STEINBACH

present to the bank manager on Monday morning.”

Tough beginning

Mr. Smith’s father was of United Empire Loyalist stock and he migrated from Nova Sco— tia to Manitoba around the turn of the century. He was killed in one of the first, if not the first. tractor accidents in the province’s history when Tommy was only four. His mother struggled hard and put all her five children through high school. Tommy and his brother both be- came bank managers and his three sisters, school teachers.

Young Smith went to work in the bank when he was 17, but spent almost as much time participating in his two favorite sports, base- .ball and hockey, as he did at work. His heroes were Babe Ruth and Eddie Shore. When he was 21, however. one of his legs was so ser- iously injured in a baseball game that it had to be amputated. His interest in sports never tailored however, and Mr. Smith became the founder of Little League baseball in Steinbach.

Beet club founder

Although T. G. Smith is too modest to ever say so himself, Jake Penner, original president of the Hanover 4-H Beef Club has stated: “If it hadn’t been for Tommy, I can definitely say without hesitation that there would never have been any Hanover 4-H Beef Club. He was the man who undertook to finance our start at a very small rate. He travelled around to all the schools and helped us organize. He stuck his neck out by financing us because if the clubs had fallen through he would have had to foot the bill himsel

Mr. Smith was also responsible for the suc- cessful 4-H Beef Club sale at the Hanover Agricultural fairs and helped a great deal in improving the Agricultural Society. He was also active in the chamber of commerce for some years.

On October 22. 1968 the man who first came

97

to Steinbach as a relief manager for the Royal Bank of Canada at Steinbach was honored at one of the most successful banquets ever held by the Steinbach Chamber of Commerce. Follow— ing this he retired in Winnipeg.

"Fighting George" helped make military history

Appearances can sometimes be deceiving. Everybody knows that. But few folks in Stein- bach know, or even guess. that the mild—man- nered, unpretentious-looking individual is anything but a onetime farmer who decided to try his hand at operating a transfer.

George Coleman, the man in question, is certainly that all right. But he still serves so well to verify the old saying that appearances are deceptive. If Mr. Coleman looked more like a British Regimental Sergeant Major, he would certainly be more in character for the real story of his life reads like something from the pen of Rudyard Kipling, only more so.

Cavalryman, pilot, a driver of tanks, armour- ed cars, and camels, include some of the oc- cupations at which Mr. Coleman has tried his hand. As a soldier in the desert sands of Egypt

or“

Private G. T. Coleman at age 17, when he joined the Shropshire Yeomanry in the British cavalry in 1914. Mr. Coleman participated in the last cavalry charge in World War 1 in early 1915 in Palestine.

—pholo courtesy George Coleman