McMichael Collection of Canadian Art - 18 Nov. - author talk

Author talk at McMichael Collection of Canadian Art

Nov. 18 - 11:30 a.m.
10365 Islington Ave. Kleinburg, Ontario, Canada
L0J 1C0
Tel: 905.893.1121
Tel: 1.888.213.1121 




Included in General Admission.
Free for members. 

Offered in partnership with York University’s Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies.

 
For more information:
http://mcmichael.com/event/the-many-deaths-of-tom-thomson-separating-facts-from-fiction/

Tom Thomson Death myth #7 - 'Tom Thomson: the reluctant father'

The suggestion that Tom Thomson committed suicide because he was about to become a father is a relatively recent concoction. Like a few other flawed stories about Thomson’s death, this one originates with author Roy MacGregor’s penchant for spinning far-fetched conclusions from slim evidence.

In Tom Thomson Death Myth #8, I explored claims that Thomson was engaged in the months preceding his death. I showed how no records from 1917 indicate, or even intimate that Tom Thomson was engaged. Of course, Thomson did not need to be engaged to a woman for her to become pregnant.

When I investigated theories of Tom Thomson’s death, I was intrigued to discover that the two claims - engagement & pregnancy - developed along quite different timelines. This feature is critical for understanding flaws in the pregnancy story.

As I describe in Tom Thomson Death Myth #8, the engagement story began as gossip in the 1920s. It first appeared in a written account in 1930, and was offered by a man who knew Thomson and who lived at Canoe Lake in the summer of 1917. This suggests that the story at least seemed plausible to someone who had known Thomson and who lived in Canoe Lake. Speculation that Thomson might have impregnated a woman first appeared in 1973. No one who met Thomson or who lived at Canoe Lake in 1917 ever suggested such a claim.

The story can really be explored as the thinking of one man, Roy MacGregor, who has advanced and expanded on his theory since 1973.

As with the engagement claim, MacGregor’s story about an ‘illegitimate’ pregnancy is closely associated with Winnifred Trainor. Trainor’s family lived in Huntsville. Her family leased a cottage at Canoe Lake, where Thomson was staying from April 1917 until his death.

In his article, “The Great Canoe Lake Mystery”, published in Maclean’s magazine in September 1973, Roy MacGregor breezily introduced the idea that Winnie Trainor might have been pregnant. He states that Dr. Pocock, Trainor’s physician from 1919 until her death in 1962, had heard rumours that Winnie had been pregnant by Tom. Pocock rejected them, though.

MacGregor returned to the pregnancy story in 1977. His article, “The Legend”, printed in The Canadian magazine, referred to Charles Plewman’s 1972 claim that Thomson committed suicide to avoid Trainor’s insistence on getting married. MacGregor suggested Trainor was exerting what he called ‘tremendous pressure’. He suggested this indicated that Winnie was pregnant. He overlooked, of course, that a woman might press for marriage without being compelled by pregnancy. He also did not seem to consider that Plewman’s account was purely hearsay.

In 1980, MacGregor followed up his 1970s magazine articles with a novel, Shorelines. The book offers a scenario of what might have transpired if Trainor had been pregnant by Thomson. It was republished in 2002 as Canoe Lake. In a supplementary statement included in the 2002 version, MacGregor offered a new tidbit of information. He noted that in fall 1917 the Huntsville newspaper’s social pages included a notation that Winnie Trainor and her mother were leaving to spend the winter in the United States. He also notes Winnie was not mentioned again until Easter 1918. Working from these two newspaper notices, MacGregor extrapolates that Trainor might have left Huntsville to have a child. MacGregor also suggests that his grounds for the story go back to Charles Plewman, who he claims told a Canadian Press reporter in 1973 that Winnie was pregnant with Tom's child.

Finally, in 2010, in Northern Light: Tom Thomson and the woman who loved him, MacGregor again advanced his pregnancy theory. In this account, MacGregor repeats his claim that the only explanation for Winnie leaving Huntsville in the fall of 1917 was that she must have been pregnant. He also includes an interesting disclaimer about Plewman's 1973 claims, noting, "[Plewman] might not have made such actual 'statements', but he certainly had dropped all the necessary hints." (196)

Shortcomings in MacGregor's argument:

MacGregor’s argument is based on wild extrapolation from very thin evidence. Discussing the pregnancy story in 2002, he notes, “I have no proof.” (pg. 288) The absence of proof, however, does not stop MacGregor from offering wild speculation. Why might he pursue this line of speculation without evidence?

He is the only person to have ever suggested that Trainor was pregnant. Trainor lived her later years in Huntsville, where MacGregor also spent his childhood. As MacGregor notes in several of his works, Trainor’s sister married his uncle. In this regard, MacGregor might have very personal reasons to portray his distant relative as a central player in the story of Tom Thomson’s death.

He has yet, however, to prove that Thomson and Trainor were anything but mere acquaintances. He has not established that they had a relationship of any kind, beyond Thomson’s visits to the Trainor family home, and his claims that Thomson gave the family some art works. Were these gifts meant for Winnie, her father, or the family in general? We don’t know. Neither, apparently, does MacGregor (or presumably, he would produce evidence supporting his claims.)

What of Winnie’s trip away over the winter of 1917-1918? Should we assume that the only explanation for such a trip is pregnancy? Given what emerged later as Trainor’s emotional attachment to Thomson, might her family have decided it best to get her away from the reminders of Thomson for a while? Might she have entered some sort of sanitarium to receive mental health care? (There are certainly many reports – from MacGregor included – that her mental health was questioned by many, even in 1917.) These explanations are just possible as MacGregor’s pregnancy theory.

Conclusions

We certainly know that no one who was familiar with any of the central players in Thomson's last days ever suggested an unwanted pregnancy was involved in Thomson's death. The challenge the pregnancy story faces is it seems to have originated more than fifty years after Thomson's tragic accident, and to have only been offered by one person, who has not provided any convincing evidence to support it.

In the absence of proof, and with its untrustworthy origins, the pregnancy story must be regarded as wild, groundless speculation that only serves to further muddy the facts of Tom Thomson’s death. It certainly doesn't provide any solid support for the suggestion that Tom Thomson committed suicide.

Gregory Klages - © 2017
---
Gregory Klages was Research Director for the website Death On A Painted Lake: The Tom Thomson Tragedy, launched by the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History project in 2008. Klages is the author of the 2016 book, The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction (Dundurn Press).

