Victoria’s Read

Beatrice Gladys Lillie. Born Toronto, Ontario, May 28, 1894. Died , Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire England, January 29, 1989.

Beatrice Gladys Lillie had her start in the business by performing on stage with her mother and her sister Muriel as The Lillie Tri. Bea had a ‘sweet’ voice and when singing, would add jokes between songs until she was better known for the jokes than her music.

In 1914, her mother moved the family to London, England where they debuted in London’s famous west end theatre district. Within 10 years, Beatrice would debut in New York City.
She married Sir Robert Peel and became Lady Peel in January 1920. Beatrice continued her career and professionally she became known as Bea Lillie and well renowned for her gift of satire. She had one son, Robert Peel. Beatrice and Robert separated but never divorced. Lord Peel died in 1934 and her son was killed in action 1942. 

Beatrice would boast a successful recording career with many recordings made with songs specifically written for her. Today she can even be located performing on the internet site Utube. She touched on work in the movies but did not concentrate in this medium. Her first film, ‘Exit Smiling’ was with Jack Pickford, the younger brother of the famous Canadian actress, Mary Pickford. Retro film festivals often screen the film. The film ‘On Approval’ was done in 1944 and put Beatrice at the top of her game.  In WW ll, she was an energetic and popular entertainer for the troops.

She won a Tony in 1953 for the revue ‘An Evening With Beatrice Lillie’ with which she toured worldwide. In 1954, she earned the Sarah Siddons Award for her work with Chicago theatre.
She has a star on Hollywood Boulevard, the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame.

By 1948, she entered into a controlling “friendship” with a younger man, John Philip Huck. While he may have been controlling, she was cared for after she retired from the stage in 1971 because of Alzheimer’s disease. John  Huck died within two days of Beatrice in January 1989.

Beatrice Gladys Lillie was never forgotten in her home town of Toronto. On the 100th anniversary of her birth in 1984, the Parkdale Clinic on Queen Street, was named in her honour.

Submitted by Dawn Monroe. famouscanadianwomen.com

When retiring to the bedroom, prepare yourself for bed as promptly as possible. Whilst feminine hygiene is of the upmost importance, your tired husband does not want to queue for the bathroom, as he would have to do for his train. But remember to look your best when going to bed. Try to achieve a look that is welcoming without being obvious. If you need to apply face-cream or hair-rollers wait until he is asleep as this can be shocking to a man last thing at night.

When it comes to the possibility of intimate relations with your husband, it is important to remember your marriage vows and in particular your commitment to obey him.

If he feels that he needs to sleep immediately then so be it. In all things, be led by your husbands wishes. Do not pressure him in any way to stimulate intimacy. Should your husband suggest congress then agree humbly, all the while being mindful that a mans satisfaction is more important than a woman’s. When he reaches his moment of fulfillment, a small moan from yourself is encouraging to him and quite sufficient to indicate any enjoyment that you may have had.

Should your husband suggest any of the more unusual practices, be obedient and uncomplaining but register any reluctance by remaining silent. It is likely that your husband will then fall promptly asleep so adjust your clothing, freshen up and apply your night-time face and hair care products.

You may then set the alarm so that you can arise shortly before him in the morning. This will enable you to have his morning cup of tea ready when he awakes. 

“I must admit that I am a little old fashioned when it comes to my role as a wife but I have to say that this is extreme! If this article doesn’t get your back up, It should make you wonder what else was taught back then in our schools!” Thanks Jessie.

Mar 29, 1842-Apr11, 1913

Dr. Amelia Yeomans and her daughter Lillian were the first women physicians in Winnipeg. She was born in Montreal and married Dr. Augustus Yeomans at the age of eighteen.

When he died in 1878, Amelia decided to join her daughter Lillian at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor to pursue a career in medicine. At that time, medical schools were still closed to women in Canada. Lillian graduated in 1882 and obtained her Manitoba licence on September 22, 1882. Amelia obtained her M.D. degree in Michigan in 1883, and was registered in Manitoba on February 23, 1885.

Both Dr. Yeomans specialized in “Midwifery and the Diseases of Women and Children.” There was plenty of work for them in Winnipeg. During the 1880s Winnipeg was being transformed from a frontier town into a bustling metropolis. Many social ills followed this rapid growth. Dr. Amelia Yeomans could not sit and watch the misery that many women faced, especially immigrant women. In response, she visited the city’s slums, toured factories and prisons, treated the deprived and dispossessed and exposed the conditions to the rest of society.

Dr. Amelia Yeomans thought that giving women the right to vote was another way of curing social ills. This was a very unpopular cause at that time. Not only were most men totally opposed to granting women the right to vote but they were also convinced it would cause the disintegration of the family. Despite all her efforts, women did not get the vote in her lifetime and prohibition was not legislated until 1916. However, her efforts paved the way for both.

When she retired in 1906, Winnipeg was no longer the wicked city she encountered when she first moved here. When she died in 1913, over two hundred women had graduated from medical schools throughout Canada. The City of Winnipeg recognized her important role in our history by dedicating a plaque to her on the Broadway median at Hargrave Street.

