Fonds MSS 439 (A12-110) - Henry Archibald Vaughan Green fonds

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

CA UMASC MSS 439 (A12-110)

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

(1888-1979)

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

Related materials

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

Mss 439 (A12-110)

Institution identifier

UMASC

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

Accession area

Related subjects

Related people and organizations

Related places

Related genres