Weredale House, now part of Batshaw Youth and Family Services – on parc Weredale. All that remains of the original Weredale Lodge is a circular driveway.
Weredale House, now part of Batshaw Youth and Family Services – on parc Weredale. All that remains of the original Weredale Lodge is a circular driveway.
I volunteered there in the 70s with a little guy named Raymond Wood. I hope he is doing well today.
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Thanks for the note! Since posting that picture it has been viewed more than any other post. I would like to write an article about Weredale House – please email me if you would like your recollections to be included.
Michael
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I lived in Weredale from 72-76. It was not the nicest place.
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Hey Ron, I lived in weredale during that period also. Your name rings a bell. Do you remember the big black councler nicknamed SNOWBALL?. A mean son of a bitch, my first day there I watched him and another guy beat the crap out a kid in the stairwell. Andy MacLean
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I was 8 or 9 when I was there with my brother John Mclean it was just abuse after abuse for us Brugman was really a bad person and a lot of other people two. Lots of the older kids to were bad and did bad things can’t remember all the names of them but was not nice
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Bruce, I remember you and your brother John Maclean. I arrived there when I was 12 in 1959. I was put into Junior North dormitory and my bed was right next to John’s. Brugman was a real bastard; he strapped me once and hit me a few times. I remember the two brothers (Richard and Michael Truman) ran the canteen and were senior counselors at the Camp. They enjoyed hitting us across the head. I talked with Victor Malarek in 2003 on the phone while he was working at the Globe and Mail. He told me that Brugman died in ’84. Maybe he’s down in Hell smiling up at us. I am 73 years now. God bless all you Old Boys who had the misfortune of living in Weredale.
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I lived there twice in the 1970s
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Yep. I sure do know Snowball. And Lester the Molester the old man janitor.
Who are guys to remember ? Kurt Douglas, jimmy Dumakis, Howard White , the Dillion brothers. ???
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My room was next door to the ellis twins and I roomed with a guy named krakow or something like that, he was related to the ellis twins. I ran away from there just after the twins brother gogo was shot and killed down in the point
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remember danny wilson peter bergeron and dale brown
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I Also Lived There In 50s.Does any body Remember A Big German Guy Named Brugman Who was the Superintendent> WhatA Bad Ass He Was.Very Crule Guy. Have Lots Of Bad Memories Of That Place.
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I Also Lived There In 50s.Does any body Remember A Big German Guy Named Brugman Who was the Superintendent> WhatA Bad Ass He Was.Very Crule Guy. Have Lots Of Bad Memories Of That Place.
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Hi Norman
David Foster here, I was there from 1948 to 1953! You are so right about Brugman, he was NASTY.
I have a question…There was a Group Photo taken of all the kids in the gym sometime in 1951 or 52. Would you or anybody you know of that might
have one? if so, I’m looking for a copy for my family history Genealogy Tree. Can anyone help? Thanks
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Brugman was still there in 1963 when I lived there for a year. He didnt care for me, said i was a mommas boy, and did everything to make my stay miserable.
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My father Keith Nickson I think would have been there in the 50’s at some point as well. I am just reading a short summary of his childhood and this includes his time at Weredale House. One of his stories of Mr. Brugman who he said was a “real mean piece of work” and how one night a bunch of boys refused the eat the awful food and they threw it on the floor. This led to a beating by Mr. Brugman out near the exit which is where my father said he went rather than the office. Sounds like a terrible place!
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…George Brugman, big bellied bully. Also George & Ernie Carpenter, the main supervisors of all the boys. Also the maintenance old fart that lived in the basement good & bad times…some of the best were going to Westmount High and up at Camp Weredale, except when the dining room burned down…!!! …Was there from Sept. ’64 to Sept ’67… …Also, Brugman gave me the ‘strap’ 2 times (bare-ass, of course, another oddball) & I had to scrub the long central stairwell with a toothbrush …same stairwell where we were made to sit under the ‘clock’ for hours as punishment… memories…!!!
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morrey armstrong was there in 1939. he ran away from brugman
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looking for archives of this
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looking for the time MORREY aRMSTRONG WAS THERE
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Hi out there. My name is David Foster, I was, along with my two brothers, Brian and Stephen were residents at Weredale House from June 1948 to May 1953.
