Instructor Resources

The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson:
Study Guide

Return to: Theories Home

Theories and Hypotheses

Interment

Tom Thomson died, very likely, on the afternoon of Sunday, July 8th, 1917, sometime after Ranger Mark Robinson saw him walking to Joe Lake dam with Shannon Fraser in the morning and sometime before Martin Blecher found his canoe overturned on Canoe Lake in the afternoon.

It is perhaps conceivable that Tom had died the previous evening (July 7), possibly as the result of a fight with Shannon Fraser or Martin Blecher, but that scenario assumes that Mark Robinson was mistaken, which seems unlikely.

Tom’s body was spotted by Dr Goldwin Howland in the water off Little Wapomeo Island on the morning of Monday, July 16, and was towed to shore by George Rowe and Laurie Dickson. The body was identified by Chief Park Ranger Mark Robinson who contacted undertaker Robert H. Flavelle of Kearney, and his embalmer, Michael R. Dixon (Robinson’s cousin, coincidentally), who arrived together at Canoe Lake on Monday, July 16. (Flavelle billed for lodging from 3:45 p.m., Monday to 6:45 p.m., Tuesday while Dixon stayed at Robinson’s cabin.)

Dr Howland examined the body the next morning (Tuesday, July 16) and found it to be in a state of advanced decomposition. The body was embalmed by Dixon, transferred to the mainland and buried in Mowat Cemetery by Flavelle before the Coroner, Arthur Ranney, arrived from North Bay that same evening (July 16), and despite the protestations of Winnifred Trainor who had likely arrived on the morning train.

When the body was located, Tom had been missing for over a week. Winnifred Trainor had, presumably, been in contact with the Thomson family in the interim and would have known the family’s wishes as to the preferred burial site in the family plot at Leith. Trainor later complained that her advice had been ignored, or overruled (probably by Mark Robinson), possibly because of the advanced state of decomposition of the body.

A telephone bill from the Huntsville office of Bell Telephone records two calls placed by ‘Miss Traynor ’ from Huntsville to ‘Mr Thompson’ in Owen Sound, and four telephone calls to ‘Mr Flavelle’ in Kearney, all of them made on Wednesday, July 18 after Winnifred had attended Thomson’s late Tuesday afternoon burial in Mowat Cemetery and returned (presumably) on the evening train to Huntsville.

The inquest, such as it was, and the Coroner’s verdict of Accidental Drowning, are both somewhat suspect ... in the first instance because the Coroner did not, himself, examine the body but rather relied on second-hand information from Dr Howland. And the inquest was held at Martin Blecher’s cottage (which is odd), rather than Mowat Lodge; and Blecher ser ved beer and cigars at the proceeding, which seems out of keeping with the gravity of the proceeding; and George Rowe, who had assisted in the recovery of the body, had not been summonsed but attended only after Mark Robinson went to fetch him. Winnifred Trainor did not attend the inquest.

Arthur Ranney’s determination of Accidental Drowning was never particularly convincing at the time, and was formally challenged in 1930 when journalist Blodwen Davies published Paddle and Palette with Ryerson Press and then filed an ‘Application for the exhumation of the body of one Thos. Thomson drowned in Canoe Lake in 1917’ with the Attorney General in 1931. Arthur Ranney’s verdict would, eventually, be overturned in 2008 by Dr Michael Pollanen, then chief forensic pathologist for the Province of Ontario, who changed the cause of death to ‘unknown’.

Ranger Mark Robinson diary, Thursday, 19 July:

‘Mr Churchill undertaker of Huntsville arrived last night and took up body of Thomas Thomson artist under direction of Mr Geo Thompson of Conn usa. The body went out on evening train to Owen Sound to be burried in the family plot.’

From this diary entry it seems clear that Mark Robinson thought Tom’s body had been exhumed, perhaps on the Thursday morning, by Mr Churchill from Huntsville and shipped to Owen Sound, perhaps on the evening train. Shannon Fraser would seem to corroborate that supposition ...

Shannon Fraser, Letter to James MacCallum, July 24, 1917:

‘the Paddles was tied up in the canoe and canoe turned over when we found him he was in a bad state so we burried him he and his brother came up and took him a way with him he was dug up and put in a sealed coffen.’

But Mark Robinson has also indicated that he visited the Mowat cemetery shortly thereafter and found no evidence that the soil had been disturbed. One theory suggests that Mr Churchill may have sent a coffin filled with rocks to Owen Sound, a charge he vigorously denied when he was interrogated on the subject in 1956 by Dr Noble Sharpe, Ontario’s chief forensic medical investigator.

Dr Sharpe also spoke to Winnifred Trainor (in 1956) who testified that both she and her father were present at the Canoe Lake railroad station when the casket was loaded aboard the train (presumably Thursday, 19 July because we know from telephone records that Winnifred was in Huntsville on Wednesday, 18 July) and they were convinced that the body was in it. The Thomson family in Owen Sound was similarly convinced, and made mention of the strong odour emanating from the casket.

More Theories & Hypotheses

• Theories Home
• Theory #1: Accidental Drowning
• Theory #2: Manslaughter
• Theory #3: Murder with a Paddle
• Theory #4: Subdural Hematoma
• Theory #5: Murder with a Gun
• Theory #6: Suicide
• Further Mystery: Interment