Victoria’s Read

Henrietta Louise Edwards (née Muir).  Born Dec 18, 1849. Died Nov 10, 1931.

As a young woman, Henrietta Muir studied art in New York. Back in Canada she had her work shown at the Royal Canadian Academy.

In 1876, Henrietta married medical doctor Oliver Cromwell Edwards. The family would reside in the Northwest area of Saskatchewan where Edwards was the first doctor to serve the area. The couple along with their three children lived an active life in Ottawa throughout the 1890’s.

Henrietta had long been a social activist, supporting political rights for women, public libraries, missionary societies, mother’s allowance, basic equal rights for women and penal reform. She worked with Lady Aberdeen and others in Ottawa to found the National Council of Women of Canada in 1893 and the Victorian Order of Nurses in 1897.
Shortly after  the turn of the century, the family settled near Lethbridge, Alberta. 

In 1905, she had been the major spokesperson and first president of the Alberta Local Council of Women and had helped organize each of the local chapters in the province.

In 1908, at the request of the Canadian Government, she prepared a summary of Canadian laws pertaining to women and children.

After her husband’s death in 1915, she relocated to Fort Macleod Alberta where she became chair to the Alberta Laws Committee. 

In 1917, she had compiled handbooks on legal matters, affecting women for both the national perspective and later a more detailed publication centered on Alberta which was republished in 1921. 

At the age of 80 she was still “fighting for the cause” and traveled to Edmonton, Alberta at the invitation of fellow social activist , Emily Murphy in the summer of 1927.

Henrietta became one of the “Famous Five” women who took the Person case to England and had Canadian women declared ‘persons’ under the law. Canadian women, as ‘non-persons’ had no rights to own land, serve in government and had very few legal rights prior to 1929. 

Henrietta Edwards died just short of her 82 birthday in Fort Macleod, Alberta.

Submitted by Dawn Monroe. famouscanadianwomen.com