There was a group photo taken in the GYM some time in 1951/52 Would anybody from that time have this group photo and if so, would it be possible to get a copy from you via E-Mail? I would be most appreciative as I have recently lost the one I had,
regards
David Foster
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I was there from 3/22/61 to 8/10/61. The result of a teen pregnancy, given up for adoption.
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bullshit nobody under 9 was there
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i was there in 59 to 65 george brugman, mrs.craig nurse Dewar, Mr Leach, yes they were not the best group to be around
and last but not least Mr McCadam his name was first on the list followed by Mrs.Craig..
and then there were the bad guys . paul kababba,{A miq,mak} they wanted to do things to you because you were 10 and eleven years old, george carpenter, and lester the cleanup molester not the nicest of people at that time. Does anybody remember being sent to the DR.Uwin Institute for checking your head and being fed LSD that institute did a lot of research
at our expense the boys of Weredale!!! not great memories. I was called {conman}
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GeorgeGagnon there for 7 years in the sixtys does any one care what happen to us ?
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My e mail below
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only me george we were at camp together remember peter bergron danny wilson black kid red head ian the british crybaby and me michael bryntwick tc george life is stranger then fiction old buddy i remember you as froggy with the glasses like it was yesterday
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I almost forgot to mention standing under the clock facing the canteen {a punishment}
and just beside the office was the big chair in the dental room they did not call it that
but george Brugman all 6’5” of him gave me the strap nurse Dewar pulled my jeans down and on my bare bottom
he walloped me 6 times with that red pice of leather 18″ long 3″ wide….can not forget !!!!!
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yes it happen to me also and I remember that chair was not fun going to the shower after that
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My husband was there in the 60’s…. Gordon Knapp. He had a brother, George Knapp, who was also there. They both have horrific memories on this place. We are looking for another brother, Glen Knapp, if anyone knew him.
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My name is George Gagnon I was there in the 60s there was a picture of me at camp i have some story’s to tell. I was there for 7 tears or more gagnon 55.@aol.com does anyone care what happen to us back then?
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yeah george we were in camp together in summer 1967
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Hello George
My name is David Supernec we were roommates in the early seventies after they renovated dorms and made into rooms, just wondering if you remember. Dave
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Lindsay mcallan lived there 73-77 whentimes where good they were good .in my case whey they were bad they were bad.lol
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Lindsey, Holy crap I remember you. I am Reg. we grabbed a Labatt truck, among other things. LOL Small world.
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sorry females did not live there in the 1970s or prior
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Sorry, should have mentioned I was there at the same time period. West wing 3, Romeo Canalis ???? was unit leader.\
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I was there from 1951-1953. came from NS and went to Westmount Junior and senior high school. Don’t remember the sad tales about Brugmann the many of the commentators have said here. I took care of the canteen at one point and was a junior councillor at camp. one of the very senior guys was Mike Cripton who was studying dentistry at McGill. He eventually went to NB and became quite successful. So all the stories are not bad. I went off to NB when I left there (adopted) and eventually graduated in Engineering. Learned a lot about growing up at Weredale. If you were tough you survived.
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My father and his two brothers were at Weredale in the 1930s. His elder brother lied about his age and went to war, and my father ran away and hitch hiked to Toronto, where he met my mother and settled down. I would like to connect with people who know boys who were there in the 1930s and 1940s or were actually there themselves. I have attempted on several occasions to get medical records from Weredale (via Batshaw now), but have been told that they no longer exist, which I do not believe.
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I was there in 56 to 60 since i was a working boy i didn t exp;erience all the bad things, i pretty much had freedom to do as i wished leaves on the weekend from chief etc. i remember joe leach lester taylor but had no issues, mary craig miss dewar and geo brugman didn t much get involved with the working guys. i remember old knobby and his pipe who made the beds. so i don t have horror stories like some others.
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I did not live at Weredale but went to Westmount Park School and Westmount High School from 66 – 77. I went to school with alot of Weredale boys and often wonder what happened to them, Peter Twerdowsky ( I think he passed away), John Tite, Larry Dillon, the Ellis Twins, I also went to school with Garth Cote whose dad worked at Weredale.
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I was there in 61 with art job buttles doggie denials
Paul viscusi
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