| Notes |
- The following notes come from Malcolm Sissons:
Gerald was born in a house on Donald St. where the Hudson Bay Co. parkade is located in downtown Winnipeg. After his father died prematurely when he was twelve, his mother took him to her family in Guelph and while living there, Gerald formed a close relationship with his cousins. He and his mother visited Scotland at this time, meeting Lord Frederic Hamilton during the voyage.
Gerald and his mother returned to Winnipeg in 1908 and lived in an apartment near the Winnipeg Winter Club, while Gerald began his study of law at the University of Winnipeg and graduated with his B.A. in 1911, and was called to the bar just before he left for the war.
Gerald had joined the 79th Cameron Highlanders of Canada. However, he was "taken on strength" with 19 other officers from the Camerons in March, 1915, as a lieutenant in the 52nd "New Ontario" Battalion, raised in Port Arthur, Ontario. They landed in England in late 1915. While in camp south of London, Gerald's friend Lord Frederic Hamilton arranged for Gerald to meet Arthur Conan Doyle who lived near by. Later, in 1916 while on leave, Gerald went to tea with the Bowes-Lyon family, including 16 year old Elizabeth, who later became the Queen (now Queen mother). He spent most of the war in the trenches, starting as lieutenant and listed as a machine gun officer in November 1915. He was promoted to captain on 17 October 1917 and to adjutant to Colonel Foster on 26 December 1917. His unit fought in the battles of Ypres, Mount Sorrel, the Somme, Vimy Ridge, Hill 70, Passchendaele, Amiens, Hindenburg line, Cambrai and Valenciennes. Gerald was wounded in one of the actions when he and his comrades were exposed to a German machine gun when the fog lifted. He was wounded in the stomach although his belt buckle took most of the damage. He served until December 1918 and was "evacuated" 10 February 1919 (i.e. he left the unit). He was awarded the Military Cross by King George V in 1919. Gerald continued his contact with Col. Foster who visited the Rutherford family in Winnipeg.
"Hope", as Gerald called her, took a boat to England at the end of the war where they were married in 1918 in London, at St. Margaret's church (since destroyed). Greta (Jackson) and her husband, Dr. Charles Bunn, attended the couple during the ceremony. Upon their return to Winnipeg, Gerald did law work with the soldier settlement board helping returned soldiers get on to farms and then started with the law firm of Aikens Loftus & Co. During the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, at the request of the authorities, Gerald helped out on the rifle range, teaching some of the older men how to shoot.
Gerald and Hope lived in an apartment at the corner of Osborne and Roslyn Road where Margaret Hope ("Babs") was born on 15 October 1919. The young couple built a house at 200 Cambridge St. in 1923 where Nancy-Ruth ("Nance") was born on 10 November 1924. During these years, Nellie, the maid, also lived with the family. Gerald was a strict disciplinarian, a view not generally shared by his wife. He enjoyed sports such as swimming and squash.
In 1926, Gerald established his own law practice in the Somerset block and a few months later joined forces with Alfred Rosevear who was practising law in the same building. They took on a couple more partners, Mssrs. MacIntosh and Johnson, but had to dissolve the firm in about 1930 when they could not get enough clients. During the depression, Gerald went to work for the Debt Adjustment Board which involved farms which were bankrupt and trying to work out ways to keep the family on the farm. A year after he started, Gerald became Chairman, a job which he kept until 1940 when he went to Ottawa where he worked as counsel to the Controllers for the Department of Munitions and Supplies. He returned to Winnipeg in 1941 to take up work as legislative counsel to the Manitoba government. He continued his association with the Cameron Highlanders through the years.
The family spent most summers from 1932 on at the cottage they built on Clearwater Bay, Lake of the Woods, Ontario, where they were neighbours of the Fred Jacksons. Hope was stricken while at camp and later died, leaving Gerald with a 16 year old Nancy-Ruth at home.
Gerald continued his career as Legislative Counsel, and revising the statutes of Manitoba, earning him the sobriquet of "Mr. Manitoba" among his colleagues of the Uniform Law Conference. He was also named Queen's Counsel. During this period, he also served as a major in the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders militia regiment. Gerald reached mandatory retirement age (of 65) in 1955 but carried on in this capacity as a "temporary" employee until 1968, and as Revising Officer until 1972 finally quitting at the age of 82.
After seventeen years as a widower, Gerald remarried to Amy de Jardin in 1959, and acquired a new step family. After retirement, Gerald did some contract work for the Government of British Columbia, revising statutes. Gerald and Amy also made a number of trips to Hawaii, where Amy passed away in February 1980. Gerald continued to live by himself, celebrating his 90th birthday in style at the Fort Garry Hotel, before finally passing away at the age of 96 on 15 July 1987. Gerald is buried in St. John's cemetary in Winnipeg, a city which he always considered to be the finest in the land.
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1890 - 1987 (96 years)
