For me the story began with a yard sale in Guelph a few years ago that included a box of old fishing reels. As I pawed through the box, I came across a Model 1864 Ausable Shakespeare fly reel made by the Inglis Canada Company. Besides being an avid fly angler, I also collect antique fly fishing equipment and although this reel didn’t appear to be that old, I was intrigued that it had been manufactured in Canada. Not very many fly reels have been made in Canada. I figured that there might be a good story behind the reel.
Starting with the internet, I initially thought that the story involved the John Inglis Company of Toronto, and to an extent it did. The John Inglis Company manufactured shells and steam engines for freighters during the First World War and boilers, grain elevator and conveying equipment, hydraulic turnbines, tugs, and reciprocating and centrifugal pumps during the 1920’s. But like so many businesses, the John Inglis Company struggled during the Depression of the 1930’s and when the head of the company, William Inglis, one of John sons, died in 1933, the company went into receivership. In 1937 James Emanuel Hahn bought the manufacturing facility located on Strachan Avenue near Toronto’s downtown, and that’s when the story really gets interesting.
James Emanuel Hahn was born in 1892 in New York City of a German father, Alfred, and an Austrian mother ,Eugenie, nee Schlossburg. His parents had immigrated to the U.S. in 1890. James’ father was a salesman for a company which specialized in the manufacture of builders’ hardware and he had travelled in Canada and probably liked the large German-Canadian community in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. So in 1899 when he was seven years old James’ parents moved the family to New Hamburg where a Louis Hahn (no relation) and Alfred founded the Hahn Brass Company at a location on Waterloo Street in New Hamburg—one of two locations of the now Riverside Brass & Aluminum Foundry Limited.
James went to grade school in New Hamburg and then to high school at Kitchener Collegiate Institute, which was then known as the Berlin Technical and Collegiate Institute
In his excellent 1954 autobiography “For Action” James writes:
“In my earliest days I enjoyed fishing and boating on the River Nith and hunting in the woods in the surrounding countryside. Hunting, fishing and boats, and the equipment associated with all three, have remained among my main hobbies throughout my entire life. It is no accident that at one time or another in later years, companies that I directed produced fishing tackle, guns and the complete propulsion equipment for ships at sea”.
After graduating from high school, in 1911 Hahn began an academic program in Political Science at the University of Toronto, but had to withdraw in his third year because his father was seriously ill. After the New Year, once his father was out of danger, he discovered he would have to wait until the fall to resume his UofT program.
Anxious to have something to do over the winter months, James applied for a job as the Principal at the school in Byng Inlet north of Parry Sound on Georgian Bay. Due to the community’s urgent need the Village Trustees accepted his application, but were understandably concerned when the nineteen year old new Principal–they hadn’t asked him his age–stepped off the train. However, James rose to the challenge and turned his six months in the lumbering town into a good experience for Principal and students alike. So much so, that the students presented him with a pair of paddles when he left.
Instead of resuming his studies at the University, Hahn went into business with his father, but when the declaration of war occurred on August 4th, 1914 he volunteered for active service. However, when most of his Battalion, the First Canadian Infantry Battalion, left for England, he was told that he was going to be left behind because of his German last name. That did not sit well with James, so he took a huge chance, by-passed proper channels, met with the Minister of National Defence and appealed that he be allowed to go. The gambit worked and by February of 1915 he was training in the mud of the Salisbury Plains before shipping off to France. James’s German last name created additional controversy as he ended up involved in army intelligence and the matter had been raised in the Canadian House of Commons. But his commanding officers rallied around him and the controversy was soon laid to rest.
Hahn was wounded three times during WW1, the third time in September of 1916 was life threatening. He had been hit in the hip by shrapnel from an exploding shell during the Battle of the Somme. James did pull through and was sent back to England towards the end of October and then returned to Canada for three months leave. Towards the end of that three months he received instructions to attend a Medical Board review. Anticipating that the Medical Board would declare him medically unfit, Hahn instead bought his own ticket back to England to sail on February 4th of 1917. In England he appealed to his senior officers that he be allowed to return to active duty—an appeal that was again successful, not least of all because he had in the meantime received the Military Cross from King George V at Buckingham Palace.