Lillian Yeomans
June 23, 1861-Dec 9, 1942

Myrtle Alice Cook McGowan. Born Toronto, Ont Jan 5, 1902. Died Mar 18, 1985 in Elora, Ont.

A shy and quiet child, she loved to participate in sports and excelled in track as a high school student which lasted on through to her adult years.
 

At 15 years of age, she was named to the women’s national track team. She won six Canadian Championships in the 60 yard and 100 yard events between 1927 and 1930.

Recognition of her prowess in running came in the 1928 Olympics, the first Olympic Games to allow women to compete. Myrtle was one of a team of six women to represent Canada. The press would call them “the Matchless Six”. At the Halifax Olympic trials, she had set a world record in the 100 meters but unfortunately at the games themselves, Myrtle was disqualified from this event after two false starts. She still ran the anchor leg of the 400 m relay and it was not only a Gold medal run but the event set a new world record of 48.4 seconds! The “matchless Six” returned home as heroes, welcomed with ticker tape parades in Canada’s two largest cities, Toronto and Montreal.

In April 1929, Myrtle moved to Montreal to begin her career as a sports columnist for the Montreal Daily Star newspaper where she worked for 44 years. She was a leader and organizer, working for recognition of women in sport and to establish the Montreal Major Ladies’ softball league, the Montreal Major Ladies’ Hockey League and a branch of the Canadian Ladies’ Athletic Club.

She was even called upon to teach running techniques to the members of the Montreal Royals, a professional men’s baseball team and  served in World War ll as a track coach of the Canadian Armed Services.

From 1932 to 1972, Myrtle served on almost every British Empire/Commonwealth Games Committee and Canadian Olympic Committees.

Myrtle Cook became known as “Canada’s First Lady of Sport” and for her numerous achievements and lifelong contribution / dedication to promoting women’s sport she has been elected into the Sports Halls of Fame for Montreal, the Province of Québec, The Canadian Olympics and Canada.

Submitted by Dawn Monroe. famouscanadianwoman.com

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

This is the story of women who were ground-breakers. These brave women from the early 1900s made all the difference in the lives we live today.

Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to vote.

The women were innocent and defenseless, but when, in North America, women picketed in front of the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote, they were jailed and by the end of the first night in jail, those women were barely alive.

Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden’s blessing, went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of ‘obstructing sidewalk traffic.’

Lucy Burns

They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above
her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air

Doris Lewis

They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her
head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate,
Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.
Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging,
beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the brave women.

Thus unfolded the ‘Night of Terror’ on Nov. 15, 1917,
when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson’s White House for the right to vote.

For weeks, the women’s only water came from an open pail. Their food–all of it colorless slop–was infested with worms.

 Alice Paul

When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a
chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited.
She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

All women who have every voted, have ever owned property, have ever enjoyed equal rights need to remember that  this year, 2009 is the 80th Anniversary of the Persons Case in Canada,
which finally declared women in Canada to be Persons!

Pauline Emily McGibbon. (Née Mills). Born Sarnia, Ontario
Oct 20, 1910 to  Dec 14, 2001. 

By all accounts, Pauline had a happy childhood filled with love and laughter from parents who were co-owner in a clothing store and active community volunteers.

She went on to study Modern History at Victoria College, University of Toronto, graduating in 1933.  In 1935, she married her high school sweetheart, Donald McGibbon.

She was a long time volunteer for various charities and groups including being president of the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire (I.O.D.E.) in 1963-1965 and Chancellor at the University of Toronto from 1971-1974. 

She was sworn in as Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Ontario April 10, 1974, becoming the first woman to represent the Queen not only in Canada but in the entire Commonwealth. She filled her duties in office with grace and humor. She not only opened the official office  doors to visitors and hosted numerous receptions but she traveled extensively throughout the province bringing her position to the people she served.

Pauline was actually used to being “first”. She was ‘The first woman’ President of the University of Toronto Alumnae Association Chancellor of the University of Toronto, President of the Canadian Conference of the Arts, Governor of Upper Canada College, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Arts Centre and Director of four major Canadian companies: George Weston, IBM, Imasco and Mercedes Benz.

She was originally appointed to the Order of Canada for her volunteer work in 1967 and moved up in the rank of the Order in 1980. After leaving the office of Lieutenant Governor she remained busy as Chairperson of the National Arts Centre in Ottawa from 1980 though 1984. She then took on the position as member  at  large of the Board of trustees at the Toronto School of Theology until 1987. From 1980 she was also a Director of the Massey Hall/Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto from 1980-1990. In 1988 she received the Order of Ontario. Her commitment to the arts is also supported by the Pauline McGibbon Honorary Award in Theatre Arts.

By Dawn Monroe. www.famouscanadianwomen.com

Born: Sept 8, 1937. Death: Mar 26, 1992.

Barbara was a multi-media journalist. She wrote for numerous magazines, was an original host for the CBC Radio program As it Happens and also a host of CBC TV’s nightly current affairs program The Journal. She was one of Canada’s most respected and best-known interviewers.

