Appendix: Votes for Women:
Profiles of Prominent British
Columbia Suffragists and Social Reformers
LINDA LOUSIE HALE

Bowes, Sarah organizer for the Woman’s Christian
Temperance Union and social activist; b. near Milton, Ontario,
1834; single; d. Milton, Ontario, 1911.
Arrived in Vancouver 1886. Organizer for the Woman’s
Christian Temperance Union from eastern Canada. First city
missionary for the WCTU in Vancouver. Formed branches of
the WCTU in Vancouver and throughout the interior of the
province. Vice-president of the Vancouver Local Council of
Women 1905 - 1911 and convener of the Committee
on Laws for the Protection of Women and Children 1909 - 1910. Active in philanthropic
work, visiting the sick and aiding the poor. First matron of the Alexandra Orphanage in
1892. Interested in the reform of prisoners. Wrote and published a small monthly
magazine, Home Cheer! Prominent participant in the church services of the Homer
Street Methodist Church, Vancouver. Family involved in Toronto civic politics.
Methodist.
H.G. MacGill, “The Story of Vancouver Social Service”; National Council of Women of Canada Report
(1905 - 1911); WCTU Report (1886 - 1900); J.S. Matthews Add. Ms. (City Archives of Vancouver).

Cameron, Agnes Deans author, lecturer, educ-ationalist and
politician; b. Victoria, British Columbia, 1863, fa. Duncan
Cameron, miner and contractor, mo. b. Jessie Anderson;
single; d. Victoria, British Columbia, 1912.
School teacher in Victoria, Vancouver and Comox during the
1880’s. First woman teacher at Victoria High School, 1890 1894. First woman school principle in British Columbia at
South Park School, Victoria, 1894 - 1905. Resigned for a
discipline dispute. Elected to the Victoria School Board 1906.
Articles published in the local press, Century Atlantic Monthly, Saturday Evening Post
and other journals, 1893 - 1912. Travelled extensively in the North West Territories in
1908, published The New North (1909) and The Outer Trail (1910). Lecturer and writer
for the federal government in Canada and in Europe to encourage immigration, 1909 1911. Vice-president of the Canadian Women’s Press Club 1911. Member of the
Victoria Local Council of Women, the Society to Prevent Cruelty to Animals, the British
Columbia Historical Society, the Ladies of the Macabees, the Young Women’s Christian
Association and the British Agricultural Association. Presbyterian.
E. Forbes, Wild Roses at Their Feet (Vancouver, 1971); G. Haybell, “Agnes Deans Cameron, 1863 1912”, B.C. Historical News VII; A. McGeer, “Agnes Deans Cameron, a Memory”, ibid. VIII; C. Parker,

ed., Who’s Who in Western Canada, 1911 (Vancouver, 1911); NCWC Report (1901, 1905, 1906); C.
Roberts and A. Tunnell, eds., A Standard Dictionary of Canadian Biography: Canadian Who Was Who
vol. 2 (Toronto, 1938); P. Smith, Come Give a Cheer! (Vancouver, 1976).

Clark, Susan Lane teacher, journalist, politician and housewife;
b. San Francisco, California, 1880’s, fa. Nathaniel Lane,
supervisor, City of San Francisco; hus. James Allan Clark,
printer, 1 daughter and 3 sons; d. Vancouver, British Columbia,
1956.
Taught in elementary, secondary and business schools in the
United States after completing a university extension course for
teachers. Secretary of the first suffrage organization in San
Francisco formed by Susan Anthony. Emigrated to Canada in
1907 with her Canadian husband. President of the Mount Pleasant Woman’s Suffrage
League, 1913 - 1917. Co-editor of the B.C. Federationist suffrage page, 1913 - 1914.
Chairman of the Vancouver City Central Woman’s Suffrage Referendum Campaign
Committee, 1916. President of the New Era League, 1916 - 1917 and vice-president
1925. Life member of the Vancouver Local Council of Women and chairman of the
Housing and Town Planning committee 1945. Member of the Mother’s Pensions Board,
the Parent-Teacher Association, the Federated Labour Party, the Socialist Party of
Canada and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. Business agent for the
Retail Clerks Association. During Word War I British Columbia representative on the
Canada Food Board. Advocate of pensions for mothers, minimum wage for women,
women probation officers, women factory inspectors, women judges and better
conditions for orphans. Elected to the Vancouver Park Board 1937 - 1939. Candidate
for alderman in 1941 Vancouver civic elections. Defeated. Socialist.
McBride Papers, 1914 - 1917 (British Columbia Provincial Archives); NCWC Report (1915); Vancouver
Women’s Building Diary 1925 (Vancouver, 1925); B.C. Federationist, 1913 - 1914; Province, 28
November 1956; Sun, 10 May 1941; ibid., 28 November 1956; City Archives of Vancouver, newspaper
clippings dockets.

