Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Henry Archibald Vaughan Green fonds
General material designation
- Graphic material
- Textual record
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: This fonds has been named for its creator.
Level of description
Fonds
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
Physical description area
Physical description
0.06 m of textual records
119 photographs : b&w ; 29 loose, 90 in an album
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Henry Archibald Vaughan (Harry) Green was a well-known Winnipeg lawyer. Born in Preston, Lancashire, England in 1888, he was educated at and received his law degree from the University of Edinburgh. He immigrated to Canada in 1913 to work in the legal department of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) with which he was associated until his retirement. He was called to the Manitoba Bar in 1915, and was appointed a King's Counsel in 1936. In Winnipeg, he married Katharine Mary Frances Blackman (1889-1955) and had four children.
In 1926, Harry Green began to attend séances, sometimes with his wife, at the home of Dr. T.G. Hamilton, a well-known Winnipeg doctor and psychical researcher. Until 1928, he attended the Hamilton séances only very occasionally; then between 1928 and June 1936, he was a regular participant in the séances. Harry Green was also one of three secondary mediums who assisted in the Hamilton experiments. Although he was well educated and skeptical of his own mediumship, he eventually became the conduit for the spirit claiming to be a sailor called “John King”. In order not to divulge his identity in the sitting records, he was at first referred to as “X” or “the Boy”, until 1929, when he began to be referred to as “Ewan”.
In 1931 when the Winnipeg Society for Psychical Research was formed, Harry Green was a board member, and became president in 1935. He also wrote the foreword to the first edition of Dr. Hamilton's book, Intention and Survival (1942). In 1954, he became assistant solicitor general for the CPR in the west, supervising offices at Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver, although he was still based in Winnipeg. He served on the executive of the Community Players of Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Little Theatre in a number of capacities, and was also a critic of art, literature, and theatre. About 1960, Harry Green moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he continued to work for the CPR in the capacity of special counsel, retiring from that position about 1963. In Vancouver, he met and married Fiona McLaren. He died in North Vancouver in 1979, aged 91, and was buried in Old Kildonan Presbyterian Graveyard in Winnipeg.
Custodial history
The records of Henry Archibald Vaughan Green were donated to the Vancouver Psychic Society by his daughter Dr. Nancy Sirett in 1989; the Society ceased operation in 1996. In 1999, Walter Meyer zu Erpen, acting on behalf of the Survival Research Institute of Canada (SRIC) received the records from the Society's last president. The collection was transferred to the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections by Walter Meyer zu Erpen in 2012.
Scope and content
Fonds comprises a labeled photograph album; loose photographs; newspaper clippings, including articles by or about T.G. Hamilton and Margaret Hamilton Bach; and carbon copies of minutes of some of the 1929 Hamilton experiments as well as drafts of two letters from Dr. Hamilton to European researchers.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Walter Meyer zu Erpen acted as transferring agent.
Arrangement
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Some of the photos are available in digital form through the Hamilton family fonds (MSS 14)
Restrictions on access
There are no restrictions to access.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
There may be restrictions on the use of this material.
Finding aids
Generated finding aid
Associated materials
Related Materials: Hamilton Family fonds Psychical Research and Spiritualism Collections
Accruals
No further accruals are expected.
Accompanying material
Accession information is located in folder 1 of the hollinger containing the collection.
Alternative identifier(s)
Standard number area
Standard number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Control area
Description record identifier
Institution identifier
Rules or conventions
Rules for Archival Description (RAD)
Status
Final
Level of detail
Full
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Created by Andrea Martin, January 2015
Revised by Samantha Booth, June 2015
Language of description
- English
Script of description
Sources
Walter Meyer zu Erpen, research notes