1906 British /Canada Bowls Tour

"Heading off across the Pond" was how it was described in Europe as lawn bowlers of both sides of the Atlantic prepared for a two Month Lawn Bowl Tour of Canadian Lawn Bowls Clubs by United Kingdom lawn bowlers from several of their clubs

In the spring of 1906 the Canadian Ontario Lawn Bowls Association,  on behalf of several Canadian Clubs, was communicating with England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales ( then called  the International Lawn Bowls Board) as they approached the final steps of preparation for the 1906 Canadian Lawn Bowl Tour.  This was to be a tour of Canadian Clubs by eight British  teams following  a similar type of trip to England  by Canadian Club teams two years earlier (1904).

Blog's Author note - I have indicated when the contents of the blog are quotes (italic text) from the Canadian archives and have been inserted. Because of the early  1920's storage and copy procedures; these quotes have created  problems of line length .  If you want to attempt to read the archives, which are difficult to do, but interesting go to  "The British Bowlers in Canada 1906 " (May 2017)


During the 1906 Tour by the eight rinks of British Bowlers, one of the more than 20 Central Canada's  Canadian Lawn Bowls Clubs visited  was the Montreal "Westmount Lawn Bowls" club which still operates on Sherbrooke Street in  Montreal. The below photo, from an earlier  web page posting of the club may even show some of the players who participated in welcoming these visiting bowlers.  On  Saturday 28th July 1906 at 3pm; the bowlers met and the local newspaper  quoted the event  as "Westmount Club made Gallant but Ineffectual  Struggle. "

 "After the visitors

 had indulged in a little

 preliminary practice,

and the indispensable

 photographic ceremony 

for the Standard had been 

undergone, the match was begun".

 (Above Photo from a publication when Westmount LBC did their Centennial celebration in 2002.)

"There were six rinks a side, each rink playing 21 ends. 

 From the very outset it was apparent that the local club

 would have to go ' all they knew' to beat their opponents". 

"The visitors, without exception, showed that they were 

thoroughly proficient exponents of the game, and gradually,

 but surely, the disparity in the aggregate scores increased

 in the British team's favour"

How did this Tour of Bowlers and this Diary get to be.??.

 The Journal writes  "I have a long talk with Mr. Hamilton. ... and he wants me to write an official description of our tour, but I am loth to undertake such a task, as there might be more expected of me than I would be able to perform. I told him I was keeping a diary of our trip

Quote from "  The British Bowlers in Canada, 1906.

While one is reading this journal the author writes about an interesting game of Bowls they played while doing their trip across the Atlantic. 

This "on board Ship" game which the journal writes about the teams trans-atlantic trip on the SS Virginian and how they played  their daily Bowls Games.

 "TUESDAY, 24TH JULY. Another dull and hazy morning, but there are quite a number of the early risers 

on deck before breakfast time. 

There is to be a bowling tournament to-day, and the entry money is sixpence each. I join, of course,

 along with the others. The drawing for partners is to take place after breakfast time. This is quite an

 interesting event. How little amuses us when cooped up like this !" 

It cleared up beautifully about mid-day, and we had a delightful time of it on the upper deck playing

 .... at what.... we called bowling. Fog came down about three o'clock, and tended to make things unpleasant

 for us. The foghorn kept roaring every few seconds, and speed was slackened, but this didn't prevent us 

having our game. (at what is called " shuffle-board," but which we called bowling.) Rinks were drawn and 

allocated as follows:

   Scotland v. Canada, and England v. Ireland.

 The ties were entered into with the greatest spirit, and many onlookers watched the progress of the game

 with the keenest interest. The tie betwixt Scotland and Canada was a very keenly contested one, only one

 shot being declared in favour of Scotland at the last end. The game betwixt England and Ireland was also

 closely contested, and resulted in favour of 

England by a small majority. This left the final to be played off betwixt England and Scotland, and the 

champions or rather representatives of the two countries  were each sanguine of success. The onlookers were 

very fairly divided in their 
sympathies, and the players in either rink were encouraged to do their best by their several well wishers".

Well about the Trip.. "We are now under way and gliding along the Northern coast of the Emerald Isle. Letters 

had been posted at Moville to friends at home and, as the rugged headlands of the Irish coast receded from view,

 we felt that the last connecting link that bound us to the old land had been severed for a time, and we 

settled 

ourselves down to face the future buoyant, hopeful and happy.

Of interest from the journal to  Richard, a good friend and the Greens keeper today at 4895 rue Sherbrooke ouest Montreal, (when this blog was written in 2013)

(photos from http://bowlswestmount.ca/ site) 

 is the following extraction of  the 1906 Diary.

  

Extract from Canadian paper received (by passengers when their ship docked at port at Rimouski.

" At Rimouski we had some Canadian newspapers handed on board, and they contained some interesting reading. Here is a cutting from the Montreal Daily Herald, dated the 24th July,

Westmount Enthusiasts Getting their Greens into Shape

 " Westmount green bowlers are busy o' nights preparing for the reception of their brother players now on the voyage from the old country to make a tour of the Canadian greens.

" The local turf is admittedly in a wretchedly bad condition this season, worse probably than since it was laid. For this the Westmounts are, however, in no way to blame. 

Since the growing weather set in, in the spring, much time and labour has been devoted to getting it into shape, but so disastrously had the turf been served by the remarkable weather of the winter, that the task from the beginning seemed almost a hopeless one. 