Crease, Susan Reynolds philanthropist; b. Cornwall, England
1856, fa. Sir Henry Pering Pellew Crease, British Columbia
Attorney-General 1864 - 1870 and Supreme Court Judge
British Columbia, mo. b. Sarah Lindley; single; d. Victoria,
British Columbia, 1947.
Emigrated to Victoria in 1860 with her parents, 1862 - 1868
resided in New Westminster, 1868 - 1947 lived in Victoria.
Educated in Victoria’s private schools. Founding member of
the Victoria Local Council of Women, president 1911 - 1921,
1923 - 1932, first life member 1928. Executive member of the
National Council of Women of Canada. Instrumental in the visit of Emmeline Pankhurst
to Victoria in 1912. Active member of Christ Church, Victoria and the Scripture Union.
Anglican.

S.R. Crease, Letters and Diaries 1865 - 1943 (British Columbia Provincial Archives); J. Kerr, Biographical
Dictionary of Well-Known British Columbians (Vancouver, 1890); NCWC Report (1895 - 1932); Daily
Colonist, 16 July 1947; Victoria Daily Times, 18 November 1945, ibid., 16 July 1947.

Davis, Dorothy author and housewife; b. England; hus. Capt. R.P. Bishop, surveyor.
Founding member of the Victoria Political Equality League. Provincial organizer of the
British Columbia Political Equality League 1911 - 1913. Co-editor of The Champion
1912 - 1913. Founder of the Women’s Freedom Union, Victoria, December 1913.
Member of the Victoria Local Council of Women and the Colonial International League.
Politically non-partisan.
The Champion 1912 - 1913; Correspondence, City Archives, Victoria, British Columbia; McBride Papers,
1913 - 1914 (British Columbia Provincial Archives); NCWC Report (1913).

Grant, Helen Maria politician and housewife; b. Maitland, Nova Scotia, 1853, fa.
George Smith; hus. William Grant, captain, trader and sealer, 2 sons; d. Victoria, British
Columbia, 1943.’
Following marriage in 1873 lived the next 13 years on the sea travelling to South
America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Trained navigator. Settled in Victoria with her family
in 1886. Charter member of the Victoria Local Council of Women, treasurer 1896 1917 and 1921 and vice-president 1922 - 1927. Life member of the National Council of
Women of Canada. Member of the Victoria WCTU and active on its Home Committee
1909 - 1913. Member of the Home for Aged Women Society, the Protestant Orphanage
and the Friendly Help Society. Elected to the Victoria School Board, 1896 - 1902.
Accorded the Victoria Best Citizen’s Award, 1929. Cousin, Amor de Cosmos (William
Alexander Smith) Premier of British Columbia December 1872 to February 1974.
Uncle, Judge Jonathan McCully, Senator. Baptist.
NCWC Report (1895 - 1917, 1921 - 1927); Daily Colonist, 24 May 1929, ibid., 10 December 1933;
Victoria Daily Times, 27 October 1943.

