Volume 14 Number 10
25 July 1984
|
A Profile of John Murray
Gibbon
by Dave Jones
D'Alton C. Coleman, President of the C.P.R. from 1942 to 1947, in a tribute to John
Murray Gibbon, described him as a very unusual type of publicity man for a large
corporation to employ, "being much closer to the shrinking-violet
type than to the check-suited, cigar-smoking gentleman
sometimes associated with publicity".
At any rate, the man who the Stoney Indians knew as Chief
Man-of-Many-Sides was certainly one of diverse talents and
accomplishments.
Gibbon was born in Udewelle, Ceylon, in 1875, the son of a tea planter. An
imaginative boy, he had passing ambitions to be a cowboy, locomotive engineer,
ringmaster in a circus, or the proprietor of a chain of candy stores.
These dreams dissolved, however, in the light of being sent off to Aberdeen,
Scotland, to be formally educated, eventually graduating from Oxford, as well as
studying in France and Germany.
Editor
After graduation Gibbon joined the staff of the "Black & White", a
well known publication of which he became editor.
His first association with Canadian Pacific was in 1907 when he was hired on as an
advertising agent in the London office. As the company was cooperating with the
Liberal government in an active campaign to promote immigration to Canada, it came
as no surprise that one of Gibbon's first assignments was to escort a group of
British newspaper editors on a Canadian tour of inspection, together with George
Ham, the company's Montreal publicity agent.
This trip led him to realize that the Canadian Pacific was not merely a railway, but
an organization dedicated to building a new nation.
With Colonel Ham's retirement in 1913, Lord Shaughnessy, then president, offered
him the position of General Publicity Agent in Montreal.
Trans-Siberian
Gibbon accepted on the condition that he be allowed to come to Canada via Russia
and the Trans-Siberian Railway, which he did, but he spent so much
time in Japan that Shaughnessy cabled asking him if he really intended to come.
It was in this position, which he held until his retirement in 1945, that he
realized his talents as author, historian, musician, artist, and organizer
extraordinaire.
Among his many literary achievements were the publishing of five novels:
"Hearts & Faces, Drums Afar, Eyes of a Gypsy, Pagan Love, and The
Conquering Hero".
His work on Canadian folksongs, entitled "Canadian Folksongs, Old &
New", started a vogue for ethnic verse which led to the company's sponsoring
of several Folksong and Handicraft festivals at its major hotels during the 1920s.
French-Canadian music was featured at the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec
City, sea music at the Empress in Victoria and the Hotel Vancouver, English music
at the Royal York in Toronto, Scottish music at the Banff Springs, while the new
Canadians of the West also got their festivals at Winnipeg, Regina, and Calgary.
Gibbon's love of the Canadian Rockies inspired him to establish two societies, the
Trail Riders of the Canadian Rockies and the Sky Line Trail Hikers of the Canadian
Rockies, in 1924 and 1933 respectively. He was also the founder and first president
of the Canadian Authors' Association.
In 1938, he put together a series of ten radio broadcasts known as "Canadian
Mosaic" and when they were published in book form, he was honored with the
Governor-General's award.
Steel of Empire
Throughout his career, he remained a man of extreme shyness, leading one reviewer
to describe him as "the most extraordinary example of reticence and male
modesty to be found, perhaps, on the North American continent".
As for his affection for Canadian Pacific, Gibbon said: "I have been
thrice fortunate in my connection with a great broad-minded corporation
which has always been alive to the romantic and delicate side of life".
Reflecting this belief, he penned a lengthy romantic history of the Canadian Pacific
and its connections from the Orient to Europe, entitled "Steel of Empire".
John Murray Gibbon died in 1952, after a short illness, and was buried in a small
cemetery in Banff amongst the mountains that he loved so much.
His friends from the "Trail Riders" installed a bronze plaque at his
gravesite designed by Charles A. Beil of Banff, a noted Canadian sculptor and
artist and longtime friend of Gibbon.
His name is commemorated in Gibbon Pass which lies between Shadow Lake and the Twin
Lakes, below Ball and Storm mountains in the valley of the Bow River, midway between
Banff and Lake Louise.
The pass was actually discovered by Gibbon while he was planning a route to be
ridden by the Trail Riders.
Canadian Pacific Public
Relations & Advertising PO Box 6042 Sta. A Montreal PQ H3C 3E4
Back
|
|