Sudden thaws and succeeding frosts had played havoc, and when the snow cleared, there was a series of bare patches that gave the enclosure more the appearance of a huge checkerboard than of a bowling green.

" In the interval much has been done. For days the patient keeper worked laboriously picking out by the roots rank growths of grass that so plentifully showed as the springtime advanced ; for days he sanded and rolled alternately, and played the refreshing hosepipe in long spells of drought.

 " Last night many of the members, including ' Jimmy ' Wilson and ' Willie"' Brown, spent much time with sand and roller eradicating ' lumps/ and testing the various rinks running both ways of the green.

Because the archives (scanner errors) it is difficult to read complete sections but what I found  as extracts of the diary I have attempted to patch here. There is of course bits about the trip.

"The sea is a little lumpy, but not bad, even for a landsman. Our ship is making steady headway, and during the last  twenty-four hours we have

 

Bowls Commemorating the 1906 Canadian tour

Updated (September 11,2014) - During the weekend while I , the  blog author, was participating in the 2014 Atlantic Bowls competition in PEI, a gentleman approached me saying 'Would you like to see some really old bowls ?'
 He explained he was painting a house nearby and although not a lawn bowler, he had received these bowls from his grandfather estate during a recent visit to England. His great great grandfather's lawn bowls which were handed down to him as he was living in Canada and they were about the Canadian Tour of 1906.  He explained that his great great great grandfather, George Cousin was with the visiting  British team and  had bowled out of Illowa LBC (UK). Following the 1906 two month Canadian Tour; his club had presented him with these bowls as a gift from the  club to commemicate his participation.

Further in the Journal we find the following entry about the delay of shipping in 1906 and the need to change arrangements to meet the bowling schedule arranged.

"" After correspondence with Mr. Postlethwaite, the secretary of the Ontario Bowling Association, the International Board have arranged that the team should leave Liverpool on Saturday, 2ist July, by the Canadian Pacific Railway Steamship Empress of Ireland, which is due to arrive at Montreal on 28th July, and that they should return by the same steamer, leaving Montreal on 1st September, and due in Liverpool on 8th September" So writes on the 8th of June 1906 A. H. HAMILTON, Secretary. for the British Organization  Quote from "  The British Bowlers in Canada, 1906.

In the Summer of 1906, with the total planning finished the sailing trip was suppose to be on the newly build Empress of Ireland  but at the last minute due to departure delays it was changed to Allen Line  SS Virginian . Below are the story of the life of these two ocean liners and the  SS Virginian   was later named SS Drottningholm which I found had an interesting story of it`s relationship with the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.

At the time of this letter by Mr. Hamilton the Empress of Ireland was delayed by shipyard delays as WIKIPEDIA says " RMS Empress of Ireland   was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering 

at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland and was launched the 29th of June in 1906.  The liner was commissioned by Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP) for the North Atlantic route between Quebec (Montreal) and Liverpool in England.
(Update July 2022 - Youtube  Sinking of the Empress of Ireland - YouTube 

Today  the wreck of the Empress of Ireland lies in 40 metres (130 ft) of water at the mouth of the St-Lawrence River after an accident 8 years after it`s building, A Canadian Shipwreck now accessible to divers, it is today one of a few Eastern Canada Diver accessable wreck sites. and because of the removal of artifacts,  "the Canadian government has passed legislation to protect the wreck .

The Empress of Ireland, had just begun her 96th sailing when she sank in the Saint Lawrence River following a collision with a Norwegian collier in the early hours of 29 May 1914. Of the 1,477 persons on board the ship, the accident claimed the lives of 1,012 (840 passengers, 172 crew The number of deaths is the largest of any Canadian maritime accident in peacetime.

Further into the diary of  The British Bowlers in Canada, 1906. Mr. Hamilton further writes

As previously intimated, arrangements had been made for the team leaving Liverpool on Saturday, 2ist July, by the Canadian Pacific Railway Steamship Empress of Ireland, but the date of departure of that boat has been postponed until 27th July.
 As all arrangements had been made by the Ontario Bowling Association on the assumption that the team would arrive in Montreal on 28th July, the committee of the International Board have decided that it is impossible to delay departure until 27th July.
 It was necessary, therefore, that other arrangements should be made." I have now completed arrangements with the Allan Line, whereby that company accept the party on the same terms as those which had been previously arranged with the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, viz. 25 143. first-class return from Liverpool to Montreal.
 The team will leave Liverpool by the turbine liner Virginian on Thursday or Friday, iQth (19th) or 2Oth July, and it is expected that the boat will arrive in Montreal on 26th or 27th July. The tour will extend to 3ist August, when the Virginian is posted to leave Montreal for Liverpool."

 Another interesting fact found in WIKIPEDIA,  about these ships involved in this Canadian Lawn Bowls Tour is that  the Virginian was Built in 1905  in Glasgow for the Allan Line of Canada and commissioned as SS Virginian, ...... In 1912, she was one of several ships in wireless radio communication with RMS Titanic, giving iceberg warnings, and at one point "erroneous wireless messages"  had Virginian towing Titanic to Halifax, Nova Scotia and that all on board Titanic were safe. (Such a report appeared in the Daily Mirror on 16th April 1912).  She operated from 1920 to 1948 for the Swedish American Line as SS Drottningholm 

At right is a photo from Wikipedia of Greta Garbo & Mauritz Stiller on board the SS Drottningholm in 1925 en route to the United States.

Next blog...The cost of such a trip,  A list of Canadian Clubs involved in welcoming the 1906British Tour and the unique costume that was designed for the bowlers.