Tom Thomson death myth #8 - 'Tom Thomson: the reluctant groom'

During the early 1970s, speculation around Tom Thomson’s death gained new momentum. William Little’s 1970 book, The Tom Thomson Mystery seemed to provide strong evidence that Thomson had been murdered. In 1972, a new publication would turn speculation about Thomson’s death in an entirely different direction – suicide.

Charles Plewman arrived at Canoe Lake in mid-July 1917, between Thomson’s disappearance and discovery of his remains. Plewman claims to have acted as a pallbearer at Thomson's Algonquin Park funeral, and to have discussed Thomson's death with many people who lived around Canoe Lake in 1917. In 1972, 55 years after Thomson's demise, Plewman summarized what he learned in an article for the Canadian Camping Association magazine. While the publication might not have had wide readership, his article certainly helped provide grist for speculation that Tom Thomson might have committed suicide.

In the Canadian Camping article, Plewman described how he had heard from several people that Tom Thomson was engaged in the summer of 1917. His claim echoed gossip that had appeared a few years before, in William Little's The Tom Thomson Tragedy. Plewman, though, derived much different meaning from the gossip than Little. 

William Little's gossip and photos of a married woman

Little's 1970 book contained a story he claimed to have heard from A.Y. Jackson. The story was that Tom Thomson might have considered proposing marriage, or might even have been engaged to Winnifred Trainor. Trainor's family lived in Huntsville (west of Algonquin Park) and leased a cottage on Canoe Lake. Little's claim seemed to be supported by photos taken by Thomson, which were rediscovered and published in 1970. Two of these photos showed a woman - identified by a Thomson family member as Trainor - wearing rings on the finger traditionally reserved for matrimonial bands.

Plewman's gossip

At the outset, we should keep in mind that Charles Plewman never met Tom Thomson. All that he reported about the case is hearsay. In his 1972 article, Plewman stated one of the people who had told him about Thomson's engagement was Shannon Fraser. (Fraser was the operator of Canoe Lake’s Mowat Lodge, where Thomson was staying during spring & summer 1917.) After the engagement, according to Fraser (via Plewman), Thomson got 'cold feet'. Trainor, though, was apparently pressing the increasingly hesitant Tom to follow through with matrimony. Plewman related that he had heard Thomson, unable to see a way out of the situation, tried repeatedly to take his own life. Eventually, it seemed, he was successful.

Mark Robinson and engagement gossip

The idea that Thomson and Trainor might have been engaged can be traced to Algonquin Park Ranger Mark Robinson. In March 1930, Robinson told Thomson biographer Blodwen Davies that if she wanted to know more about Thomson she might speak to Winnie Trainor, “to whom it is said Tom was engaged.” Robinson neglected to mention who was reporting the engagement, but it can be inferred from his statement that he did not know if it was fact.

Only a few months later, in September of 1930, Robinson suggested doubts about the gossip, stating to Davies, “I learned from another friend that [Trainor] assured him she was engaged to Thompson [sic]. Perhaps so but I did not see anything to indicate more than ordinary friendship.”

Trainor's perplexing silence

If Thomson and Trainor were engaged, there is no record she raised the topic with anyone closely connected to Tom. She mentioned nothing of it to Tom’s sister, Margaret, when they met in late summer 1917. She also mentioned nothing of it in her letters to the executor of Tom’s estate, his brother-in-law, Tom Harkness. This is curious, as her letters to Harkness show she was certainly willing to broach many topics regarding Tom’s life at Canoe Lake, including his finances and living arrangements. She also didn’t mention anything about it in her correspondence with Tom’s patron, Dr. James MacCallum. If Tom and Trainor had been engaged, her silence about it in the months following his death, particularly with these people closely connected to Tom and to the disposition of his worldly goods, is rather perplexing.

Trainor was not always silent about the issue, apparently. Robinson gossiped that Trainor had claimed to be engaged to Thomson. In October 1956, Dr. Noble Sharpe was sent to Canoe Lake to investigate human remains found near Mowat cemetery. Sharpe was the chief forensic investigator for the Ontario Attorney General’s Laboratory. Sharpe recorded that Trainor had told him that she and Tom had been engaged. He published this assertion in a 1970 article. I explore some of the significant problems with this report in another post.

Roy MacGregor's unsupported claim

Journalist Roy MacGregor would repeat Little's and Plewman’s gossip that Trainor and Thomson had been engaged during the summer of 1917. In a 1973 Maclean’s article, MacGregor wrote, “Certainly they were engaged.” Supporting his assertion, MacGregor claimed, “In the spring before he died, Thomson had even reserved a cabin for a fall honeymoon.”

This statement makes 'evidence' out of hearsay. In The Tom Thomson Mystery, William Little related a rumour he claimed to have heard from A.Y. Jackson. Little's account of Jackson's story was that in early summer 1917 Thomson had booked a late summer honeymoon cabin at a resort near Algonquin Park. Little gave no indication of trying to substantiate the claim. MacGregor apparently did try, however, and was compelled to reverse the claim he had made in 1973. As MacGregor noted in his 2010 book, Northern Light, there "is no evidence of any such booking." So much for 'certainty'.

In 2010, MacGregor actually helped to undermine the engagement theory. He convincingly argued in Northern Light that the Thomson photos apparently showing Winnie Trainor - the ones where she is wearing wedding rings - don't actually show Winnie Trainor. The 'engagement ring' story was a case of mistaken identity!

Conclusions

Simply stated, despite the gossip, no evidence has been produced that Tom Thomson was engaged. 

Stories that Trainor was claiming to be engaged to Thomson are gossip, excepting Sharpe's intriguing account from the 1950s. We have no evidence that Thomson booked a honeymoon cabin. (No one even reported this as gossip until more than fifty years after Thomson’s death!) We also don't have any evidence that Trainor was wearing engagement rings before Thomson's death.  

Surveying the shaky origins of the ‘engagement’ story, it must be assessed as lacking any evidence.  

The evolution of talk about engagement, the 180 degree turnabout from Robinson’s 1930 denial of the ‘engagement’ gossip to MacGregor's bald-faced assertion of the story as fact in the 1970s (despite the absence of evidence), strongly suggests the story of Tom Thomson's engagement is very likely mere gossip.   
It certainly doesn't provide any support to speculation that Tom Thomson committed suicide to avoid being married.

Gregory Klages - © 2017
---
Gregory Klages was Research Director for the website Death On A Painted Lake: The Tom Thomson Tragedy, launched by the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History project in 2008. Klages is the author of the 2016 book, The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction (Dundurn Press).

