The Icelandic connection - 01.12.2020, Qupperneq 28

170
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
Vol. 71 #4
A brief history of Camp Morton
provides some insight into the current
location of Major O’Kelly’s cenotaph,
along a remote shoreline of Lake
Winnipeg, rather than in a large city,
where his achievements would have been
more readily recognized.
In the middle of May 1920,
Archbishop Sinnott who had just
returned from Rome, decided to construct
a summer camp for Catholic children
of Winnipeg to provide the children
“with guarantees of safety and watchful
supervision, which with plenty of fun
and adventure, would ensure a healthy
growth of body, refinement of mind, and
goodness of heart”. A suitable and safe
location was eventually found 5 miles
north of Gimli Manitoba along the shores
of Lake Winnipeg by an inspection team
consisting of Father Blair, Father Morton
and D.F. Coyle.
Father Morton immediately began
to set up a team of parishioners to begin
the preliminary work of clearing the site,
identifying infrastructure locations and
construction of the chapel, dining hall,
water tower and many individual cabins
to accommodate both staff and children.
The construction was primarily carried out
using local materials such as logs, stones,
sand and cement.
Monsignor Morton was a well-
educated man and greatly respected for his
numerous works and accomplishments in
England before coming to Canada, having
joined the clergy relatively late in life, at 42
years of age.
The Rev. Dr. T. W. Morton BSc.
F.Ph.S., F.C.S had been honored by the
Pope and later became Science Master
at Beaumont College, Old Windsor;
Lecturer and Army Coach in London;
and Professor of Science and mathematics
at Prior Park, Bath. Monsignor Morton
came to Winnipeg in September of 1919
and became rector of St. Mary’s Cathedral
in Winnipeg. This well-known scholar
and teacher in England had also tutored
Winston Churchill at one point in his
career.
The camp was eventually named after
him for the pivotal and enduring role he
played over the years in establishing and
administrating this highly productive and
successful camp. Monsignor Morton also
built a small miniature castle near the
lakeshore of Lake Winnipeg as a summer
home for himself, which reminded him of
his family home in England.
The camp combined the teachings
of Catholicism with the recreation and
pleasure of a summer camp. The boys used
the camp in July and the girls in August.
Sports consisted of soccer, tennis, baseball
and swimming. Arts and crafts were
practiced in the recreation hall. The camp
was staffed primarily by Catholic Sisters
of various religious orders, with each order
having a particular function, providing
meals, religious instruction, recreational
activities, nursing care, and looking after