Fonds - Harry Minns fonds

Harry Minns was born in 1915 in Leeds, England. He moved to Richmond with his family in 1926 and attended Bridgeport Elementary School. During his school years, Harry was an avid soccer and lacrosse player. At the age of 16, he began coaching his first lacrosse team, the Blundell Midgets. Due to the Depression, Harry left school in 1931 to work on his father’s farm. He continued to play and coach lacrosse, and during the late 1930s played for the Brighouse Intermediate “A” lacrosse team. In 1936 he took a job at B.C. Packers in Steveston and worked there until 1940 when he joined the Canadian Army, where he was assigned to the Military Staff Corps as a physical training instructor. He was stationed in Victoria, and played on lacrosse teams with other soldiers. Following the war, Harry helped form the Richmond Soccer League, and in the 1950s was co-founder of a local amateur boxing club. He also coached and trained men’s and women’s softball teams. In the late 1950s and 1960s, Harry began working with hockey teams. He was a member of the Richmond Minor Hockey Executive, and worked as a trainer for several teams, including the Richmond Sockeyes Junior ‘A’ squad. In 1971, Harry was awarded Richmond’s Good Citizen award for his involvement with local sports. The year before his death, Richmond City Council voted to name the new user ice rink next to the Richmond Arena after him, and at the time of his death, he was honoured by many Richmond sports teams and organizations for whom he had worked as coach and/ or trainer and to whom he was known as "Silver."
Minns was married to Margaret (Peggy) Bathgate in 1946 and they had two sons together. From 1950 until his retirement in 1969, Minns worked as a letter carrier in Richmond. Following his retirement, he worked as the custodian of the Minoru Sports Pavilion. He died September 25, 1984.