"Many Deaths of Tom Thomson" Toronto author talks, October 2017

Toronto author talks and book signings - October 2017

Wed., Oct. 18, 2017
7:00 p.m.
High Park Public Library 
228 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto, ON  
M6R 2L7 
416-393-7671 

Thurs., Oct. 19, 2017 
6:30 p.m.
College/Shaw Public Library
766 College Street, Toronto, ON
M6G 1C4
416-393-7668

"Many Deaths of Tom Thomson" author talk - Shelburne Public Library, Sunday, Oct. 15

Author talk and book signing - 
Sunday, October 15, 2:00 p.m.
 
Shelburne Public Library
201 Owen Sound Street,
Shelburne, Ontario
L9V 3L2
--MAP--

Tel: 519.925.2168
Email: info@shelburnelibrary.ca

Tom Thomson death myth #9 - 'Tom died over a debt'

Tom Thomson’s July 1917 death shocked his friends and family. Given that the man was only 39 years old, many found his death hard to explain. Those who examined Thomson’s corpse concluded that he drowned by accident. Nonetheless, gossip and suggestions of alternate explanations have fuelled a century of speculation.

In the 1970s, it was proposed that Tom Thomson died in a fight over a debt. The story - dependent on gossip and demonstrable errors - is wrong.

The story that Tom Thomson died over repayment of a debt can be tied to two persons. The first is Daphne Crombie, a woman who met Tom Thomson at Canoe Lake in 1917. The second is Roy MacGregor, a journalist and author who since the early 1970s has published a multitude of articles and two books regarding Thomson's death (one fiction and one non-fiction).

Although the roots of the debt story can be found in evidence recorded in 1917, the idea that Thomson was killed over a debt first appeared in 1977 (sixty years after Thomson’s death!). That year, Roy MacGregor wrote 'The Legend', an article in The Canadian magazine. In the article, MacGregor shared comments he claimed to have been told by Crombie.

In MacGregor's account, Crombie had speculated that Tom might have been killed by Shannon Fraser in a fight over money. (Fraser operated Mowat Lodge in Algonquin Park, where Thomson had been living since early April 1917.) Crombie apparently offered that Thomson had loaned Fraser money, and in July 1917, asked him to repay the debt. A fistfight ensued. During its course, Thomson fell, striking his head on the fire grate. The blow either killed Thomson immediately, or left him unconscious. Regardless, Crombie speculated, Fraser, assisted by his wife Annie, and out of fear of being charged with murder, hid the body in the lake.

In his 2010 book, Northern Light, MacGregor added to the story, stating that Winnie Trainor had told Margaret Thomson (Tom’s sister) that, “a $250 loan Tom had made to Fraser two years earlier had not yet been fully paid back.” *

An unpaid debt, a fight, murder, and a hidden corpse... compelling anecdotes that make a tantalizing story. The story, as told in MacGregor’s 1977 and 2010 accounts, directly contradicts the evidence from 1917.

After Thomson’s death, several members of Tom’s family were in contact with Winnifred Trainor, a Huntsville woman whose family leased a cottage at Canoe Lake. In late August or early September 1917, Trainor met one of Tom’s sisters, Margaret Thomson, in Toronto. They discussed Tom’s life, and of course, his death. In early September 1917, Margaret wrote Tom’s patron, Dr. James MacCallum, sharing with him what she had learned from Trainor.

By the time the two women met, Margaret was aware that Tom had loaned Shannon Fraser $250 to buy canoes. She inquired with Trainor about the loan. Trainor told Margaret that, “she had asked Tom this spring if he ever got that money, and he said he got it all but in very small amounts.” **

Tom Harkness, Tom Thomson’s brother-in-law and executor of Tom’s estate, pursued the issue with Fraser in September 1917, asking, “did you pay Tom for the canoes he bought for you and when.” [sic]

The same month, Winnie reported to Tom's brother, George, what she had told Margaret, stating, “Tom said this spring while at our house that he had loaned Fraser ^$250.⁰⁰ for canoes, but that he had got it all back but in little bits though.”

Trainor’s reports that the debt had been repaid seems to have satisfied Harkness, who did not pursue the issue of the 'canoe debt' any further.

Following on Trainor's two statements that Fraser's debt to Tom had been repaid, no one closely involved in Tom's life suggested that Fraser owed Tom an outstanding debt. None suggested Fraser and Thomson had a fight over money. None suggested Tom had died seeking repayment of the debt.

MacGregor's statement that Trainor claimed the debt had not been repaid - is simply wrong. Trainor’s letter clearly indicates the debt was repaid. (See Notes below.)

It would be easy for us to hold MacGregor culpable for his 1977 error. This is not an entirely fair assessment, though. While he reported Crombie’s claim, we know her speculation is contradicted by Trainor’s 1917 claims. In 1977, however, Trainor’s letter was still held privately by the Thomson family. It was not made publicly accessible until the 1990s, when it was donated to Library & Archives Canada. In 2008, 'Death On A Painted Lake: The Tom Thomson Tragedy' project made excerpts from the letter available freely on the world wide web. 

Writers who have retold and expanded on Crombie/MacGregor’s ‘debt story’ since the 1990s – including MacGregor - have overlooked or ignored Trainor’s 1917 statements that the debt was repaid, and perpetuated a flimsy myth about Tom Thomson’s death.

(For instance, in 2018, John Little claimed in Who Killed Tom Thomson? that, “[Fraser] had evidently paid a good portion of the loan back, but there was still some money owed.”)

------

NOTES:

* MacGregor's statement can be found in Chapter 9 of Northern Light: The Story of Tom Thomson and The Woman Who Loved Him. For more, see the note below. Once again, he writes: "a $250 loan Tom had made to Fraser two years earlier had not yet been fully paid back.”

** The quoted passage from Margaret Thomson's 9 Sept. 1917 letter directly contradicts MacGregor's 2010 account of what the letter says. Once again, she writes, "[Trainor] had asked Tom this spring if he ever got that money, and he said he got it all but in very small amounts.”

Gregory Klages - © 2017
---
Gregory Klages was Research Director for the website Death On A Painted Lake: The Tom Thomson Tragedy, launched by the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History project in 2008. Klages is the author of the 2016 book, The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction (Dundurn Press).

Tom Thomson death myth #10 - "Fishing line = murder."

A popular story relates that Tom Thomson’s body was found with fishing line wound around one ankle. A popular interpretation is that the line proves someone tried to hide Thomson’s corpse by tying a weight to his body before sinking the body in the lake.  

