Ruth (Culbert) Thompson (1915-1984)

 Ruth (Culbert) Thompson, the great-granddaughter of John Culbert and Mary Ward was born on this day 107 years ago.

Ruth (Culbert) Thompson in 1957. Ruth’s niece, Carole (McLeod) Cox remembers Ruth as a tall, slim woman with a beautiful singing voice.

Eleanor Ruth Culbert (known as Ruth) was born on 5 March 1915 in Manitoba. Her parents were George Arthur Culbert and Jean McLeod Campbell.

Ruth’s father, Arthur Culbert, was born on Poplar Farm in 1882 near Lucan, Ontario, Canada to parents Richard Culbert and Jane Eleanor Fairhall.

Arthur Culbert with his parents and siblings. Front, seated, left to right: Jane (Fairhall) Culbert, Richard Culbert, and Ethel (Culbert) Gras. Back, left to right: Hulda May (Culbert) Carscallen, Myron Manford Culbert, Lela (Culbert) Beadle, G. Arthur Culbert, and Mary Elsie (Culbert) Hodgson.

As a young man, Arthur Culbert moved from Ontario to Manitoba where he had relatives on his mother’s Fairhall side of the family. Arthur made a living in the hardware business, and would return to Ontario from time to visit. Ruth Culbert was one of Arthur’s six children.

Ruth (Culbert) Thompson with her parents and siblings. Left to right: Ruth (Culbert) Thompson; her brother Douglas Culbert; sister Ferelith (Culbert) Shiach; mother Jean (Campbell) Culbert; father Arthur Culbert; sister Jean (Culbert) McLeod, and brother Milton Alexander Culbert. Missing from the photo is Ruth's brother, Flying Officer Frederick Campbell Culbert who was killed in action during World War Two.

I have no details about Ruth’s early years growing up in Manitoba so we pick up the trail when Ruth was in her late 20s. In July, 1943 at the age of 28, Ruth graduated as an officer with the Canadian Women’s Army Corps (CWAC). Ruth was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in November of that same year.

Ruth Culbert in her CWAC uniform.

Ruth Culbert trained at Macdonald College, St. Anne de Bellevue in Quebec.

CWAC performed essential services that helped to bring about Allied victory in the Second World War. To learn more about the Canadian Women’s Army Corps, click here.

On 19 January 1946, Ruth Culbert, age 30, married 44-year-old, Belfast-born Samuel Lanktree Thompson (known as Lanktree.)

 

Ruth's husband, S. Lanktree Thompson, July 1947.

When Ruth married Lanktree, the ink had barely dried on Lanktree's divorce papers from his first wife, Eleanor Robson, the mother of his two children, Elaine Robson (Thompson) Olynyk and Bethoe Anne (Thompson) Shirkoff.

Lanktree made a name for himself in Winnipeg as a land developer and house builder. Unfortunately, his business partner ran off with all the company’s funds. Lanktree was left “holding the bag."

Ruth and Lanktree moved west to British Columbia to start over. Things were looking up for awhile. Lanktree developed the residential subdivision known as “Capilano Highlands” in North Vancouver as well as several other high-profile projects.

In 1948, a steady stream of visitors turned out to see one of his exhibition homes located at 3326 Edgemont Boulevard. He was on a roll.

Exhibtion home designed and built by S. Lanktree Thompson in the Capilano Highlands of North Vancouver, BC.

Ruth and Lanktree moved into the exhibition home in the late 1940s. Here is a photo of the house as it looks today, albeit partly concealed by shrubbery...

3326 Edgemont Boulevard as it looks today.

Around 1964, Ruth, Lanktree and their son moved into a house at 771 Montroyal Boulevard, North Vancouver, not far from Grouse Mountain. I don’t know whether or not this house was built by Lanktree’s company. 

777 Montroyal Blvd in North Vancouver.

At some point, Ruth and Lanktree’s fortunes took a turn for the worse. Ruth’s niece, Carole Ann Jean (McLeod) Cox said…

Ruth and Lanktree’s lives were an up and down road. Ruth contracted tuberculosis from their maid and had to be admitted to a sanitarium for quite a while to recuperate. Lanktree made, spent and lost several million dollars in bad financial ventures. When the money was rolling in, they lived the high life; parties, alcohol, etc. One night they were partying with others on a boat when the gas tank exploded. Lanktree was severely burned. Private nurses were expensive, so my mom [Jean Elsie (Culbert) McLeod] went from Manitoba to British Columbia to nurse Lanktree, which took several weeks.  From then on, I think that things went downhill. Ruth drank way too much. My parents went out to British Columbia every year to visit Ruth and Lanktree. My parents would fill the Thompsons’ bare cupboards with food. My mother sent Lanktree my father’s slightly worn suits, and she would buy clothes for Ruth. Lanktree died 24 February 1974, age 72. Ultimately, Ruth spent her last years in a wheelchair. Various family members lost contact with Ruth and Lanktree’s descendants and have no idea of their whereabouts today.

Ruth and Lanktree spent their final years in a high-rise apartment at 1275 Haro Street in Vancouver…

 

At some point during her life, Ruth must have done secretarial work because her death certificate lists her as a retired secretary.

Ruth (Culbert) Thompson died 24 July 1984, age 69 at the Shaughnessy Hospital in Vancouver, BC. She was cremated. The cause of death was listed as an intercranial hemorrhage although she also had cancer.

Eleanor Ruth (Culbert) Thompson’s Family Tree:

Ancestors:

John Culbert & Mary Ward (great-grandparents)

Richard Culbert & Jane Eleanor Fairhall (grandparents)

George Arthur Culbert & Jean McLeod Campbell (parents)

Eleanor (Ruth) Culbert Thompson

Descendants (Children):

Son [private]