BOSSONS, Joseph Henry (1859-1938) was born in Cheshire, England on 16 May 1859 and emigrated to Canada in 1879. He settled in Winnipeg, Man. where he worked in the building trades. In 1885 he moved to Portage La Prairie to work as an architect and contractor, and may have been responsible for both the design and construction of new buildings in that town. Three years later, in 1888, he moved to Swan River, Man. and worked in the lumber and hardware business for A.L. Ashdown and J.H. Ashdown during the next two decades, and his name can also linked to architectural projects there including the Public School in Swan River (1900). In 1908 he relocated to Dauphin, Man. and became at full-time architect. His major work there was the classically inspired Beaux-Arts design for the Court House in that town in 1916-17. Bossons moved to British Columbia in 1918 and later became the president and manager of the Province Furniture Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Henderson's Vancouver Directory, 1921, 467, and 964). He died at Burnaby, B.C. on 17 November 1938 (obituary Vancouver Sun, 21 Nov. 1921, 9; obituary The Province [Vancouver], 22 Nov. 1938, 6).
SWAN RIVER, MAN., public school, 1900 (Swan River Star, 29 March 1900, 8; inf. Dr. Gordon Goldsborough, Winnipeg)
MINITONAS, MAN., public school, 1908 (C.R., xxii, 7 Oct. 1908, 25)
DAUPHIN, MAN., residence for D.D. McDonald, 1909 (Dauphin Herald, 8 April 1909, 8)
DAUPHIN, MAN., five houses for F.C. Cleaver, "....to be built on the new rink property", 1909 (Dauphin Herald, 8 April 1909, 8)
GILBERT PLAINS, MAN., public school for Brickburn School District, 1910 (C.R., xxiv, 9 Feb. 1910, 22, t.c.)
DAUPHIN, MAN., Bank of Commerce, Main Street North near First Avenue N.E., 1909-10, acting as local supervising architect to Victor Horsburgh of Toronto (Dauphin Herald, 24 Feb. 1910, 1, extensive descrip.; 24 June 1909, 1, descrip.; Manitoba, Dauphin: An Architectural Walking Tour, 1988, Building No. 8)
OCHRE RIVER, MAN., public school, 1910 (Dauphin Herald, 10 March 1910, 5, t.c.)
DAUPHIN, MAN., residence for Robert Lilly, Wakefield Avenue, 1910 (Dauphin Herald, 12 May 1910, 1)
CANORA, SASK., The Canora Hotel, Main Street at Railway Avenue, for Samuel Cohen, 1911-12; still standing 2018 (Dauphin Herald, 19 May 1910, 8; C.R., xxv, 13 Sept. 1911, 61, t.c.; inf. Frank Korvemaker, Regina)
DAUPHIN, MAN., hotel for J. Clarke, 1911 (C.R., xxv, 2 July 1911, 63, t.c.)
CANORA, SASK., Town Hall, 1911 (C.R., xxv, 13 Sept. 1911, 58, t.c.)
GILBERT PLAINS, MAN., store for Richard Green, 1911 (C.R., xxv, 13 Sept. 1911, 62, t.c.)
DAUPHIN, MAN., St. Paul's Anglican Church, First Street at 4th Avenue, 1912-13 (Manitoba, Dauphin: An Architectural Walking Tour, 1988, No. 32)
DAUPHIN, MAN., ice arena, 1912 (Dauphin Herald, 11 April 1912, 8)
DAUPHIN, MAN., Dauphin Plains Public School, 1912 (Dauphin Herald, 10 Oct. 1912, 4)
DAUPHIN, MAN., Court House, River Avenue West, 1916-17 (C.R., xxx, 5 April 1916, 44; M. Carter, Early Canadian Court Houses, 1983, 223, illus.)
COMPETITIONS
DAUPHIN, MAN., public school, 1909. Bossons was one of three architects from Manitoba who submitted a design for a large public school in Dauphin in early 1909 (Dauphin Herald, 18 March 1909, 1, descrip.). All three architects were then asked to revise and re-submit their proposal. The winner was J.H. Bossons.