Apr 13, 2019 — GREENWOOD, BC (BG)

Mr. H. Mortimer-Lamb, the first editor of the Boundary Creek Times, is the subject of today's 'Persons of Note'. While his presence in Greenwood is of interest, it was other aspects of his personal and professional life that elevate him to a man of real significance in Canadian history.

The Times was first published in Greenwood by the Times Publishing Company in September 1896, which ran the paper until 1899. It was then taken over by the Boundary Creek Printing and Publishing Company, from 1901 to March 1911. In April 1911, the Times was again taken over by another Greenwood-based newspaper, the Ledge.

The Times eventually ceased publication, but was revived many years later, in 1983. It is currently published by Black Press, of Abbottsford, B.C.

The paper's longest-serving editor was Duncan Ross, who steered the news company from 1897 to 1907. Editor Ross was frequently mentioned in our recent feature series, A Political Dogfight in Greenwood. But Duncan Ross was not the first editor of The Times. That honour goes to Harold Mortimer-Lamb, who served alongside Times manager W. J. Harber from its inception in 1896, until Duncan Ross took over the following year.

Photo of Harold Mortimer-Lamb, Steffens-Colmer Studio, c. 1937
[ The Royal Photographic Society Collection
at the National Media Museum, #2003-5001/2/21110 ]

H. Mortimer-Lamb was quickly drawn away from his duties at The Times by another publication, the British Columbia Mining Record. In 1897, immediately before the editor departed Greenwood, the Mining Record published this glowing comment:_[1]

"One enterprise which deserves more than passing notice, is that of the Boundary Creek Times, an 8 pp, and cover weekly mining paper, excellently printed and artistically got up, which is doing excellent work in attracting notice to this district. It is edited and managed by Messrs. W. J. Harber and H. Mortimer-Lamb, both well known in the journalistic field of B.C. [ ]

The Boundary Creek Times, published in Greenwood City, is the first local mining paper in this province to come out regularly as an illustrated paper. We congratulate our contemporary on its new departure. People at a distance interested in Boundary Creek will do well to subscribe to the Times, which is one of the best conducted and most reliable papers published in British Columbia."

A short time later, the editor was mentioned again, in his own newspaper:_[2]

"Mr. H. Mortimer-Lamb having received a telegram offering him the position of editor of the B. C. Mining Record, has accepted the same and will leave for Victoria to-morrow. Mrs. Lamb will accompany him."

Eventually succeeding Mortimer-Lamb as editor of the Boundary Creek Times was yet another Lamb… this one a Mr. H. O. Lamb, who served as managing editor alongside Duncan Ross, the publishing company's president. In December 1906, this Mr. Lamb left his post at the Times for a position in New Westminster, at the Daily Columbian.

Harold Mortimer-Lamb, Montreal, Wm. Notman & Son, c. 1905
[McCord Museum, #II-156985 ]

While Harold Mortimer-Lamb departed Greenwood to take up his new position, that was not the end of his presence in the Boundary. He continued to have a stake in local mining claims, and was involved in business with his brother, Frank, who arrived here in 1898. The Times social column reported that Frank Mortimer-Lamb was among the international arrivals checking into Greenwood hotels that February._[3]

A month after Frank's arrival, the Times reported:_[4]

"A dam is being made across Boundary Creek for the Lamb Bros. They intend running an irrigation ditch to their ranch adjoining the Midway townsite."

Frank remained active in the Boundary for a number of years. A July 1905 Times reported that:_[5]

"Frank Mortimer-Lamb, formerly of Midway, was in the city Tuesday. He is with the C.P.R. survey party now located near Eholt."

He also ran recurring ads in the Times:

"F. M. Lamb, Provincial Land Surveyor. Office with F. W. McLaine, Copper Street, Greenwood, B.C."