Grant, Maria Heathfield politician, journalist, minister and
housewife, b. Quebec City, Quebec, 1854, fa. Reverend William
Pollard, District Supervisor of the Methodist Church in British
Columbia; hus. Gordon Grant, engineer, 5 daughters and 2
sons; d. Victoria, British Columbia, 1937.
Arrived in Victoria in 1867 with her parents. Founding member
of the Victoria WCTU (1883) of which her mother was the first
provincial president. Charter member of the Victoria Local
Council of Women 1894. Supervisor of the WCTU Department
of Petition, Legislation and Franchise 1887 - 1915. president of the Provincial WCTU
1903 - 1905. Recording Secretary of the Victoria Local Council of Women 1895 - 1903,
executive member of the ad hoc woman suffrage committee 1908 - 1909, chairman of
the committee on Laws for the Protection of Women and Children 1916. Supporter of

Susan Anthony’s visit to Victoria, 1871. First president of the Victoria Political Equality
League and the British Columbia Political Equality League. Co-editor and later sole
editor, of The Champion 1912 - 1914. Elected to the Victoria School Board 1895 - 1896
and 1899 - 1900. Active supporter of the Children’s Aid Society. Member of the
Woman’s Independent Political Association 1917. Minister, Victoria Unity Centre 1971 1933. Politically non-partisan. Methodist.
Mrs. M. Cunningham, “The History of the Organization [WCTU]”, (British Columbia Provincial Archives,
1925); E. Forbes, Wild Roses at Their Feet; NCWC Report (1895 - 1917); Ross Bay Cemetery Records,
Victoria, British Columbia; WCTU Report (1885 - 1917); Daily Colonist, 31 March 1937; ibid., 1 April 1937;
Sun, 31 March 1937; Victoria Daily Times, 22 February 1919; ibid., 15 December 1908; ibid., 14
December 1909; ibid., 30 March 1937; Western Methodist Recorder (May 1937).

Gutteridge, Helena Rose trade union activist, politician, journalist, welfare officer and
farmer; b. London, England, 1879 or 1880; single; d. Vancouver, British Columbia,
1960.
Attended the Regent Street Polytechnic and the Royal Sanitary Institute in London,
England. London suffragette 1908 - 1911. Emigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia
1911. Founder of the British Columbia Woman’s Suffrage League and co-editor of the
B.C. Federationist woman suffrage page. Secretary of the United Suffrage Societies,
1915 and 1916.
Secretary of the Vancouver City Central Women’s Suffrage
Referendum Campaign Committee, 1916. Member of the Pioneer Political Equality
League and the Vancouver Local Council of Women. Served the Vancouver Trades
and Labour Council as an organizer, secretary, business agent, treasurer, statistician,
vice-chairman and trustee. Correspondent for the Labour Gazette 1913 - 1921.
Chairman of the Women’s Minimum Wage League 1917. Active supporter of the
Mother’s Pension Act. Member of the Women’s School for Citizenship. Secretary of
New Era League 1937. Elected first woman alderman in Vancouver in 1937, sponsored
by the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation. Re-elected, 1939, defeated 1940.
Chairman of the Vancouver Town Planning and Parks committee 1937. Campaigned
actively for improved housing, revision of taxation laws and assistance for destitute
women. Contested the Vancouver Point Grey consistuency in 1941, defeated. Poultry
farmer in the Fraser Valley 1921 - 1932. Supervisor of the welfare office of the
Japanese internment camp at Slocan City for the duration of World War II. At the time
of her death chairman of the Women’s International League for Peace. Socialist. No
denominational affiliation.
McBride Papers, 1915 - 1916 (British Columbia Provincial Archives); Vancouver Trades and Labour
Council, Minutes of Regular Meetings, 1912 - 1920; B.C. Federationist, 1913 - 1920; Pacific Tribune, 8
March 1957; Province, 3 October 1960; Sun, 31 March 1937; ibid., 3 October 1960; Vancouver News
Herald, 15 October 1941.

