The collection contains: printed information about the W. H. Rhodes Canada Educational Trusts 1961 tour to Canada, such as booklets and itineraries; material collected during the trip, such as Cunard ephemera and leaflets from places visited; and photographs and news cuttings that document the trip.

Including:

1. W. H. Rhodes Canada Educational Trusts tour booklet entitled An Introduction to the Thirteenth Tour to Canada, 1961. Booklet includes an itinerary, a list of individuals on the tour, and general information about the W. H. Rhodes Educational Trust. The booklet is signed by members of the tour group. 
2. Handout giving information about the tour and an itinerary.
3. Cunard printed W. H. Rhodes Canada Educational Trusts tour booklet entitled Tour of Canada 1961. Booklet includes a list of officers on board the Carinthia, information on Canadian cities, and a guide to how to distinguish the rank of an officer on board. The booklet is signed by members of the tour group. 
4. W. H. Rhodes Canada Educational Trusts report booklet, entitled Report on the Tour to Canada, 1961.
5. Cunard Line luggage labels created for the W. H. Rhodes Educational Trust tour group (x2). 
6. List of individuals on the tour, held within a Cunard Saxonia card. 
7. Postcards depicting images of the Carinthia and Saxonia (x10)
8. Cunard Carinthia and Saxonia headed notepaper.
9. Cunard promotional leaflet entitled Saxonia and Ivernia.
10. Menu Cards (x3). Carinthia: Dinner Menu (2 Aug 1961), Gala Dinner Menu (7 Aug 1961). Saxonia: Dinner Menu (29 Aug 1961).
11. Programmes for Today (x10). Carinthia (3, 4, 6, Aug 1961); Saxonia (25-31 Aug 1961)
12. Concert Programme, Saxonia. The “Rhodeo” presented by the 1961 W. H. Rhodes (Canada) Educational Trusts Party. (29 Aug 1961).
13. Ocean Times, North Atlantic Edition (x3). Carinthia (7 Aug 1961); Saxonia (27, 28 Aug 1961). [oversize].
14. Photographs (x3) of members of the tour group, including one of the tour group with the Canadian Prime Minister, John Diefenbaker.
15. Newspaper Cuttings reporting on the1961 tour (/1-4), and one cutting relating to the 1962 tour (/5) .
16. Camp Wanapitei leaflet and Order of Service sheet (Aug 1961)
17. Canada Old Rhodians Association Bulletin No. 9 and No. 10, and Christmas card (18 Jan 1962; 8 Apr 1963; n.d.)

Other W. H. Rhodes Canada Educational Trusts material can be found in the archive at:

• D371/4/6/3-4: W. H. Rhodes Canada Educational Trusts tour to Canada, 1963 - booklet and report. (2 items)
• D42/PR4/14/8/5: W. H. Rhodes Canada Educational Trusts tour to Canada,1952 - booklet. (1 item)

In the summer of 1937, as a result of the vision and generosity of Mr. W. H. Rhodes, C.B.E., of Bradford, a party of thirty schoolboys from that city undertook a short tour of eastern Canada. Such was the success of this pilot tour that, the following year, Mr. Rhodes founded the W. H. Rhodes Canada Educational Trusts, under the terms of which students were selected to visit Canada in 1938, 1939 and every year from 1951 to 1963.

The boys were drawn from secondary schools of the cities in which Mr. Rhodes had business interests.  The 1961 tour included 16 students from London and 8 students each from Birmingham, Bradford, Glasgow, and Manchester. The boys, aged on average 18.5 years and at the end of their last year of sixth form, were selected for their academic achievement and good character.

The Foreword to the Report on the 1961 Tour to Canada (D1212/4) reads:

Every year the members of the Rhodes Tour Party earn the privilege of their selection by their outstanding achievement in school, so that they come together after a high degree of academic specialisation, and with the longest period of their formal education completed. To be transported at this juncture, from the industrial cities of Great Britain to the heartland of Canada, is a timely and broadening experience; to share in this venture with highly selected companions, in the most formative years of life, is a unique opportunity; to go as “representatives of one country of the Commonwealth visiting another” is an honour, enriched by the responsibility of upholding a tradition dating back to the foundation of the Trusts in 1938, of which the members of the Thirteenth Tour, no less than their predecessors, were deeply conscious.  With the months of careful preparation behind them, they set forth determined to play their full part in helping to realise the high ideals and purpose of our generous founder, “in strengthening those ties of kinship, mutual trust and affection enduring among the countries of the British Commonwealth.

The 1961 tour sailed from Liverpool on R.M.S. Carinthia on 2 August and travelled back to the United Kingdom on the R.M.S. Saxonia, arriving at Southampton on 1 September.

They visited Quebec, Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara, Sudbury, Temagami and Camp Wanapetei. They had tours of Universities, Civic Buildings, Farms, Businesses and Factories (such as the International Nickel Company and the Queenston Hydro-Electric Project), and were welcomed by City Mayors, Businessmen, Academics and Politicians (including the Prime Minister John Diefenbaker).