Harold Mortimer-Lamb's tenure as editor of the B.C. Mining Record came to a close in 1905. The Times announced:_[6]

"E. Jacobs, a well known correspondent, formerly of this city, has succeeded H. Mortimer-Lamb in the managing editorship of the B.C. Mining Record."

Although leaving his post as editor, Mortimer-Lamb stayed on with the Record as chairman of the board:_[7]

"At the annual general meeting of shareholders in the British Columbia Record, Ltd., held at the company's office, Victoria, on Wednesday morning, 1st inst., Messrs. H. Mortimer Lamb, Thos. R. Cusack and E. Jacobs were elected directors for the ensuing year. Mr. Jacobs, who early in January succeeded. Mr. Lamb as editor; was appointed managing director in place of Mr. Lamb, who has retired from active work in connection with the Mining Record, though still retaining the position of chairman of directors."

That same year, H. Mortimer-Lamb took on another prestigious position in the industry, again reported in the Times, March 1905:_[8]

"H. Mortimer-Lamb, for a number of years editor of the British Columbia Mining Record, has been elected secretary of the Canadian Mining Institute. The members are to be congratulated on securing the services of Mr. Mortimer-Lamb, whose energy and business ability will do much to restore the Institute to its former position of usefulness."

Molly and Her Dog, c. 1927
Photograph by Harold Mortimer-Lamb
[ Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Collection of Molly Lamb Bobak ]

Although he had been away from Greenwood for some time, in June 1906, H. Mortimer-Lamb was again mentioned in a local Times report:_[9]

"H. Mortimer-Lamb, secretary of the Canadian Mining Institute, well remembered in Greenwood, has just recovered from a severe attack of typhoid fever and has sailed from Montreal on a trip to Europe."

Following his European travels, Mortimer-Lamb returned once again to visit Greenwood:_[10]

"Mr. H. Mortimer Lamb, a former resident of Greenwood and first editor of The Times was a visitor this week. Mr. Lamb is at present Secretary of the Canadian Mining Institute."

In March 1908, he was re-elected as Secretary of the Canadian Mining Institute._[11]

While this marks the last footprint we find in local Greenwood papers on the activities of Harold Mortimer-Lamb, we have only scratched the surface of what was a brilliant career, both personally and professionally. In fact, so fascinating were the life and times of H. Mortimer-Lamb that he was the subject of an intensive study, published in the book by Robert Amos entitled Harold Mortimer-Lamb: The Art Lover. Following are excerpts from a review of the book by Maria Tippett_[12], which provide us with many more details on his life.

Harold Mortimer-Lamb: The Art Lover

"Harold Mortimer-Lamb lived an extraordinary life — all ninety-nine years of it. Born in England in 1872, he came to British Columbia at the age of seventeen, initially to work on Captain L.N. Agassiz's Fraser Valley farm. Within two years, however, he had become a free-lance journalist writing for small town newspapers like Chilliwack's Progress, then as a mining correspondent for Victoria's The Province. In 1897 he moved to the capital to become director of the Mining Association of British Columbia and editor of the British Columbia Mining Record. Six years later he was editing the Canadian Mining Review and running the Canadian Mining Institute in Montreal. Despite a salary of $3,200 per annum, enormous at that time, Mortimer-Lamb returned to British Columbia in 1920. Until his retirement he was secretary-treasurer of the Canadian Mining Institute's BC division, executive secretary of the Mining Association of British Columbia, and editor of The British Columbia Miner.

Harold Mortimer-Lamb's wife Kate and children
Photogravure, FindArtinfo.com

"All of this might seem enough to keep any man busy. But Mortimer-Lamb had an extended family. (Kate Mortimer-Lamb, neé Lindsay, bore him six children and the family's live-in housekeeper, Mary Williams, gave him a seventh child, Molly). And like many men of his class and generation, he had artistic ambitions. Working in the style of Pictorialist photographers he made soft-focus portraits of his family and friends. He exhibited them not only in Victoria and Montreal but also with the Royal Photographic Society in London. He then saw to it that his work — and that of other Canadian photographers — was illustrated and written about in journals like The Amateur Photographer and Photographic News.