The fishing line story (and the conspiracy theory spun from it) is not supported by the evidence we have available about Thomson's corpse.

When Tom Thomson’s body was discovered in July 1917, two men examined his remains: a doctor holidaying in Algonquin Park, and an Algonquin Park Ranger. At the time, neither man recorded seeing fishing line around any part of Thomson’s body. The claim that fishing line was found on Thomson's body was first made in the 1930s - thirteen years after Thomson's death - by Park Ranger, Mark Robinson. Robinson's claim was never corroborated by any other witnesses, though. Robinson also never explained why his 1917 notes don't mention the fishing line. Complicating his claim further, in the 1950s, Robinson offered yet another version of his testimony: he claimed he had noted the fishing line in 1917 (which we know is false), reported different 'facts' about the fishing line than he had in the 1930s, and stated his conclusion about Thomson’s cause of death that was different from what he stated in 1917 or 1930.

All of these facts strongly suggest the ‘fishing line story’ is suspect, and raises the prospect that one of the pillars supporting murder theories is weak.

---

We know that Tom Thomson’s body was discovered on the morning of July 16, 1917.

We know this from several documents produced that day, and in the days that immediately followed. The daily diary of Mark Robinson, the local Algonquin Park Ranger, is one of the key records we have from July 1917 (worth noting: his diary is the only record Robinson produced in 1917). In his diary, Robinson recorded the search for Thomson, as well as discovery and displacement of Thomson's remains.

For the July 16 entry, Robinson states that Thomson’s body was discovered floating in Algonquin Park's Canoe Lake about 9 a.m. He writes that George Rowe and ‘Lowrie’ Dixon, “took same and brought it to shore.”

The following day, Robinson records that Thomson’s body was removed from the lake. He and Dr. G. Howland, who was holidaying at Canoe Lake, examined the corpse. Later that day, Robinson recorded observations about Thomson’s remains. Nowhere in these notes – nor anywhere else in his 1917 diary entries – is there mention that he found a fishing line around any part of Thomson’s corpse.

A transcription of Howland’s 1917 notes, provided to researcher Blodwen Davies by the Nipissing Crown Attorney’s office in the 1930s, doesn’t include any mention of suspicious fishing line on Thomson’s remains either. Similarly, a transcription of Howland’s observations held by George Thomson – Tom’s brother – also supplied to Davies in the 1930s, doesn’t mention fishing line.

That no 1917 account makes any mention of suspicious fishing line is important. Clearly, in 1917, either no fishing line was observed, or if it was observed, it was not regarded as in any way important to Thomson’s disappearance and death.

If the fishing line wasn’t noted in 1917, we can learn much about the claim by tracking when it first appeared, and how the story evolved.

Only one person - Mark Robinson - ever claimed that fishing line was found on Tom Thomson's corpse. Robinson mentioned the line for the first time in a 1930 letter to Blodwen Davies, thirteen years after Thomson’s death. At this time, Robinson suggested the line was not Thomson’s regular fishing line.

Why Robinson would wait thirteen years to offer this insight, particularly if he felt it provided evidence that Thomson might have died by foul play, is difficult to understand. Making Robinson’s testimony even more suspect, in the early 1950s, he added details to his story about the fishing line. Robinson stated that when he examined Thomson’s corpse, he found the line was “carefully” wound “16 or 17 times” around Thomson’s ankle. Robinson noted that he could prove this claim because he recorded his observations in his diary. We know, however, that his diary says nothing of the sort; it doesn’t mention fishing line at all!

Robinson’s ‘fishing line’ stories from the 1930s and 1950s do not agree with any 1917 evidence (even evidence recorded by Robinson himself in 1917). This should raise our suspicions about the tale. That Robinson’s accounts gained new elements and more details over decades also suggests skepticism about Robinson's claims  – particularly those furthest from the experiences he describes - is necessary.

So, is the fishing line story purely fiction? Did Robinson invent it out of thin air? What if the fishing line existed, but has an innocent explanation?

Robinson was not present when Thomson’s body was discovered, or when it was brought to shore. His diary doesn’t mention how the guides brought Thomson’s body to shore, or to anchor the body once it was brought to shore. If the guides used fishing line to tow or anchor the body, as time passed Robinson might have forgotten this entirely logical explanation. If this is the case, however, it does not explain why Robinson would not have asked questions about it in 1917. The record he produced at the time Thomson’s body was discovered suggests that Robinson’s suspicions were not raised, either because the fishing line had a reasonable explanation, or because he never saw it all.

Gregory Klages - © 2017

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Perplexed? Challenged? Interested in reading more?

To read more evidence about Tom Thomson's death, and to learn how story-telling about Thomson's death has diverged further and further from the evidence, read The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction (Dundurn Press, 2016). 

Gregory Klages was Research Director for Death On A Painted Lake: The Tom Thomson Tragedy, part of the international award-winning Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History project. 

Author talk - Sep. 26, 7 p.m. - Yorkville Public Library

Author talk and book signing -
Tue Sep 26, 2017 - 7:00 p.m.

Yorkville Public Library

22 Yorkville Avenue, 
Toronto, ON
M4W 1L4

416-393-7660

Author talk - Sep. 21, 6:30 pm - Dawes Road Public Library

Author talk and book signing
Thursday, Sep 21, 2017 - 6:30 p.m.

Dawes Road Public Library

416 Dawes Road, Toronto, ON  
M4B 2E8  
416-396-3820

On the 100th anniversary of Tom Thomson's disappearance

On July 8, 1917 - 100 years ago - Canadian painter Tom Thomson disappeared while canoeing in Ontario's Algonquin Park. He was never seen alive again. While then relatively unknown as an artist, his reputation grew significantly after his death. In 1920, his friends and peers went on to found the Group of Seven, arguably Canada's most famous cultural point of reference. The Group members cited Thomson's influence on their work, and gave him credit for inspiring their interest the landscape of Ontario's Canadian Shield. 

As Thomson's reputation grew, so did interest in his life, and particularly, in his death. Since the 1970s, a significant body of writing has been devoted to exploring Thomson's disappearance and demise. These works have offered arguments based on evidence, hearsay, speculation, and sometimes even outright fictions regarding what happened to Thomson in July 1917. While some have served to expand our knowledge, others have served to further confuse our understanding of what happened to Tom Thomson 100 years ago.

