In 1992, the Trinity Archives received a gift of papers from Charles Mortimer, whose family had ties to the College over many years. In the summer of 2023, several members of the contemporary family visited the archives to pore over these records, and a short time later the remaining cache of family papers arrived at Trinity.  They are now being processed by student assistant Alexander Lawson.

The first Mortimer in Canada, George, arrived as an Anglican priest in Thornhill in 1832.  His son, Arthur, also a priest, was appointed to the rectorship of Adelaide by Bishop Strachan, and his son, Charles White Mortimer (1852-1944), was educated at Trinity College and Osgoode Hall. For over thirty years Charles was British Vice-Consul in Los Angeles and in 1913 became British Consul.  He married the elegant Annie Marie Griffin and educated his sons in Canada; Charles Gordon Mortimer was killed in action in Malta in 1916. Arthur Beresford Mortimer also served in World War I after obtaining his BA at Trinity College in 1911.  He too became a lawyer, as did his son Charles, original donor of the records, a member of the class of 1948, who returned to Trinity in the 1990’s to study theology. 

Charles White Mortimer also had two daughters, one of whom was a writer and an active member of the Sierra Club.  Along with diaries, family photographs and correspondence there are also many wonderful photographs of spectacular scenery in the American Southwest.