Mortimer-Lamb's aesthetic interests were not confined to photography. In Montreal he took art lessons and became a lay member of the Canadian Art Club. Writing in the Canadian Magazine and Britain's The Studio, he introduced "modernist" artists like A.Y. Jackson and Tom Thomson to Canadians who had hitherto preferred to collect watered-down European paintings, and to British art connoisseurs who had wondered if there was such a thing as Canadian art. And Mortimer-Lamb not only put his skills as a journalist at the service of Canadian art and photography. During his many business trips he amassed an enormous collection of paintings, ceramics, and photography. (After his death in 1970, the collection was dispersed between the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Vancouver Museum and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria). He helped found the Vancouver Art Gallery. With fellow photographer John Vanderpant, he established the Vanderpant Galleries in order to promote British Columbia's artists. A social-networker before that term was invented, Mortimer-Lamb helped launch Emily Carr's career by bringing her name to the attention of the director of the National Gallery. He was also instrumental in bringing Ontario-based F.H. Varley to the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts in 1926."

Robert Amos, author of the book on Harold Mortimer-Lamb's life, is also featured in a Youtube video from a lecture he gave at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria:

We find another interesting mention of H. Mortimer-Lamb's endeanvours in the field of art, notably in support of the Group of Seven, on his Wikipedia page_[13]:

"Harold Mortimer-Lamb (1872 - 1970) was an Anglo-Canadian mining engineer, journalist, photographer, and artist perhaps best known for championing the Group of Seven in the 1920s. … While living in Montreal, he had the opportunity to meet, and become acquainted with, many of the leading artists of the day including Homer Watson, William Brymner, Maurice Cullen, and later, members of the Group of Seven, in particular A.Y. Jackson. During this time, he also acted as the Montreal correspondent for the leading English art journal, The Studio. As an art critic he wrote in defence of the Group of Seven at a time when most other critics were attacking their work."

Harold Mortimer-Lamb, born May 21, 1872 in Leatherhead England, died in Burnaby, B.C. on October 25, 1970.

Portrait of Harold Mortimer-Lamb
[ Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, #1977.309.001 ]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] British Columbia Mining Record 1897
https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcbooks/items/1.0303462#p17z-6r0f:

[2] Boundary Creek Times — Jul 31, 1897, p. 5
https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcnewspapers/xboundarycr/items/1.0170439

[3] Boundary Creek Times — Feb 19, 1898, p. 6
https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcnewspapers/xboundarycr/items/1.0170330

[4] Boundary Creek Times — Mar 26, 1898, p. 10
https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcnewspapers/xboundarycr/items/1.0170461

[5] Boundary Creek Times — Jul 07, 1905, p. 6
https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcnewspapers/xboundarycr/items/1.0171764

[6] Boundary Creek Times — Jan 27, 1905, p. 5
https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcnewspapers/xboundarycr/items/1.0172467

[7] Boundary Creek Times — Feb 10, 1905, p. 5
https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcnewspapers/xboundarycr/items/1.0171890

[8] Boundary Creek Times — Mar 31, 1905, p. 2
https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcnewspapers/xboundarycr/items/1.0172652

[9] Boundary Creek Times — Jun 08, 1906, p. 8
https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcnewspapers/xboundarycr/items/1.0171775

[10] Boundary Creek Times — Sep 20, 1907, p. 4
https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcnewspapers/xboundarycr/items/1.0172379

[11] Boundary Creek Times — Mar 13, 1908, p. 2
https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcnewspapers/xboundarycr/items/1.0172083

[12] A Review by Maria Tippett of Harold Mortimer-Lamb: The Art Lover by Robert Amos
https://bcstudies.com/book_film_review/harold-mortimer-lamb-the-art-lover/

[13] Wikipedia: Harold Mortimer-Lamb
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Mortimer-Lamb