(April 1891-20 Aug. 1954), auctioneer. (Dave Lalonde, D. Lalonde, Dave L. Lalonde) Parents: Alexander Lalonde, a tinsmith of Alexandria, and his wife Delphine Courville. Education: Alexandria Separate School. He enlisted in 1915 with the 59th Battalion, went overseas with the 154th Battalion, and rose to the rank of sgt. major. Having returned to Canada in 1919, he went back to England in March 1920 to marry Amelia (Milly) Elizabeth Hazell, of Egham, Surrey. (date of marriage: 16 March 1920) When the young couple arrived in Alexandria (before the end of April) a celebration followed, but was in danger of being curtailed by the practice of the time, by which Alexandria’s locally generated electricity was cut off at midnight. But “Dave’s father called the power house (Power Dam Road) and instructed Bill Ritchie to keep the power on until sunrise and mail him the costs.” (McDonell) Dave Lalonde worked as a clerk in R.H. Cowan’s hardware store, Alexandria, and also for J.A.C. Huot.

     Deciding to train as an auctioneer, he quickly became, Angus H. McDonell said, “Glengarry’s leading auctioneer.” (Clarence Ostrom called him “a noted auctioneer”; the Glengarry News obituary said that during over two decades he was “the best known auctioneer in the district”) Lalonde was also at some time the town assessor and a court interpreter. A model community activist, Lalonde was a contributor in a wide range of church, civic and sporting activities. Active in hockey, lacrosse and football, he was also a long-time member of the Alexandria fire brigade, and served as the brigade chief. Towards the end of World War II, he was one of the organizers of the Alexandria Legion branch (the Col. A.G.F. Macdonald Legion) and he was its first president. Dave Lalonde was one of the men who participated in the “Senate,” the well-known conversational gatherings at Gerald McDonald’s barber shop on the main Street of Alexandria. In his last years he was ill from a rare disease. His death was at the St. Lawrence Sanatorium. Roman Catholic. He belonged to St. Finnan’s Parish. The Glengarry News obituary called him “one of Alexandria’s most widely known and popular figures.” Angus H. McDonell thought that Dave Lalonde, at the best stage of his life as an auctioneer and sportsman “knew more Glengarrians on a first name basis than anyone else in our time.” (four children) His widow, who lived in Cornwall, Ont., in her later years, died on 21 June 1993, at Cornwall General Hospital, in her 95th year. (her obituary Glengarry News 14 July 1993)

Glengarry News 2 Sept. 1954 * biog. article by Angus H. McDonell, GN 31 Aug. 1988, on induction of Dave Lalonde into Glengarry Sports Hall of Fame (with striking pen-and-ink drawing of Lalonde as hockey player) * Boss 258 * Ostrom 220 * marriage, GN 30 April 1920 * Mrs Lalonde, with two children, visits mother in England, GN 8 June 1923