 

 

Myths have displaced the facts

When beginning the work that would become Death on A Painted Lake: The Tom Thomson Tragedy, I surveyed much of the literature that has been written about Tom Thomson's demise, particularly over the last few decades. I encountered stories of drunken fights, unpaid debts, unwanted pregnancy, suicide coverups, and murder conspiracies. What I was surprised to discover, as I turned to the primary evidence - the documents written in 1917 - was how few of these claims had any evidence to support them. What I soon came to realize is that much of what we've been told of Tom Thomson's last spring and death is more myth than fact.

In particular, much of the writing claiming Thomson's death was the result of suicide or murder incorporates fanciful speculation rooted in gossip, misunderstanding, and entertaining but ultimately untrustworthy stories.

 

What are the roots of the mythology?  

Tom Thomson was initially buried in Algonquin Park. Much of the mystery surrounding Thomson’s death was initially fed by awkward communication regarding the Thomson family’s wishes for Tom’s remains. Evidence from the time indicates his family never wanted to have him buried in Algonquin Park, and tried to communicate their wishes to those at Canoe Lake, where his body was discovered and first buried. Technological problems and poorly worded telegrams from those in Canoe Lake produced delays that had repercussions for those living and working in the presence of their friend’s decomposing body. Without word of the Thomson family’s wishes, all at Canoe Lake agreed something must be done. The exceptional challenge of having to deal with a tragic death in the small community, and perhaps some insecurity about who should have responsibility for decision-making regarding Thomson's body, resulted in decisions being made on the fly. Anxiety was no doubt compounded when it was discovered that the decision reached by those at Canoe Lake did not accord with the Thomson family's desires.

Conflict over such an emotional issue clearly caused consternation and frustration all around. The exhumation of Thomson’s body from his Algonquin Park burial site within a day of his preliminary burial created fertile ground for hostility and suspicion over the decades to come. Eventually, these feelings would bear ill fruit.

 

How should Tom Thomson's death be remembered?

Over the last century, Thomson has often been characterized as a deft outdoorsman with natural skill at painting a unique, distinctively Canadian environment that he knew well. This is an image that Thomson’s friends and supporters worked to advance after his death. It was integral to the rise of his reputation. If Thomson died as a result of a canoeing accident in the middle of the day on a calm lake, this image would be significantly destabilized. It is not however, an image, that is necessary to appreciate Thomson’s contribution to the development of Canadian painting. As Harold Town observed, decades of speculation regarding how Tom Thomson died have done little but cloud our understanding of Thomson’s life and the importance of his art. Acceptance of what the evidence suggests about Thomson's death, that he died by accident and not suicide or murder, points to the importance of understanding his painting not through the lens of romantic myth, but as what it was, the inspiring efforts of a skilled and hard-working artist - an artist who could still, nonetheless, make mistakes and suffer accidents.

That Tom Thomson’s painting has become part of the national identity, one of the types of symbols that Canadians share as part of their common language, is a grand legacy for a man who had little art training, but who took the greatest pleasures in life from painting out under the open sky. That he died under that same sky, on the waters and among the trees and islands that populate his paintings is no doubt tragic, and will ever remain so. A hundred years on from his passing, however, he has not been forgotten, nor has the land he loved. Every year thousands of people flock to see his paintings, and to visit Algonquin Park. As a model, as inspiration, his influence lives on. Beyond ideas about his mental state, or his romantic life, or how he managed to get along with his peers, what Tom Thomson is remembered for is the passion that gave his life meaning.

Whether by accident or by natural causes, the fact is that death cannot be put off forever. We have no guarantee of how or when we will die, or what kind of legacy we will leave. Thomson likely cared little about the former, and would be heartily gratified knowing what role he played, and continues to play over a century later, in alerting Canadians to their artistic and natural heritage.

Tom Thomson - 1877-1917 - Rest in peace. 

 

 

July 8, 2017 - Observe 100th anniversary of Tom Thomson's disappearance

100th Anniversary of Tom Thomson's Disappearance

July 8, 2017 -- 2 p.m.

Join cultural historian Dr. Gregory Klages to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the disappearance of renowned Canadian landscape painter Tom Thomson.  

 

Klages uses first-hand testimony and archival records to sort fact from popular legends in writing about Thomson's mysterious demise. His 2016 book, The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction, has appeared on the National Post Canadian non-fiction bestseller list, and was included in the Writers' Trust of Canada Best Books of 2016. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing. This is a free event.

 

http://www.greyroots.com/programs-events/events/index.cfm?print&I=8697 

 

Grey Roots Museum & Archives
102599 Grey Road 18, RR4, Owen Sound ON, N4K 5N6
Tel. 519-376-3690, Fax. 519-376-4654
Web: www.greyroots.com

Mark Robinson's influential, but inconsistent, testimony about Tom Thomson

Over a period of almost four decades, Mark Robinson, the Algonquin Park Ranger who in July 1917 organized the search for missing artist Tom Thomson, produced multiple remembrances: anecdotes about the artist, accounts of Thomson’s last days, and descriptions of the days following discovery of Thomson’s corpse.

Robinson’s testimony - without much distinction being made between the various accounts provided over thirty-five years -  has often been portrayed as the definitive, authoritative account of the conditions surrounding Thomson’s death. While it is true that Robinson’s 1917 testimony regarding what happened to Tom Thomson must be considered – his daily diary is one of the few ‘on the scene’ accounts we have - inconsistencies and contradictions between Robinson’s 1917 account and his later accounts requires that all of his testimony should be approached with skepticism.  

What was Mark Robinson’s involvement in this case?

Mark Robinson. Undated. Algonquin Park Museum & Archives.
APMA 184

Mark Robinson first served as an Algonquin Park Ranger from 1909 through to 1915.

Robinson met Tom Thomson in 1912. His daily diaries for 1912, 1913 and 1915 include brief references to Thomson as one of many people moving through the park.

In fall 1915, Robinson took up service with the Canadian military, serving in Canada and Europe until the winter of 1916/17.

In April 1917, Robinson returned to service at Algonquin Park’s Joe Lake Station, within easy walking distance of Canoe Lake’s Mowat Lodge. As the presiding park authority for the area, when Tom Thomson went missing in July 1917, Robinson organized the search. He also attended the examination of Thomson’s corpse conducted by Dr. G. W. Howland on July 19, 1917.

Robinson would serve as a park Ranger into the early 1940s, and passed away in 1955.

What accounts did Mark Robinson produce?
We have, essentially, three accounts from Robinson.