Hall, Florence S. journalist and housewife; b. Cornwall, England, nee Hussey; hus.
Rev. William Lashley Hall, Methodist Minister, 2 step-daughters; d. North Vancouver,
British Columbia, 1918.
Superintendent of the WCTU Department of Evangelistic Work including hospitals, jails
and city missions 1909 - 1916. Active supporter of prison reform, women matrons and

court procedure reforms. Member of the Vancouver Local Council of Women and
Vancouver Political Equality League. First president of the Vancouver Pioneer Political
Equality League. Recruiter for the British Columbia Political Equality League in the
Cariboo and Kootenay districts of British Columbia, 1912 - 1915. Author of “Suffrage
Sermonette” column in the Western Methodist Recorder 1914 - 1915. Delegate to
petition British Columbia Attorney-General Bowser for women suffrage. Accompanied
her husband to his various parishes throughout the province from their marriage in 1898
to her death in 1918. Husband a co-worker of the Booths in the Salvation Army in
England in the 1880’s and president o the British Columbia Methodist Conference in
1914 which endorsed woman suffrage. Methodist.
Catherine Hodgson Collection (City Archives of Vancouver); McBride Papers 1914 (British Columbia
Provincial Archives); WCTU Report (1909 - 1916); Western Methodist Recorder, 1914 - 1915.

Hill, Agnes politician and housewife; b. St. John, New Brunswick, 1840’s; fa. Alexander
Lawrence; hus. Albert J. Hill, geological surveyor and city engineer for New
Westminster, British Columbia, 2 daughters and 2 sons.
Moved to British Columbia in 1882 with her husband. President of the New
Westminster Local Council of Women 1901 - 1902. Member of the National Council of
Women of Canada Committee on Women on School Boards, 1904. Representative of
the New Westminster Benevolent Society, the Baptist Missionary Society and the
Ladies Baptist Aid at the New Westminster Local Council of Women 1903 - 1910.
Elected to the New Westminster School Board 1900 - 1903. Brother, W. Lawrence,
involved in New Brunswick politics. Baptist.
J. Kerr, Biographical Dictionary of Well-Known British Columbians; NCWC Report (1900 - 1910).

Jamieson, Laura Emma judge, politician, author and
housewife; b. Head Park, Ontario, 1883, fa. Joseph Marshall,
mo. b. Lucy Smith; hus. John Stuart Jamieson, juvenile court
judge, 1 daughter and 1 son; d. Vancouver, British Columbia,
1964.
Graduated from the University of Toronto 1908. Married John
Stuart Jamieson in 1911 and moved to Vancouver. A leading
proponent of woman suffrage through the Vancouver University
Women’s Club, president 1915 - 1916. Member of the
Vancouver Local Council of Women 1911 - 1964, vice-president 1952. Organized the
Vancouver branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom 1921,
corresponding secretary 1925. President of the British Columbia Parent-Teacher
Association 1925 - 1926. Secretary of the Vancouver Young Women’s Christian
Association 1926. Member of the British Columbia Public Library Commission 1927 1938. Appointed juvenile court judge in Burnaby 1927 - 1938. Worked for the
introduction in British Columbia the indeterminate sentence to assist in the rehabilitation
of young offenders. Member of the Business and Professional Women’s Club and the
Civil Liberties Union. Executive member of the Vancouver Women’s Building Limited

(1925), the Vancouver Housing Association, the Vancouver Branch of the Community
Planning Association and the Women’s School for Citizenship. Organized business
girls’ co-operative housing 1941, became house-mother. Elected to the provincial
legislature for Vancouver Centre 1939 - 1945 and 1952 - 53, sponsored by the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation Party. Alderman in Vancouver 1948 - 1950. Vicepresident of the provincial Co-operative Commonwealth Federation Party 1950 - 1951.
Author of Women Dry Those Tears (1940). Socialist. Unitarian.
Canadian Parliamentary Guide, 1940; ibid., 1953; Vancouver Women’s Building Diary 1925; Who’s Who
in British Columbia, IX (Victoria, 1953); Democrat, 1 August 1964; Sun, 3 July 1964; City Archives of
Vancouver, newspaper clippings docket.

