, the family moved out west sometime around 1906. “Mr. Cavanagh was employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway at North Bay for a number of years as a conductor.” In Edmonton, George “entered the employ of the Canadian [Northern] Railways and was known as the oldest conductor in point of service on the Edmonton Division.”
Elizabeth, a widow from a previous marriage, had one son, Reginald Thomas Boyce, who appears to have lived with them for a time. Born on February 8th, 1895, ‘Reg’ was described as standing at five feet, nine-inches tall, of fair complexion with brown hair and eyes. An Anglican by faith, he was a mechanic by trade and a student by occupation. Enrolled at McGill University when the Great War broke out, he initially continued his studies before enlisting on December 8th, 1915.
Earlier that year, “the government had authorized the formation of a company at McGill University for the 38th Battalion being formed in Ottawa.” The 5th University Company, as it came to be known, was made up entirely of university students, Reg among them. Before heading overseas he married Marjory Horner and the two conceived a daughter, Marcia.
Reg left Canada on April 1st, 1916, arriving in England on the 15th. “With news of the devastating losses to the [Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry] at [the Battle of] Frezenberg, two prominent McGill Graduates, George MacDonald and Percival Molson, suggested that the University companies be used to reinforce the Patricia’s.” They were, and Reg was transferred to the P.P.C.L.I. in June. On the 6th they crossed the Channel.
In France, Reg and the Princess Pats found themselves near the Somme. On September 15th they attacked the small village of Courcelette. While “the Canadians [benefited] from two tactical innovations: a creeping artillery barrage, and the first employment of tanks in combat,” and although they managed to capture their objective, casualties were high, and in the fighting Reg was struck by German artillery.
“Mrs. George E. Cavanagh, 1137 Victoria Avenue, [was] notified by the adjust general, Ottawa, that her son, Pte. Reginald Boyce, [had] been wounded in the thigh and [was] now in the hospital at Birmingham, England” on September 25th — they didn’t disclose his condition. According to medical records, shrapnel riddled both Reg’s “Left Thigh and Right Hand,” and an amputation was required on October 11th. His medical officer wrote that it was the result of an:
“Aneurism of [the] Femoral artery in Hunter’s canal. Gangrene of lower extremity — after operation on aneurism — amputation followed just above knee… Signed R.Hodgson, M.O.”
Fortunately for Reg, it healed without complication by Christmas Day, 1916:
“[The] Patient has an amputation on the left thigh with a 12” stump which is powerful. The wound is well healed and neither painful nor tender. He has been fitted with an artificial leg which is quite satisfactory.”
Discharged on July 31st, 1917, Reg returned to Canada. A brief layover at the Cavanaghs’ home — where “Mr. Boyce [was] glad to see old friends and any returned soldiers” — gave way to a job with the Ottawa-based Soldiers’ Settlement Board, a government-body which assisted returning service-men in setting-up homesteads. An internal transfer meant he returned to Alberta in June 1918 to head up the S.S.B.'s Edmonton District branch. He later served with the Investigation Branch of the Board of Pension Commissioners of Canada.
After George and Elizabeth “moved from their home on 100th Avenue to the Arlington Apartment, where they [had] taken a suite,” Reg, Marjory, and Marcia became the property's sole tenants. The young family sold the old home in 1923 to move to the Westend. Elizabeth passed the following year, and George died in 1926. Reg and Marjory eventually purchased a Glenora home, at 13110 104th Avenue, in 1930.
The Hurtigs took over in 1928. David Staples, an Edmonton Journal columnist, remembered in 2002, that:
“Julius Hurtig and Jennie Kerschner [were] both Eastern European Jews who came to Canada shortly before the First World War. Julius started his own tailor shop in Edmonton, making extra cash by jumping boxcars and riding out to the coal mines in Cadomin and Luscar, where he’d measure the workers for suits, ride the rails home, then return with the finished garments.”
Abraham and Julius Hurtig outside of the family home in 1946.
Jewish Archives & Historical Society of Edmonton & Northern Alberta Photo No. JHSE-69-IS-JHSE-671
Julius’ store, Cosmo Tailors, became a de-facto subsidiary of his brothers’ enterprise in December 1934. As Staples continues:
[Julius worked with] his two brothers, Adolf and Max, who lived in Winnipeg. Julius managed the Edmonton outlet of their fur shop, A&M Hurting Furs. He never much liked working for his brother[s].”
The Russo-Romanian couple gave birth to a dynasty of well-respected, community-minded sons. One, Henry, was “awarded the degree of doctor of philosophy in entomology at commencement exercises at the Berkley campus of the University of California.” A member of Sigma Xi, an international scientific society, Henry also worked for the Dominion Entomological Laboratory at Lethbridge. The Agriculture Institute of Canada financed his work. During the war he served in the Army at the Defence Research Experimental Station at Suffield.
Another son, Abraham, went onto have a successful career in the Canadian Army during the Second World War. A trained doctor, he “returned [to Canada] from overseas duties with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in June 1942,” and worked at Lansdowne Park Medical Centre in Ottawa, where he was thrice promoted, from Captain to Major to Lieutenant-Colonel. In 1948, the Czechoslovak government awarded him their Medal of Merit for his service.
The other, Mel, was a well-known political pundit. A bookseller in his youth, Mel became “best known as the publisher of the Canadian Encyclopedia and co-founder of the Council of Canadians, a group dedicated to preserving the country’s sovereignty… Over the years, [he] wrote numerous books, started Edmonton’s first independent bookstore, and founded a political party,” the Nationals, with a staunch anti-privatization focus. He became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1980.
But now the Cavanaghs and Hurtigs home is slated for demolition. Westrich Pacific purchased the property several years ago. If their plans go ahead, which seems likely, than the old home, along with a neighbour of similar vintage, will give way to a new mid-rise project.
Sources:
“Edmonton Public Schools Suffer In Casualties,” Edmonton Journal, September 25, 1916.
“The North Side,” Edmonton Journal, May 3, 1917.
“The North Side,” Edmonton Journal, September 7, 1917.
“North Side Society,” Edmonton Journal, November 14, 1921.
Henderson’s Edmonton City Directory, (1922) s.v. “Boyce,” pg. 272.
“Obituary: George E. Cavanaugh,” North Bay Nugget, November 16, 1926.
“Winners in Gyro Parade,” Edmonton Journal, August 27, 1928.
“Hurtig Quality Furs,” Edmonton Journal, December 8, 1934.
“Visits Parents Here,” Edmonton Journal, July 5, 1943.
“Gets Czech Metal,” Edmonton Bulletin, February 3, 1948.
“Receives Degree In California,” Edmonton Journal, June 12, 1948.
“Deaths: Boyce,” The Province, April 17, 1963.
David Staples, “The Vanishing Nationalist,” Edmonton Journal, November 10, 2002.
James S. Kempling, “Birth of a Regiment Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry 1914-1919,” (MA diss, University of Victoria, 2011), 23,
https://ppcli.com/wp-content/uploads/Kempling_James_MA_2012.pdf.
Ameya Charnalia, “Author, Publisher Was Political Activist To End,” Edmonton Journal, August 4, 2016.
“Courcelette,” Canadian War Museum, accessed December 26, 2021,
https://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/history/battles-and-fighting/land-battles/courcelette/.
Library & Archives of Canada, Personnel Records of the First World War, Boyce, Reginald Thomas, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 970 - 3, accessed December 27, 2021,
https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?op=pdf&app=CEF&id=B0970-S003
