Following his release from the RCAF on February 7, 1946, and a summer back at Pilot Mound, Murray Fraser returned to Winnipeg for more training. He had hoped to attend university to study Aero-Engineering, but wound up in a shorter and free vocational program.
By this time, the Manitoba Technical Institute was operating out of the former assembly plant built by Ford in 1915. Closed in 1941, the Manitoba government had purchased the facility a year later for wartime vocational training. Post-war “rehabilitation” (retraining of servicemen in peacetime occupations) was also anticipated.
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| Murray Fraser always called MTI’s building at 1181 Portage Avenue the Ford plant. [1] |
A July 24, 1943 article in the Winnipeg Free Press explained that the new Manitoba Technical Institute (MTI) was “an outgrowth of the Dominion-Provincial Vocational school which was formed to train skilled technical personnel.” The R.C.A.F. provided most of the students, and the Airframe Mechanics class was the largest.
In addition, the “airframes” get frequent lectures on theory of flight and other theoretical aspects pertaining to their trade. As they progress in their work, they are taught carpentry, sheet metal, forging, fabric work, doping and all the other essentials. Then, they get to work on actual planes which have been loaned to the school by the R.C.A.F., and learn to rig, take apart and reassemble every part of the body of the plane. They have an important job, and upon their skill may often depend the lives of the men who fly the planes. It is a standing rule that airframe mechanics must be willing to go up in any plane they have worked on. [2]
An adjacent Free Press article entitled “Every Day Manitoba Needs More Skilled Trade Workers” stressed the importance of trade schools in peace as well as in war. Course offerings at MTI would include vocational, commercial, and apprenticeship training to civilians as well as returning servicemen. Those considering such training were assured that:
All reputable trade schools insist on certain minimum qualifications before allowing the enrolment of a student. In addition they analyze the student’s natural ability and suitability for the desired special training. This ensures that accepted students possess the qualifications to aster the course successfully. [3]
As a veteran, Murray Fraser was entitled to rehabilitation training paid by Veterans Affairs. This was one applicant who easily met the Manitoba Technical Institute’s entry requirements and then some. With his previous training and air force experience, he was clearly a skilled tradesman already.
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| By 1948 MTI was serving the general public as Winnipeg’s first, permanent post-public-school vocational institution. It offered technical courses, apprenticeship trades, and commercial subjects. [4] |
The war effort needed skilled tradesmen, and free training programs were offered by the Dominion-Provincial War Emergency Training Programme. Murray Fraser had trained at Henry Avenue in Winnipeg between December 1940 and April 15, 1941, prior to enlisting in the R.C.A.F. on April 25. He was then sent to the No. 1 Technical Training School in St. Thomas, Ontario for an additional 18 weeks’ training in Airframe Mechanics and six weeks in Advanced Metal Work.
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| A 1943 advertisement for free 12-week courses in Machine Shop Practice, Sheet Metal Work, and Welding for men not already in war work or farming. [5] |
By the fall of 1946 Murray Fraser chose to leave Pilot Mound to pursue training at MTI offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
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| Department of Veterans Affairs application for training, side 1. Murray Fraser’s qualifications were noted, including “highest proficiency” as an Air Frame Mechanic. |
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| Department of Veterans Affairs application for training, side 2. The Counsellor noted that applicant Fraser was a “competent and conscientious young man” with “outstanding mechanical knowledge” who “does not want to make a career of farming.” |
An excellent candidate like Murray Fraser was promptly accepted by the DVA for full-time Machine Shop, and Tool and Die Making courses at MTI.
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| Authorization of Training Allowances, side 1. With entry requirements easily met and his goal noted as Tool and Die Maker, Murray Fraser’s application was rubber stamped on December 7, 1946. He listed his address as 76 Pilgrim Avenue, his sister’s home in Winnipeg. |
The authorization noted that “Applicant is a mature man of fine appearance” who had “an excellent background for this training and should have no difficulty in qualifying for the tool and die making course upon completion of Machine Shop training.” The assessment also stated, “Service records indicate exceptional skill and interest in his work and a keen sense of mechanical work.”
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| Authorization of Training Allowances, side 2. “He states that he now has no interest whatsoever in farming Applicant is considered an excellent prospect for this training.” |
Courses at MTI began on November 20, 1946. Murray Fraser was among approximately 80,000 veterans whose vocational training fees were covered by the Department of Veterans Affairs. [6] As an ex-serviceman, he was eligible to receive $100 to buy civilian clothing and had received a War Gratuity of $509.87. This was higher than the average of $488 (about $5,000 in today’s dollars). [7]
The coursework would have looked familiar to a tradesman like Murray Fraser. He had practical experience and knowledge, but the added related subjects, like Shop Sketching, Draughting, Job Analysis, Estimating, Report Writing, and more would have served him well in subsequent employment.