One body of testimony was produced in July 1917. Robinson maintained a daily diary, in which he recorded observations about park life, including lists of tasks he completed each day, the conditions of animals and plants, and notes about who was moving through the park (along with where they were from and what their activities in the park would be). He also sometimes noted his own feelings or rumours, such as his comment in April 1917 that he believed Martin Blecher Jr. was a "German spy."

A second body of testimony is a series of letters Robinson exchanged with Tom Thomson biographer Blodwen Davies in 1930 and 1931. Davies had published a Thomson biography in 1930, and had sought out many of Thomson’s acquaintances, Robinson among them. Through his letters, Robinson provided anecdotes about Thomson’s art, his attitude toward nature, remembrances about the search for Thomson, and suggestions about who else might offer useful information.

A third body of testimony is an audio recording of Robinson, likely produced in 1953 by Taylor Statten at Canoe Lake (an Alex Edmison transcription is held by the National Gallery of Canada). The recording preserves Robinson’s story-telling about Thomson, including his ideas about Thomson’s disappearance and death. He was clearly relating his tales to a small audience, who can be heard applauding at the end of the recording.

What is it about Robinson’s testimony that isn’t trustworthy?
A regrettable tendency among commentators addressing Thomson’s death is to approach Robinson’s three bodies of testimony as consistent when they are not. The evolution in Robinson’s accounts and claims is critical to explain if we are to make sense of what Robinson contributes to our understanding of Thomson’s death.

For instance, let’s consider two critical examples of how key aspects of Robinson’s testimony changed from 1917 through to the 1950s.


EXAMPLE 1:
Robinson's testimony about Thomson's injuries, and the conclusions these injuries suggesting about Thomson's cause of death, changed over decades.

In his 1917 daily diary, Robinson noted a bruise on Thomson’s temple, which he suggested was “evidently caused by falling on a rock.” He also states, “otherwise no marks of violence on body.”

In the 1930s, he backed away from his suggestion of accidental death, stating, “Tom was said to have been drowned. It may be quite true but the mystery remains.” While he perhaps speculated that Thomson suffered foul play, we don’t have any written records confirming this suspicion.

The first written record we have where Robinson suggests Thomson was murdered was produced in the 1950s. It was then that Robinson introduced the suggestion that Thomson’s temple “looked as if he had been struck – struck with the edge of a paddle.” 

Robinson’s inconsistent testimony about the condition of Thomson's corpse, and Robinson's conclusions regarding the condition of the remains, has provided much of the impetus for murder conspiracy theories.


EXAMPLE 2: 
Related to the 'murder' story, those who suggest Tom Thomson was found with fishing line around his leg owe this claim to a selective reading of Mark Robinson’s changing testimony. 

In 1917, Robinson makes no mention of a fishing line around any part of Thomson’s corpse in the notes he made after inspecting Thomson’s remains. (In fact, no 1917 account makes mention of fishing line found on Thomson’s corpse.)

This is important, because the first mention of the fishing line that we have comes from Mark Robinson. In 1930, almost fifteen years after Thomson’s death, Robinson mentioned the line for the first time to Thomson biographer, Blodwen Davies. At this time, Robinson suggested the line was not Thomson’s regular line.

Making Robinson’s testimony even more suspect, in the early 1950s, Robinson added details to his story about the fishing line, stating that it was “carefully” wound “16 or 17 times” around Thomson’s ankle.

That the two later accounts did not agree with any 1917 evidence (even evidence provided by Robinson himself) should raise suspicions. That over 35 years Robinson introduced new details into his accounts, and that contrary to how human memory works the accounts became more detailed, also suggests skepticism about Robinson’s claims is necessary.


What can we conclude? 
In his 1917 account, Mark Robinson does not indicate that he suspected that Thomson’s death was anything but accidental. Even his circumstantial testimony records no features pointing to Thomson having suffered foul play or committing suicide. Robinson certainly did not record that he raised any concerns with the coroner or park superintendent.

Thirteen years later, his accounts had evolved. While he does not challenge the conclusion that Thomson died by accident, he intimates that something about the story is not fully known.

By the early 1950s, his claims and conclusions had changed yet again. In the 1950s, he suggested that Thomson had clearly been murdered. Frustratingly, he doesn't provide any explanation why he offered no indication of this belief in 1917 or during the 1930s, or evidence to support such an interpretation.

We do know that working as the Canoe Lake park ranger for decades after Thomson’s death, Robinson was called upon to share his memories many, many times. Over decades, with retelling upon retelling of his stories, perhaps Robinson’s memories become fuzzy, perhaps he even confused memories with fanciful recollections.

For those who suggest that this suggestion unfairly besmirches Robinson’s reputation, we do have some evidence that he misrepresented facts. In the 1950s, he supports his claim regarding the number of times fishing line was wound around Thomson’s ankle with the statement, “I know this because I have it written down in my diary.” Robinson was fortunate that none of his friends were curious enough to ask Robinson to prove this. Why? As I mentioned above, Robinson’s daily diary includes no mention of fishing line at all. His 1950s statement - whether by error or lie - is simply wrong about a critical fact.

But, surely, some claim, couldn’t Robinson simply have remembered more about the story than he did in 1917? This is possible. Over time he may also have made different sense of what he remembered.

I believe we can explain some of the evolution in Robinson’s testimony by looking at the evidence. For instance, if Robinson’s memory about fishing line is correct, there is a far more simple, straight-forward explanation for it being found around Thomson’s ankle than an attempt to hide a corpse. For more on this topic, see Chapter 10 of The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson.

Whatever the explanation, the inconsistencies in Robinson’s accounts regarding Tom Thomson’s death strongly suggest that all of Robinson’s testimony merits careful consideration. The ‘facts’ he remembers don’t always line up with contemporary accounts produced by others, and just as importantly, Robinson’s accounts produced over 35 years aren’t always consistent with each other. In this regard, the authority of any of Robinson’s accounts about the life and death of Tom Thomson is questionable.

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All of the links for this post direct back to excerpts of transcribed historical documents provided on the website Death On A Painted Lake: The Tom Thomson Tragedy. Gregory Klages was Research Director for the site, launched by the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History project in 2008. Klages is the author of the 2016 book, The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction (Dundurn Press).

June 21, 2017 - Historic Leith Church (site of Tom Thomson's grave)

As part of the Historic Leith Church's 'Tom Thomson's Wake: 100 Years Later' program:
Gregory Klages, speaking on The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction.

