Honouring Col. George Ham

Since it was in June 1904 when the Canadian Women’s Press Club was founded here’s a look back at a story of the man who inspired the club.

Honouring Col. George Ham
Canadian Pacific Railway publicist, Colonel George Ham was a special friend of Canadian Women’s Press Club (CWPC) members. In fact the club likely would not have existed without him.

The story began in 1904 when Ottawa journalist Margaret “Miggsy” Graham, while working briefly in Montreal for the Montreal Star, burst into George Ham’s office asking why he didn’t offer female journalists the same free transportation on a CPR train as he offered male journalists when covering events for their newspapers. Ham responded by saying if she could find 12 women journalists he would offer them the same thing. She found 16 women journalists, Ham kept his promise and in June 1904 he travelled with them via a CPR train to and from the St. Louis World Fair. During that trip Ham suggested they form a club and the Canadian Women’s Press Club was born, naming Kathleen “Kit” Coleman the first president and George Ham an honorary member. His account of this is in his autobiography, Reminiscences of a Raconteur.

Memorial Plaque
Following George Ham’s death on April 16, 1926 at age 79, Ottawa branch members were among the many CWPC newspaper women who travelled across Canada from Nova Scotia to Manitoba, gathering at Montreal’s Windsor train station to unveil a plaque in his memory (his book says he was honorary club president). The plaque, engraved with a likeness of Ham, was presented to CPR president Edward Beatty by CWPC president May S. Glendennan on October 27, 1927. It says in part, “This tablet is erected by the Canadian Women’s Press Club in grateful recognition of his services as their founder and friend. He was a gallant gentleman and great of heart.”

Another group of CWPC journalists had gathered in Whitby five months earlier for the dedication of a porch donated by club members that was built on to St. John’s (Anglican) church where Ham was buried in the adjacent graveyard.

Windsor Station
Windsor Station has not served as a train station since 1996, when the CPR moved its head office from Montreal to Calgary, Alberta after selling the building to Cadillac Fairview. But correspondence with CPRs manager, Heritage Services and Operations, Adam Meeks and with Tenant Relations Co-ordinator, Fairview Corporation Limited, Susan Voeung, and Anne Hu who is replacing Susan while she’s on maternity leave, confirmed that the plaque honouring Ham is still affixed to a wall at Windsor Station. It is located in the concourse next to the security desk and since the station has been designated an historic site that’s where it will likely remain.

The photo of the plaque was taken for us by Susan Voeung.