Register entry 140 - Lieut. James Horace Matheson
James Horace Matheson (1853-1890): James looks to have been a listless bachelor, trying his hand at merchant banking, accounting and military service.
Matheson joined the Masonic Order, first with the Ionic Grand Lodge #227 in Clerkenwell, London as a gentleman in 1880. When he joined the Army he transferred to a military Grand Lodge #1449.
Matheson visited the Bell Farm on Sept. 23, 1884 apparently in company with George Blundell Longstaff, Dr. Thomas Barnardo, Alfred de Brissac Owen and Peter O’Leary. During his 1884 visit to Western Canada James Matheson also scouted out several locations for possible investment by his father, Donald Matheson, who planned to relocate a number of Scottish Crofters into the West.
A year after he visited Canada in 1884 he joined the East Kent Regiment of the British Army.
James Matheson did not marry and died in England just six years after visiting the Bell Farm.
SOURCES:
"Manitoba Daily Free Press", Sept. 29, 1884
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/26260/page/1033/data.pdf death Dec 4 1890 aged 37
Kensal Green Cemetery - James Horace Matheson's gravestone: https://billiongraves.com/grave/James-Horace-Matheson/1792537
https://archive.org/details/historyofmatheso00mack/page/146 born 1854
https://archive.org/details/historyofmatham00mack/page/54 born 1853
120 Queen's Gate /father's home (Donald Matheson)
3rd Battallion East Kent Regiment( the Buffs)/Capt JH Matheson's regiment Attended Harrow School 1867
Details relating to Matheson's Masonic membership come from the respective official Lodge records.
RESEARCH BY:
Bill Pinfold, Sharnbrook, England; and Michelle Cabana, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.