Collection F0612 - Archambeau-Thomas family collection

Gerald A. Archambeau is a Canadian citizen (b.1933) who emigrated from Jamaica to Montreal in 1947. He was the first black adolescent to join the Canadian Naval Cadets in Montreal in 1948, and the first black telegraph messenger to work for the Angelo American Telegraph Company. Archambeau worked as a passenger car attendant for the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Canadian National Railway in the 1950s. From 1967 to his retirement in 1993, Archambeau worked worked as a station attendant for Air Canada at the Malton (now Pearson International) airport. In 2004 Archambeau published his autobiography: "A Struggle To Walk With Dignity: The story of a Jamaican-born Canadian."

Archambeau's grandfather was a police inspector, naturalist, lecturer and explorer in Jamaica, Herbert T. Thomas.

His first wife was Gertrude Thomas. They had five sons and one daughter. The couple lost four of their sons during WWI. Archambeau's grandmother, Leonora Thomas, was Herbert T. Thomas' second wife. She was a seamstress and owned a local bakery. The couple had four daughters.

Archambeau's mother Phyllis A. Thomas, was a nurse. Phyllis had three sisters:Dorothy M. Thomas (also known as Dorothy Coot) was a legal secretary and the first female underwriter at New York Life Insurance Company; Beatrice V. Thomas was a cost accountant for a rum company based in Jamaica; Kathleen M. Thomas was also a legal secretary.

Additional biographical information can be found online through a Historica Canada recording of Archambeau speaking about his childhood in Jamaica. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZDurN3G4Gk&feature=youtu.be.