W.T. Townsend
W. T. Townsend attended Wycliffe College in Toronto.1) He and college friend Cecil Swanson travelled together to Dawson in 1913. They were both candidates for ordination as Anglican ministers. After writing their exams they were ordained in Dawson on July 27, 1913.2)
Reverend Townsend was the principal of the Chooutla residential school in Carcross from 1913 to 1917.3) There was a prolonged discussion about education during the Third Synod of the Diocese of Yukon in July 1915. Townsend noted that most civilized governments recognised that they owed every child in their domain a certain amount of free education. He noted that purely secular training resulted in education without morality, and misuse of advantages would be more common in secular settings. His aim was to train each child to have self-respect and not despise where they came from but to do something for themselves and keep on the straight path guided by the knowledge and love of God; and also gain an ordinary education and skills training.4)
After the First World War, Townsend served in a large parish in Halifax but soon resigned at age thirty-nine to attend Harvard University. He and his wife were married in 1926. While at Harvard and afterwards, he served in a small parish in Rhode Island. He and his wife had a highly successful son, John Tolson Townsend.5)