Recognition of Prominent Lunenburgers

The Prominent Lunenburgers program recognizes individuals, organizations, small groups and teams for outstanding accomplishments that are recognizable beyond the community. Nominations are forwarded to the Town of Lunenburg by the public and judged against an established criteria by the Town of Lunenburg Heritage Advisory Committee, who then make a recommendation to Town Council for approval.

These five individuals are the first inductees to the program, and represent the diverse talents and contributions that Lunenburgers have made in Canada and around the world.

Captain Angus James Walters

photo credit – Nova Scotia Archives

b. 9 June 1881 in Lunenburg, d. 12 August 1968 in Lunenburg

Associated Places: Captain Angus Walters' House and Dairy, 37 Tannery Road; Bluenose Shed, Smith & Rhuland Shipyard; Captain Angus J. Walters Historic Sites and Monuments Board Plaque and Bluenose Historic Sites and Monuments Board Plaque; Bluenose exhibit at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic

Contributions: Schooner racing, fishery

To most Lunenburgers Captain Angus Walters needs no introduction. As skipper of the Lunenburg-built racing schooner Bluenose, Walters won the International Fisherman's Race Series from 1921 to 1938. This brought him and his crew international acclaim, and invitations to the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress Exposition and King George V's Silver Jubilee. The schooner Bluenose has become a symbol of Nova Scotia and Canada, most famously memorialized on the Canadian dime.

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Norman Byron ‘Dutch’ Mason

photo credit – courtesy Lunenburg County Progress Bulletin

b. 19 February 1938 in Lunenburg, d. 23 December 2006

Associated Places: Lunenburg Academy, Mason’s Beach

Contributions: Music

A descendant of Lunenburg’s first ‘Foreign Protestant’ settlers, Norman Mason attended the Academy until the age of 12, when his family relocated to Kentville. His strong Lunenburg accent stayed with him, however, and he was given the name ‘Dutch’ by his new friends.

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John T. ‘Barney’ Arenburg

photo credit – courtesy the late Francis Glover

b. April 1868, d. November 1941 in Bridgewater

Associated Places: ‘Arenburg House,’ 58 Cumberland Street; St. John’s Anglican Church; Lunenburg Armouries

Contributions: Music

John “Barney” Arenburg began his career as a band leader in the 1890s, first in Yarmouth as head of the Citizen’s Band. Two years later he returned to Lunenburg to direct the 75th Regimental Band and a band in Caledonia. In 1910 Arenburg handpicked musicians across Nova Scotia to play at Boston’s Mechanics Exposition, an appearance honoured by an invitation to play with ‘one of the finest American marine bands.’

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Mildred Pearl Oxner

photo credit – courtesy Nancy Haughn

b. 22 Dec. 1899 in Young’s Landing, Lunenburg Co., d. 16 June 1968 in Lunenburg

Associated Places: Lunenburg Academy; Lunenburg Opera House (290 Lincoln Street); Central United Church; 91 Creighton Street, Purcell’s Art Studio (217 Lincoln Street, formerly BG Oxner’s grocery); Hillcrest Cemetery

Contributions: Music, arts and culture

Lunenburg’s “Mrs. Music,” Pearl Oxner (nee Young) showed an interest in music at an early age, first by pretending to play an organ she had made from moss and stones, then moving to formal piano lessons at the age of 8. After graduating from the Lunenburg Academy in 1917, she studied business and music at Mount Allison University. Her first major role was in 1920 as the lead in the opera production of ‘The Chimes of Normandy’.

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The Hon. Robert Henry Winters

photo credit – courtesy Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic

b. 18 August 1910 in Lunenburg, d. 9/10 October 1969 in California

Associated Places: Lunenburg Academy; Winters family home, 289 Pelham Street; cornerstone of the ‘old’ Post Office, 16-22 King Street; Hillcrest Cemetery

Contributions: Politics

Robert Winters was born in Lunenburg in 1910, and received his initial education at the Lunenburg Academy. He attained a bachelor’s degree in Engineering at Mount Allison University and a Master of Engineering degree at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). When war was declared in 1939 Winters was working at Northern Electric but he volunteered for the Corps of Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, eventually rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

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Earl Bailly

b. 8 July 1903 in Lunenburg, d. 1 July 1977 in Lunenburg

Associated Places: Bailly Home, 134 Pelham Street, paintings on display at Lunenburg Town Hall, 119 Cumberland Street, Lunenburg Art Gallery, 79 Pelham Street, and he Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, 68 Bluenose Drive; where Earl Bailly memorobilia is displayed; interred at Hillcrest Cemetery

Contributions: Art

An inspiration to others in overcoming physical challenges to lead a full, productive life. Evern "Earl" Bailly brought attention to Lunenburg with his lifelong artistic accomplishments, and his engaging personality. Striken with Polio at the age of two, he lost the use of his arms and legs, learning to write and paint with his mouth. Earl developed a highly refined sense of colour and composition, being well read in art theory and practice. He travelled to major cities in accross Canada, the U.S. and Bermuda, achieving recognition at Galleries for the quality of his Maritime scenes. In 1933, with his brother Don, Earl sailed to the Chicago World's Fair on the original Bluenose, with Captain Angus Walters.

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