Jenkins, Margaret teacher, politician and housewife; b.
England, 1843, fa. Deacon Townsend, Congregational Minister;
first hus. Fox, second hus. David Jenkins, 7 children and 9 stepchildren; d. Victoria, British Columbia, 1923.
Indentured as a pupil teacher in England at age 14. Travelled
to Colombo, Chile in 1866 to teach. Married Fox in Chile,
widowed 1876 with 4 young children. Married David Jenkins in
1879 in Chile and cared for their 16 children. Emigrated to
Victoria in 1882. Founding member of the Victoria WCTU in
1883 and first provincial corresponding secretary. Vice-president of the provincial
WCTU 1887 - 1888. President of the Victoria WCTU 1900. Charter and life member of
the Victoria Local Council of Women, recording secretary 1904 - 1910, vice president
1911 - 1914. Elected to the Victoria School Board 1897 - 1898 and 1902 - 1919,
sponsored by the Victoria Local Council of Women and the WCTU. Member of the
Victoria Women’s Canadian Club, the Cymrodian Society, the Metropolitan Methodist
Church Ladies Aid, the Home Nursing Society, the Ladies’ Auxiliary to the Young Men’s
Christian Association and the Victoria Women’s Conservative Club. Conservative.
Methodist.
NCWC Report (1895 - 1917); WCTU Report (1883 - 1900); Daily Colonist, 7 June 1923; Victoria Daily
Times, 7 June 1923.

Kemp, Janet housewife; b. 1864; hus. Kemp, 2 sons and 1 daughter; d. Vancouver,
British Columbia, 1960.
Arrived in Vancouver in 1889. Vice-president of the Vancouver Local Council of
Women 1905 - 1915 and convenor of the Committee on Laws for the Protection of
Women and Children 1910 - 1914. Life member of the National Council of Women of
Canada. Provincial convener of the Legislative Committee on the British Columbia
Political Equality League, 1913 - 1914. Founding member of the Presbyterian Mission
Church in Mount Pleasant, Vancouver. Life member of the United Church Women’s
Missionary Society. Member of the Alexandra Orphanage, the Ladies of the Macabees
and the Imperial Order of Daughters of the Empire. President of the Widows, Wives
and Mothers of Great Britain Heroes’ Association 1925. Advocate of mother’s pensions.

During World War I organized 1800 women through women’s groups for farm labour.
Husband Riel Rebellion hero. Conservative. Presbyterian.
McBride Papers 1913 (British Columbia Provincial Archives); NCWC Report (1905 - 1915); Vancouver
Local Council of Women, Minutes, 1910 - 1917

McConkey, Mary Elizabeth teacher and housewife; b. Rapid City, Manitoba, 1881, fa.
Sibbald, homesteader, mo. b. Black; hus. William McConkey, teacher and physician, 1
daughter and 1 son.
Honor graduate in Arts, University of Manitoba 1904. Taught at Mount Royal College,
Calgary, Alberta. Married in 1908 and moved to Vancouver 1908 - 1909. Founding
member and second president of the Vancouver Pioneer Political Equality League 1914
- 1917. Member of the Vancouver Local Council of Women, the Vancouver University
Women’s Club and the Westminster Presbyterian Church. Liberal. Presbyterian.
Millicent Lindo. Making History: An Anthology of British Columbia (Victoria, 1971); McBride Papers 1913
(British Columbia Provincial Archives); Vancouver Social Register and Club Directory (Vancouver, 1914);
Sun, 3 December 1966.