Date: Wednesday, June 21, 7:30 p.m.
Location: Historical Leith Church

Q&A session to follow.
Book will be available for purchase/signing.

Tickets: $10
Available at Roxy Theatre, Owen Sound
519-371-2833
roxytheatre.ca/

All proceeds from this event directed to the Leith Church Maintenance and Building Fund.

For more info: http://www.leithchurch.ca/Tom.pdf

Was Winnie Trainor engaged to Tom Thomson? Dr. Noble Sharpe's notes

Over the last century, discussion of Canadian painter Tom Thomson’s 1917 death has included wild claims and poorly-grounded speculation. Over the last few decades, the claim has been frequently offered that Thomson was engaged or being pressured to marry a local woman, Winnifred Trainor. Trainor's family lived just outside Algonquin Park in Huntsville, Ontario, and leased a cottage at Canoe Lake, where Thomson spent time every summer from 1912 to 1917. In Chapter 11 of The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction, I challenge the suggestion that Tom Thomson and Winnifred Trainor were engaged.

Recently, I took up this argument in an exchange on a social media platform. A comment by one of the discussion’s participants particularly caught my attention. It made reference to rarely discussed testimony from Trainor, recorded by Dr. Noble Sharpe. Those familiar with the Thomson case might recall that in 1956, Sharpe supervised exhumation of unidentified human remains found in Algonquin Park. Some have claimed those remains are Tom Thomson’s.

Sharpe's notes, written between the late 1950s and mid-1970s, record conversations he had with Winnifred Trainor in 1956, and perhaps in 1957. They indicate Trainor claimed to have been engaged to Thomson. In a 1970 article he wrote about the case, Sharpe published what Trainor had told him. Sharpe’s claims have not been widely discussed in writing about Thomson’s death.

In The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson, I discussed Sharpe’s 1956 forensic conclusions about the unidentified remains, but I didn’t address his notes about conversations with Trainor. Given the reference to Sharpe’s claims in the recent conversation about Thomson's death, and my lack of comment in The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson, I’ll consider his comments more carefully here.

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Dr. Noble Sharpe was a bona fide forensic expert. In 1956, he had been the medical director of the Ontario Attorney General’s Laboratory (now Ontario’s Centre of Forensic Sciences) for five years. In October 1956, he was instructed to supervise exhumation of unidentified human remains that had been discovered near Mowat Cemetery, at Canoe Lake, Algonquin Park. As Sharpe relates it, when the remains were found, he was already headed to the area west of the park to conduct an inquest. Proximity may have played a factor in having the Lab’s Director supervise exhumation of the remains.

Sharpe had no personal history with Canoe Lake. He did not holiday there, or have friends who holidayed there. He did not personally know any of the people concerned with the 1956 discovery of human remains or the Tom Thomson case, Trainor included. Outside of his investigation of the remains, he had no cause to have conversations with Canoe Lake residents. In October 1956, he spent part of a day at Canoe Lake, most of which was spent at the exhumation site. There is no record that he met or talked with Winnifred Trainor while there. Sharpe's association with the case was easily discoverable, though; his leadership of the 1956 exhumation was reported in popular newspaper articles.

In the mid-1960s, a CBC staffer asked Sharpe if he might be willing to contribute his expertise to a television documentary regarding Tom Thomson’s death. Sharpe shared his reflections on the case, and offered substantial feedback on the CBC’s plans and scripts. A preliminary document he produced is a chronology of events around the 1956 case. The chronology states that on October 22, 1956, he received several calls from Winnifred Trainor. During these calls, he notes, Trainor claimed to have been engaged to Thomson. Sharpe repeats Trainor’s claim in later documents, although his notations regarding the number of times and dates he spoke with Trainor are not consistent.

Sharpe's record might be understood as evidence that Trainor and Thomson were engaged. Closer analysis reveals several critical problems, however, with the notes themselves and with the testimony they record. These problems suggest Trainor's claims, as reported, are generally untrustworthy.

 

1) Quality of evidence:

Sharpe’s notes record a recollection of events made more than a decade after the fact. The 1968 notes might reflect documentary evidence from 1956 that Sharpe had at hand. They might, however, also reflect merely what he remembered. If so, differences between what he recorded in 1956 and what he recorded in 1968 should be carefully considered.

I point this out because differences do exist. None of Sharpe's notes produced in 1956 record calls from Trainor (see, for instance, his Oct. 30, 1956 notes about the case). Another set of notes he produced in 1959 doesn’t mention calls from Trainor, either. His 1968 insertion of calls from Trainor into the chronology of 1956 events (calls that don’t appear in his 1950s notes) suggests that in 1968 Sharpe was not strictly working from his case notes, but also from memory.

Of course, that Sharpe first mentions the calls more than a decade after the fact doesn’t mean that the calls didn’t occur. Perhaps they were recorded in a document that was not preserved. Perhaps he simply remembered them, only perceiving their importance later.

Assuming the calls were made, the absence of 1956 notes about conversations with Trainor is intriguing. It suggests that until the late 1960s Sharpe did not even feel Trainor's claim was significant enough to record. It is hard to believe that in the 1950s Sharpe would not have recognized that Trainor’s claim represented a significant departure from the usual stories of Thomson’s life. That he did not choose to record her claims then might be a good indication of how trustworthy he found Trainor’s claim.

The change in Sharpe’s accounts between the 1950s and 1960s should also serve as a strong reminder. We would be making a mistake if we granted the same evidentiary value to a recollection made more than ten years after the events in question as we do to a document produced at the time of the events. This point is important when we compare two sets of notes Sharpe made in 1968 with each other.

2) Inconsistencies in Sharpe’s 1960s notes:

We know that Sharpe’s 1968 notations are inconsistent with those he made in the 1950s. Interpretation of his claims is made even more difficult when we realize that two documents he wrote about the case in 1968, within a few months of each other, are not consistent.

Between February and August 1968, Sharpe produced a hand-written chronology regarding the case. These notes were likely for his personal use. In the notes, Sharpe indicates that Trainor called him several times on October 22, 1956.

In August 1968, Sharpe typed comments on a CBC television documentary ‘proposed scenario’. This second set of notes was likely for communication to the CBC program producers. These comments sometimes restate verbatim what appeared in the hand-written notes. In the typed comments, Sharpe states that Trainor “phoned me several times in 1956-7.”

In his article published in the Canadian Forensic Science Journal in 1970, he does not detail how many times he and Trainor spoke. In a note produced later in the 1970s, he repeats his claim that he spoke with Trainor several times in 1956 and 1957.

