Manitoba Heritage Council Commemorative Plaques

Norman Criddle (1875–1933)

As a child, Norman Criddle moved with his family from England in 1882, onto NE 32-8-16W in the Aweme district. The Criddles named their new home St. Albans. It became the social, intellectual and sporting centre of the surrounding pioneer community.

The Criddle children were educated by their parents and taught to appreciate natural history. From their laboratory at St. Albans, the Criddles recorded the changes in climate, fauna, flora and wildlife over a fifty-year period when the natural prairie was being radically transformed by agricultural development. The brothers discovered the first specimen of extinct bison in Manitoba.

In his distinguished career, he published over 160 scholarly articles and was a member of all the leading natural science societies in North America. From his home, he served as an entomologist for the Canadian government from 1914 until his death in 1933.