MacGill, Helen Gregory journalist, judge, author and
housewife; b. Hamilton, Ontario, 1864, fa. Silas Gregory,
businessman, mo. b. Emma O’Rielly; first hus. Lee Flesher,
physician, second hus. James MacGill, Lawyer, 2 daughters
(MacGill) and 2 sons (Flesher); d. Chicago, U.S.A., 1947.
First woman granted a B. Mus. (1886 first class), B.A. (1888)
and M.A. (1890) by Trinity College, University of Toronto.
Contributed articles on the Canadian West, Japan and other
topics to the Toronto Globe, Cosmopolitan, Atlantic Monthly,
Harper’s and other magazines. 1892 moved to San Francisco with her husband
Flesher and her mother. Reporter for the San Francisco Morning Call. Co-editor with
her mother of the San Francisco suffrage newspaper The Searchlight. Moved to
Minnesota and continued suffrage activities there. Reporter for the St. Paul Globe.
Widowed 1901. Married J. MacGill in 1902 and moved to Vancouver, British Columbia.
Founding member of the Vancouver University Women’s Club in 1908, the Vancouver
Women’s Press Club 1909, the Vancouver Crèche 1909 - 1910 and the Vancouver
Business and Professional Women’s Club 1922. The major promoter of the Vancouver
Women’s Building Limited 1911 and member of the Board of Directors until the 1930’s.
Member of the Quebec Press Association 1887, the Vancouver Women’s Canadian
Club, the Women’s Institute, the Imperial Order of Daughters of the Empire, the
Women’s Musical Club, the Canadian Daughters League, the Red Cross, the
Neighbourhood House and Phi Delta. Member of the Vancouver Local council of
Women 1909 - 1947, convenor of the Press Committee 1909 - 1910, convenor of the
Citizenship Committee 1911 - 1912 and vice-president 1934. Executive member of the
British Columbia Equal Franchise Association 1912 - 1917. Campaign manager for

Marie McNaughton 1912 - 1913. Convener of the Laws Committee of the Vancouver
University Women’s Club 1916 and president 1917. President of the New Era League
1925. Appointed first woman judge of juvenile court in British Columbia at Vancouver,
served 1917 - 1928 and 1934 - 1945. Only woman member of the first minimum wage
commission in British Columbia. Author of numerous works including Daughters, Wives
and Mothers in British Columbia (1913, 1914), Laws for Women and Children in British
Columbia (1925, 1928, 1935, 1939), The Child in Industry (1926), How to Conduct
Public Meetings in Canada (19?, 1939) and The Work of the Juvenile Court and How to
Secure Such a Court in a Canadian Community (1943). Granted an honourary LLD. by
the University of British Columbia 1938. Conservative until 1915 - 1916. Liberal
thereafter. Anglican.
J.S. Matthews, Add. Ms. (City Archives of Vancouver); McBride Papers, 1912 - 1917 (British Columbia
Public Archives); E. MacGill, My Mother, the Judge (Toronto, 1955); H. MacGill, “The Story of Vancouver
Social Service”; Vancouver Local Council of Women, Minutes, 1910 - 1914; Vancouver Women’s Building
Diary 1925 (Vancouver, 1925).

McNaughton, Marie Henerietta politician and housewife; b.
Glengarry, Ontario, 1860, fa. Alex McIntosh, lumber and general
trader, mo. b. Charlotte Scott; hus. Peter McNaughton, 1
daughter and 2 sons; d. Victoria, British Columbia, 1946.
Arrived in Vancouver in 1890 with her parents after living in
Indiana, Ohio, California and Nevada. Married in 1891. Vicepresident of the Vancouver Local Council of Women 1904 1910 and president 1910 - 1913. Through the Vancouver Local
Council of Women worked to secure a police woman for
Vancouver, succeeded 1912. Elected to the Vancouver School Board 1912 - 1914,
sponsored by the Vancouver Local Council of Women. Founding director of the
Vancouver Women’s Building Limited 1911. Charter member of the Vancouver
Women’s Canadian Club, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Vancouver General Hospital
Board of Governors and St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. Organized the Women’s
Auxiliary to Westminster Hall. Moved to Victoria in 1914. President of the Victoria
Women’s Canadian Club 1928. Member of the Victoria Local Council of Women.
Presbyterian.
J.S. Matthews Add. Ms. (City Archives of Vancouver); NCWC Report 1905 - 1914; Vancouver Local
Council of Women, Minutes; ibid., Membership Lists, 1904 - 1914; Daily Colonist, 9 January 1946;
Province, 9 January 1946; Victoria Daily Times, 9 January 1946; City Archives of Vancouver, newspaper
clippings docket.