In light of these varying claims, what can we make of Sharpe's comments? It seems reasonable to suggest that Trainor called Sharpe more than once in 1956, likely in October. If she called him again, later in 1956 or in 1957, she doesn’t seem to have offered any new information, or Sharpe dismissed the calls as so unimportant as not even deserving a note. Alternatively, after more than decade, perhaps Sharpe wasn’t sure when, or how many times Trainor called him. This suggestion might help explain the variations in his notes; he did not feel confident committing publicly or to the CBC producers exactly when or how many times Trainor had called him.

3) Contradictions in Trainor’s claims and 1917 evidence

Setting aside the inconsistencies in Sharpe’s record regarding how many times he and Trainor spoke, evidence suggests Trainor’s claims (as recorded by Sharpe) should not be trusted. Trainor’s claim about being engaged to Thomson was one among a number of other claims that appear to have very likely been intentionally false.

In both his handwritten and typed 1968 notes, Sharpe states Trainor told him that she and her father were present when the “second undertaker” returned with Thomson’s body, and that she was sure Thomson’s body was in the casket.

The reference to the ‘second undertaker’ presumably refers to the Huntsville undertaker, Churchill, who exhumed Tom Thomson’s corpse for relocation to the Thomson family plot in Leith. Park Ranger Mark Robinson's 1917 daily diary records that the undertaker arrived on the night of July 18th, and the casket containing Thomson’s exhumed body was loaded on the evening train at Canoe Lake Station the following night (July 19^th).

Mark Robinson records that Winnifred Trainor left on the train from Canoe Lake Station on the evening of July 17th. Phone records, as well as her own August 1917 letters to Thomson family members indicate Trainor was in Scotia Junction on the morning of the 18^th.

We do not have any records indicating Trainor returned to Canoe Lake in time to be standing on the train platform on the evening of July 19. In the months following Tom's death, when she described to Tom's family her attempts to intervene in decision-making about Tom's remains and beliefs about Tom's death, she never mentions returning to Canoe Lake for the 19^th. She never suggested that she had seen Thomson’s casket being loaded on the train.

Margaret Thomson, one of Tom’s sisters, met Trainor in Toronto in August 1917. Margaret’s notes about that conversation don’t include any mention of Trainor claiming to have seen the exhumed casket.

Sharpe’s 1968 notes are the first mention we have of Trainor being present in Canoe Lake on July 19th. Logic suggests this exceptional claim was not produced by new rigour being applied to investigation of the fifty-year old case, or new primary evidence being located. It is also very unlikely that Trainor merely had previously overlooked mentioning that she had viewed Thomson's exhumed casket. Trainor’s testimony as recorded by Dr. Sharpe very likely indicates Trainor purposefully attempted to deceive Sharpe in the 1950s.

An additional piece of evidence, not produced directly by Sharpe, supports the conclusion that Sharpe’s recollections and Trainor’s claims might be inaccurate, if not untrustworthy.

In November 1973, Dr. Sharpe’s friend and peer, Dr. Doug Lucas, then Director of the Ontario Attorney General’s Laboratory, arranged a meeting between Dr. Sharpe and Charles Plewman. In 1972, Plewman wrote an article about Thomson’s death for the Canadian Camping Association magazine. In 1973, he approached Lucas after hearing him speak about the case at a Toronto Rotary Club meeting. In his notes about Sharpe’s and Plewman’s conversation, Lucas states, “Noble Sharpe said that Miss Trainor called him two or three times in 1956 and told him that she and her father were at the station when [Churchill] returned with the casket.” He also notes, “She also at another time told him that she and her father were present when the body was exhumed."

Given their hearsay nature, we should not give too much significance to Lucas’ comments. They are, however, consistent with the conclusions about Sharpe’s records reached above. As in Sharpe’s notes, Lucas’ comments indicate that Trainor spoke to Sharpe several times, although it is not clear whether these conversations all took place in 1956 or not. Lucas’ record of what Sharpe claimed about the calls further suggests that Trainor’s testimony might have been deeply, and perhaps to Sharpe, obviously flawed. If the suggestion that Trainor witnessed Thomson’s coffin being loaded on the train on July 19th lacks for evidence, the suggestion that Trainor was present when Thomson’s body was exhumed on the night of July 18th is even less plausible. To be present on the night of the 18^th would have required Trainor to have returned to Canoe Lake from Scotia Junction almost immediately after speaking with the Thomson family and the Huntsville undertaker. This is physically possible, but no 1917 record mentioning the trip or Trainor’s presence at Canoe Lake on July 18^th or 19th has ever been produced. Neither the letters Trainor wrote to the Thomson family in 1917 nor Mark Robinson’s daily diary record Trainor’s presence at Canoe Lake on July 18^th or 19^th. The claim only begins to appear in 1968, and only in documents produced by Dr. Sharpe, or reporting Dr. Sharpe’s claims. If Trainor was at Canoe Lake on July 19th or 20th, it is inconceivable that Trainor did not refer to such an important experience in any of her 1917 correspondence with the Thomson family, and that no one at Canoe Lake would refer to her presence for the exhumation or departure of Thomson's corpse in documents written at the time.

Conclusions:

Clearly, Dr. Noble Sharpe’s notes regarding his 1950s telephone conversations with Winnifred Trainor suffer from inconsistencies. More importantly, the testimony from Winnifred Trainor recorded in these notes contradicts the evidence we have from 1917. If Sharpe’s notes about Trainor’s testimony are accurate, then they very likely reflect Trainor’s errors or lies.

Where do these observations leave the suggestion that Winnifred Trainor and Tom Thomson were engaged? As I suggest in The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson, hearsay and poorly-grounded speculation has come to dominate and displace evidence-based claims about Thomson’s death, particularly since the 1970s. In talk about whether Thomson and Trainor were engaged we have been offered gossip, guesses, faulty memories, and perhaps, as Sharpe’s notes about Trainor’s testimony suggest, lies. Certainly, Trainor’s claims of 1956, at least as recorded by Sharpe, don’t prove anything about Thomson’s marital status. They do, however, indicate something about the weaknesses of testimony made long after the events in question, even by those who might have been involved in Thomson’s case in 1917.

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All of the links for this post direct back to excerpts of transcribed historical documents provided on the website Death On A Painted Lake: The Tom Thomson Tragedy. Gregory Klages was Research Director for the site, launched by the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History project in 2008. Klages is the author of the 2016 book, The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction (Dundurn Press).