Harry Allan Bexson, a well known horseman, farmer, political leader and hunting enthusiast from Lloydminster, Alta., has died at the age of 105.
Bexson was born in the English city of Derby in 1904, the youngest of four children.
Raised on a farm, he became interested in heavy horses at an early age.
In 1921, he moved with his family to the Lloydminster area and worked for a number of local farmers, cultivating his love of heavy horses.
Not long after, he landed a job showing Percheron horses for Jonathan Fox II, a local heavy horse enthusiast.
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While working for Fox, Bexson travelled the local fair circuit by rail, showing Justamere Percheron horses in Lloydminster, North Battleford, Prince Albert, Innisfree, Vegreville, Camrose and Red Deer.
On Jan. 31, 1925, Bexson married his wife, Irene, in Winnipeg. The ceremony cost $30 and the marriage lasted 57 years until Irene’s death in 1982.
Together, the couple returned to Loydminster in the spring of 1926, settled on a farm and raised a family of nine children -two girls and seven boys.
Bexson was known in the Lloydminster area and throughout Western Canada as a skilled and dedicated horseman.
Closely associated with the Percheron breed, he raised and trained a long list of Percheron show horses, the most memorable being Showtime, which was inducted into the Canadian Percheron Hall of Fame.
He also judged at numerous shows including the Toronto Royal Winter Fair, the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver and various events in the United States and England.
He was also involved with 4-H, where he gave seminars and judged various 4-H classes.
In addition to horses, he also raised Hereford cattle and dogs for stock handling and hunting.
At one point, he had more than 100 dogs on the family’s farm.
Bexson was involved in politics at the local, provincial and federal levels.
He served on the local school board, acted as director for a local telephone company and sat on the Lloydminster Exhibition board for 15 years, three as president.
Along with other community supporters, he raised funds for the construction of Lloydminster’s old curling rink and was involved in the planning, construction and financing of the Lloydminster Stockade building.
In 1987, he was inducted into Lloydminster’s agricultural hall of fame.
Bexson was also a key player in the CCF, a party that later became the NDP.
He served as provincial constituency president, spent two terms as campaign manager for the federal CCF party and eventually became federal CCF president, a position he held for six years.
Friends and family knew Bexson as a dedicated hunter and outdoorsman.
At the age of 99, he tagged a white-tailed deer and a mule deer and was frequently seen driving the countryside hunting gophers.
He died July 30 at a nursing home in Lloydminster.