She was raised across the border in Niagara Falls, New York and decided on the University of Toronto for her post secondary studies.

It was in Toronto that she met and married Dr. Murray Frum, a dentist, in1957. Together the couple raised a family of three children, David, Linda and Matthew.

She graduated from the University of Toronto with a B. A. in history, in 1959. Right after university she began her life long avocation and career as a journalist.

She was a radio commentator and writer of reviews and magazine articles and in 1961 she worked briefly in Television. On CBC Radio she became a well known and respected current affairs journalist. It was the fall of 1971 that she took on the co-hosting work of the program As It Happens, which followed the 6:00 p.m. CBC News. It was an innovative show for its time and the show still is well received with its new hosts to this day.

Barbara’s journalistic skills sparkled in the telephone interview format of the show. Honing her skills she earned the respect of colleagues and listeners across the country.

She was the co-host of The Journal, a TV news magazine that took CBC late news into the new and successful  10:00 pm  time slot , launched January 11, 1982. She interviewed newsmakers of the day, big and small, including Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of Britain and world peace maker Nelson Mandela.

She won the National Press Club Award for Outstanding Contribution to Canadian Journalism and was the recipient of four ACTRA Awards. She received the Order of Canada in 1979.

Another proof of success is in the flattery of impersonation. She was parodied on the comedy news show, CODCO and was the inspiration for the Canadian Sesame Street Muppet “Barbara Plum”. She also appeared as a reporter in the cartoon series The Raccoons!

In 1992, Barbara died from complications resulting from chronic leukemia.

By: Dawn Monroe
www.famouscanadianwomen.com

Born Coburg, Ont Aug 26, 1881. Died Ottawa, Ont  Apr 15, 1964.

Alice Evelyn Wilson struggled for almost 40 years to be recognized as a geologist while she made significant contributions to Canadian geology and was recognized as one of the top women scientists in the country. Although she had earned a PhD degree she was not called Dr. Wilson until 1945!

As a child, exploring with her two brothers during summer vacation, she was fascinated by fossils she could see outlined in limestone. This keen interest carried her to studies at the University of Toronto.

All of her professional career, from 1909 to 1945, Alice Wilson worked at the Geological Survey of Canada where she described fossils in papers and books and was originally hired as a temporary museum assistant, carrying out clerical duties. By 1913 after publishing a paper in one of the early Bulletins of the Museum, her real career began. By 1919, Alice Wilson earned the position as an assistant paleontologist. The Canadian Federation of University Women then offered her a scholarship for a doctoral degree but it took several years and pressure on members of parliament before Alice was granted educational leave. She earned her PhD from the University of Chicago in 1929 then returned to work at the Victoria Memorial Museum in Ottawa (now the Museum of Nature), but never received the traditional increase in salary offered to male graduates.

It was not acceptable for a young woman to go on expeditions and camp out with male colleagues so Alice was confined to the area around Ottawa for exploration.

Her specialty, for which she would rate at the top of the field, was the Paleozoic formations of eastern Ontario. She enjoyed  bringing geology to the public. She was especially interested to involving children in her field of study and wrote a book called The Earth Beneath Our Feet for younger readers.  

In 1935, she received the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her work. In 1937, she was the 1st woman to be elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She was also the 1st Canadian woman to be admitted to the American Geological Society. When she retired, at the age of 65,  five people were hired to replace her!

By Dawn Monroe.
famouscanadianwoman.ca

Birth: July 14, 1918. Death: December 18, 1993

Grace Hartman was born in 1918 to a Southern Ontario Tory family. Her own mother died when she was a girl, and it was probably her mother-in-law who influenced her commitment to labor most strongly.

Grace started to work as a secretary for North Yorkin 1954. She already had a sense of what unions could do for people, and was ready to help run her local. She became an office less than one year after joining the union. From then on, she was on a straight course: by 1975 she was President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. CUPE is the largest Canadian union, with 300,000 members in 2000 locals. Grace’s commitment went much farther than the call of duty; she was sent to jail for a month for refusing to order hospital workers in Ontario back to work.

She analyzed the different styles of organization in the labor and peace movement, pointing to ways to bring the two closer together.

Upon retirement from CUPE in 1983, Grace turned her energies and talents to the work of Voice of Women. A long time member, she was Voice of Women President from 1988 until the time she died. Voice of Women is a national women’s peace organization working on issues relating to peace, social justice, development, and the environment.
Grace was committed to the global struggle of women for peace and equality. For example, she helped with the Toronto visit of Irish Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire in 1992 and was a founding member of Women in Global Partnership, an organization dedicated to supporting some of the poorest women in the world. Grace spoke out against the wars in the Gulf, in the former Yugoslavia, and in Somalia. She supported the resistance and reconciliation work of women from these regions.

She was aware of the many dimensions of peace. She recognized the need to affirm the rights of people to hold different views without fear of retaliation. She was an excellent example of why you must hold on to your principles and keep trying to make improvements.

By Carolyn Langdon, Jean Smith, Danni Stor
http://archive.peacemagazine.org