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- The Story of Saskatchewan and Its People
by John Hawkes
The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1924
The Ven. E.H. Knowles
The Ven. Edwin H. Knowles, archdeacon of the Qu'Appelle diocese of the Anglican church and lecturer at St. Chad's college of Regina, was born in faraway Ceylon, at Badulla, on June 7, 1874, the son of English parents. His father and mother, Edwin and Jane (Bassett) Knowles, were married in St. Philip and St. James' church, Oxford, and went out to Ceylon, where the father had acquired a plantation before his marriage. He was one of the early British planters there and died in that country. His widow now lives in Kamsack, Saskatchewan. Edwin Knowles gave his political allegiance to the Conservative party and both he and his wife were communicants of the Church of England. They were the parents of three children: Edwin H. Knowles of this review; John, a farmer at Kamsack; and Mrs. Peter Fraser of Kelvington, Saskatchewan, whose husband is a merchant.
Like the children of so many British people whose work takes them out of the Colonies, Edwin H. Knowles received his early education in England. In 1891, at the age of seventeen, he came to the Northwest Territories and took up a homestead first in the Cut Arm district and afterward in what is now Shillingthorpe district, Saskatchewan, being one of the two settlers in that region. His "next-door neighbour" was fourteen miles away; thirty-three long miles had to be traversed before one could get the none too frequent mails; while at one time the impossible distance of seventy-two miles stretched between him and the nearest doctor. But the young man worked on his land and taught school until he had "proved up". In 1893 he took a course at the Normal School at Regina, the first institution of the kind in the province, following which he taught school for ten years in the districts of Castleton, Cut Arm and Grahame.
It was in 1905 that Mr. Knowles first took up ecclesiastical work, being ordained deacon in that year. In 1906 he was ordained priest. It was not until after he had been ordained to the ministry that Mr. Knowles completed his course at the University of Manitoba and graduated with the LL.B. degree in 1909. His first charge was at Buffalo Lake, Saskatchewan, where he remained for five years, following which he was in charge of the parish at Kamsack for two years before he came to Regina. In 1911 he was made secretary of the Synod, a position he has filled ever since, and three years later he became canon. He was appointed to his present office of archdeacon in 1918. The same year witnessed his appointment to the post of honorary chaplain of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and he had nine years previously been made examining chaplain to the Bishop of Qu'Appelle. In connection with his work the archdeacon travels a great deal. Another of his duties is that of lecturer in canon law at St. Chad's College, Regina.
In 1898 Mr. Knowles was married to Miss Violet D.M. Mapleton, in St. Augustne's church, Saltcoats. Mrs. Knowles was born in Surrey, England, and is the eldest daughter of the late J.H.E. Mapleton, the first homesteader in the Shillingthorpe district, and Mr. Knowles' sole neighbor in the early pioneer days. One child has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Knowles: E.H.M. Knowles, who graduated with the degree of B.A. from the University of Saskatchewan, in the class of 1922, and is now completing his law course in the office of Messrs. Gordon & Gordon of Regina.
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Bassett Family Association Database