Through 1918 Hahn participated in several battles by gathering intelligence, often from near the front lines, which helped plan many of those battles. He became acutely aware of the importance of keeping the troops well equipped with guns and ammunition which the German forces always seemed to have more of.
Finally on November 11, 2018 the Armistice was signed and the war to end all wars itself came to an end.
James returned to Canada in June of 1919 with the rank of major and was able, through a special arrangement for veterans, to attend Osgoode law school where, as part of that same special arrangement, he was permitted to complete a law degree in one year instead of the usual three. He met Dorothy McLagan on New Year’s Eve, 1920 and they were married on September 15th 1921.
Having decided that the legal profession was not for him, James went into industry. He got involved in the fledgling radio industry and met with great success. But it was not all work and no play. Hahn joined the Royal Canadian Yacht Club and became involved in yacht racing. He also took up fishing again and, in particular, fly fishing.
Although his companies were affected by the Depression of the ‘30’s, Hahn weathered the storm. He was becoming increasingly concerned about the rise of Hitler in Germany and by 1936 was sure that another war was approaching. That’s when James bought the John Inglis Company, and in 1938, just ahead of the 1939 start of World War 2, secured the first of many contracts to produce the new Bren Machine Gun. By the end of World War 2 the John Inglis Company was the single largest producer of the Bren Machine Gun for Canada and Britain. The company also built other weapons and manufactured ammunition as well.
Hahn also became involved in the Crown company, Victory Aircraft that turned out Lancaster Bombers which played a pivotal role for the Allies.
When World War 2 ended in 1945 the John Inglis Company employed seventeen thousand people. The question immediately arose as to what changes the Company was going to have to make to keep those people employed in a post war world. New product lines would have to be identified that would use the skills that had been developed in the war time work-force. Perhaps most famously, Inglis washer and driers emerged out of the process. But lots of other products too. Glass lined steel tanks for breweries, equipment for pulp and paper mills, engines for Canadian destroyers, recreational trailers—all were manufactured by Inglis Canada.
Let’s not forget about the Shakespeare-Inglis fly reel where this story started. Just as the manufacture of the Bren Machine Gun required the machining of many small parts in large quantities, so does the manufacture of fishing reels. As a boy, Hahn had been given a Shakespeare fishing reel which he remembered fondly. So when Inglis Canada decided to also produce fishing equipment in the post war years, an licensing agreement was arrived at with Shakespeare, at that time a Michigan based company. Inglis began producing rods, reels, lines, lures and tackle boxes under license to Shakespeare, but proudly stamped Inglis Canada. Inglis Canada had its own catalogue and marketed Shakespeare-Inglis products largely independent of the Shakespeare Company into the 1960’s.
James Emanuel Hahn passed away on August 31, 1955. That Inglis-Shakespeare fly reel I picked up at that yard sale in Guelph is a little part of James’ legacy that reminds me of his reel interesting story.
Dan is a fly fishing and outdoors writer who has been writing about the outdoors since 1983 when he first had an article published in Ontario OUT OF DOORS magazine. He was the magazine’s fly fishing editor from 1998 through 2015. Dan enjoys fly fishing in all its dimensions, from the heritage, history and literature of the sport, to fishing for trout and alternate species. He has been an adjunct lecturer in outdoor recreation at the University of Waterloo. In 2008, Dan won the Greg Clark Award for outstanding contributions to the arts of fly fishing at the Canadian Fly Fishing Symposium. He has been a popular guest speaker at fly clubs across the province, at the Canadian Fly Fishing Forum and at the Grand Opportunities Fly Fishing Forum and has been a fly tying instructor at the Canadian Fly Tying Symposium. Dan retired in 2019 as the Director of Engineering and Planning Services for the Township of Woolwich. Dan has also been a long time member of the KW Fly Fishers and in 2020 he became the President of the Club. Dan lives in Rockwood with his wife Jan, cats Tiger and Finnegan, and golden retriever Mitchell.