About Harry Elgin Tate

Harry Elgin Tate was born May 10th, 1897 in Grand Valley, Ontario.  He died in Etobicoke on February 29th, 1984.

Harry's great-grandfather William immigrated from Ireland approximately 1849, and according to the Canada Census of 1851 he resided in Pickering, Ontario.

William was married with eight children.  One of the children was Thomas, Harry's grandfather.  Thomas worked as a miller in Greenwood, which is north of present Scarborough today, and in 1858 he moved to Amaranth Township to farm.

Thomas had a son and four daughters.  His son, Stewart was Harry's father.  Stewart was at various times the Village Reeve, a carriage shop operator, a blacksmith, a telephone lineman, an insurance agent and a notary public, all in the Grand Valley area.

Harry was educated in Grand Valley.  He would go on to train as a teacher and his first teaching job was in Eugenia Falls where he met and married Mary Leone Pedlar in 1918.  Harry taught at Rockwood and Hillsburgh before moving to Parry Sound in 1928.

Harry and Leone started their family a year after they were married.  Ralph Harry was born on January 3rd of 1919 and died on November 19th of 1972.  Helen Irene was a January baby born on the 7th of 1921 and died on April 20th, 1995.

Donald Elgin, yet a third January birth, was a 1923 New Years' baby, born on the 1st.  He died on May 25th, 1944 as a result of being shot down while piloting a Lancaster over Holland in World War II.

John Stewart, was the fourth, born on February 17th, 1925.  He passed away on February 18th, 2012.  The first daughter, Frances Leone, was born on May 16th, 1930.  She would be the last of her siblings to pass on.  She died on July 16th, 2016.  Their last child, William Burton, was born on November 9th, 1934.  He died on December 16th, 1998.

Harry, his wife Leone and their four children at the time moved to Parry Sound in 1928 and Harry began work at Victory School.  He would remain there until the year in which he retired, 1963.

Harry and Leone embarked on a long planned and awaited trip to Europe soon after he retired.

His wife Leone passed away in Parry Sound some years after he retired.  Harry would fall victim to dementia and eventually the family moved him to a nursing home in Etobicoke where he would be closer to relatives. He died just over two months before his 87th birthday.