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| Manitoba Technical Institute course outlines, 1948. [4] |
It is no surprise that Murray Fraser did very well at MTI. He had always been a keen and diligent student.
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| Coursework, attendance and attitude were “Excellent.” |
The Department of Veterans Affairs agreed with the instructors’ assessment.
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| Final Follow-Up Report, side 1. Murray Fraser had moved from St. Vital to 169 Lenore Street, just south of Portage Avenue and a 15-minute walk from MTI. |
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| Final Follow-Up Report, side 2. With the 1300-hour course in Machine Shop and 988-hour course in Tool & Die successfully completed, Murray Fraser’s training assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs ceased on March 5, 1948. |
The final remark is notable: “Veteran is satisfactorily and steadily employed as trained at 94¢ per hour, due to training. May be considered rehabilitated.” Veteran and new graduate Murray Fraser joined MacDonald Bros. Aircraft as a sheet metal fitter directly from MTI, on March 8, 1948. (He retired as a senior manufacturing planner 34 years later.)
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| MacDonald Bros. Aircraft plant, Berry Street, Winnipeg, featuring a neat line of Taylorcraft Auster AOP aircraft, used in WWII and the Korean War. [8] |
Landing a job in 1948 was an accomplishment when firms like MacDonald Bros. Aircraft (MBA) were laying off workers post-war. However, they hired Murray Fraser straight out of MTI at the insistence of Ron Muir, his Die Making instructor who had worked at MBA during the war.
Aside from his qualifications, the clincher may have been the hand-made aluminum tractor cab Murray built for his father. After defence contracts dried up, MacDonald Bros. Aircraft had to diversify, and were building tractor cabs then, too. Likewise, the aluminum toolbox built on the farm was an impressive example of his skills. (In fact, it is on display at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada.)
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| Murray Fraser poses with the tractor cab he built in Pilot Mound in 1946. It was almost identical to those advertised by MacDonald Bros. two years later, but was clearly engineered precisely for this McCormick-Deering tractor. [9] |
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| Advertisement in Canadian Farm Implements magazine, August 1948. These cabs were intended to fit a range of tractor models. [10] |
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Post-war, MacDonald Bros. built a variety of farm equipment, including the Massey-Harris Super Six loader. Perhaps Murray Fraser built these, featured in 1949 ads in the Pilot Mound Sentinel. In his Fraser history he noted, “For a time Horace Mold and I were the Tooling Department.” [10]
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Out of the R.C.A.F., with a steady job he wanted, and a wife he also wanted, Murray Fraser was definitely off the farm for good. So were his parents; they retired to a small home in Pilot Mound post-war, and the farm was sold.
Sources
- Archives of Manitoba, Highways Branch Fonds, GR8372, photos M125a and M125b in “Historic Sites of Manitoba: Ford Assembly Building / Manitoba Technical Institute / Robert Fletcher Building (1181 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg), Manitoba Historical Society http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/fletcherbuilding.shtml
- “Technical Institute Prepares Men for Peace and War Work,” Winnipeg Free Press, July 24, 1943, p. 8.
- “Every Day Manitoba Needs More Skilled Trade Workers,” Winnipeg Free Press, July 24, 1943, p. 8.
- Department of Education, Manitoba, “General Bulletin on Day Courses of the Manitoba Technical Institute,” September 1948, Red River College archives
- Manitoba Department of Education, “Free Training!” advertisement, Pilot Mound Sentinel, June 24, 1943, p. 3.
- Government of Canada, “Back to ‘Civvy’ Street: Post-War Veteran Re-Establishment,” https://veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/classroom/fact-sheets/civvy
- Government of Canada, “Back to ‘Civvy’ Street: Post-War Veteran Re-Establishment,” https://veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/classroom/fact-sheets/civvy
- MacDonald Bros. Aircraft, Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada archives, photo 06-04-076
- "Vintage Ads," Red Power Magazine Forum, https://redpowerphotos.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/monthly_2017_01/58799d2d18c1e_Macdonaldtractorcabsmall.jpg.a495bc38c74a6956087705c5d2e66c12.jpg
- The Frasers, part 7, https://frasertrunk.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-frasers-part-7.html
