Harry Wigglesworth-Machinist Grand Trunk Railway
54 Duke Street, Stratford, ON
1914

The yellow brick house at 54 Duke St. was built by one of Stratford’s best-known railwaymen during the early half of the 20th Century.

 

Harry Wigglesworth was born in 1876 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, UK and baptized in Holy Trinity parish on July 2, 1879, the son of John William and Emma Jackson. By 1891 the family moved to nearby Doncaster and Harry, following in his coopersmith father’s footsteps, was employed as a brass finisher for the railway. In 1899 he married Edith Poole and in 1905 they arrived in Montreal where Harry was soon employed with the Grand Trunk Railway.

 

In 1907 they moved to Stratford and were living in the small house at 333 Ontario St. and Harry was now a machinist for the Grand Trunk Railway. In 1914 they moved to the newly built house at 54 Duke St. and soon after they moved, they adopted 6 year old Albert William Cliffe, a British Home Child. He was born in Liverpool, UK in  1909 to parents James Clifford and Elizabeth Lawton. When his mother died in 1914, James could no longer work and care for his children so decided to place them in the care of a children’s home. Four of the Cliffe children were sent to live in Canada. Following a brief stay at 51 Avon St. the children were split up. Two were sent to work as domestics and Albert and his sister Elsie were adopted.

 

A prominent labour leader since he became a member of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers in 1895, in 1922 at a time when he was president, the organization joined with the International Association of Machinists. He was a life member of the International Association of Machinists and the first life member and honorary president of the Dominion wide, Ship By Rail Association which he was instrumental in organizing as well as serving as the chairman of the Ontario association for many years.

 

He was a member of the Stratford Old Age Pensioner’s Board and the CNR Pensioner’s Association. In 1929 he was a member of city council and became the first working man to be elected to the Board of Education serving from 1922 to 1928 and as chairman of the board for 2 years. He also held the office of vice chairman of the Stratford Industrial Commission. He was a member of the Sons of England Benefit Society and played a prominent part in the campaign supported by members across Canada to raise funds for the erection of the bust of Shakespeare which graces the Shakespeare gardens here. When it was unveiled on Sept. 5, 1949,  he pointed out to the audience this memorial was the only outdoor likeness of the poet in existence in Canada and probably on the North American continent. Eventhough he retired from the shops in 1942, he was still actively involved in railway matters when the local lodge of the machinist union staged a night of tribute in 1954. At that time he had been in the union for 59 years and held a gold card to signify life membership. As a member of the Ontario Street Baptist church, he sang in the choir for 38 years.

 

After Edith died on March 11, 1962, Harry moved to a smaller house at 81 Charles St. and after a brief illness, passed away in Stratford General Hospital on March 13, 1963.

 

Harry, Edith, Albert William and his wife Erie Agnes are all buried in Avondale cemetery.