Perrin, Edith housekeeper; b. England, fa. Thomas Perrin, mo. Margaret; single.
Arrived in British Columbia in 1893 with her brother, Bishop Perrin. Founding member
of the Victoria Local Council of Women. First convenor of the Council’s Committee on
Laws for the Protection of Women and Children, 1895. Undertook an investigation of
the conditions of working women and girls in Victoria 1895 - 1903. Member of the
National Council of Women of Canada’s Committee on Laws for the Protection of
Women and Children 1899. National Council of Women of Canada delegate to the

International Council of Women convention 1897. Secretary of the Victoria WCTU
Refuge Hone 1897. President of the Canadian Branch of the Girls Friendly Society.
Returned to England in 1904. Brother, William Perrin, Bishop of Columbia, supporter of
temperance and woman suffrage. Anglican.
R. Gosnell, the Yearbook of British Columbia 1897 (Victoria, 1897); NCWC Report (1895 - 1903); C.
Parker, Who’s Who in Western Canada 1911 (Vancouver 1911); Victoria Daily Times, 11 February 1909.

Smith, Mary Ellen politician, author and housewife; b.
Devonshire, England, 1861, fa. Richard Spear, mo. b. Mary
Jane Jackson; hus. Ralph Smith, politician and trade union
activist; 1 daughter and 4 sons; d. Vancouver, British Columbia,
1933.
Arrived in British Columbia in 1892. Life member of the
National Council of Women of Canada. Member of the
Vancouver Local Council of Women, the Women’s Institute, the
Red Cross, the Suffrage League of Canada and the Pioneer
Political Equality League. Original member of the Vancouver
Women’s Forum. Founding member of the Vancouver City Crèche 1909 - 1910.
Regent of the Imperial Order of Daughters of the Empire. President of the Vancouver
Women’s Canadian Club 1915 - 1917. Founder and president of the Women’s Auxiliary
Hospital at Nanaimo, British Columbia. Organizer of the Returned Soldiers Club of
Vancouver. Honorary president of the Vancouver Women’s Liberal Association, 1917,
founder of the Laurier Liberal Club, chairman of the British Columbia Liberal caucus for
five years and chairman of the 1927 British Columbia Liberal convention. Elected to the
British Columbia legislature as an Independent from Vancouver in 1918 (the
constituency represented by her late husband). Re-elected in 1920, 1924, 1930 as a
Liberal. First woman cabinet minister in the British Empire, president of the Council
March to November 1921. First woman speaker in the British Columbia legislature,
February 1928. Closely associated with legislation for old age pensions, minim wages,
appointment of women juvenile court judges, maintenance of deserted wives, abolition
of illegitimacy, family maintenance, mother’s allowance, widow’s inheritance, protection
of neglected and delinquent children and regulation of night employment. Member of
the Dominion Board of Mental Hygiene, Federal Tariff Commission 1925, and the select
commission to inquire into the practice of the Workmen’s Compensation Act (1926).
Toured Europe on behalf of the federal government to encourage emigration to Canada,
1923. Canadian delegate to the League of Nations April 1929. Author of Is It Just?
(1912). Husband president of the Trades and Labour congress of Canada for five
years, member of the British Columbia legislature 1898 - 1900 and 1916 - 1917
(Minister of Finance), Member of Parliament 1900 - 1911. Liberal. Methodist.
British Columbia, Journals of the Legislative Assembly (1918 - 1933); Canadian Parliamentary Guide,
1918; ibid., 1927; C. Roberts and A. Tunnell, eds., A Standard Dictionary of Canadian Biography:
Canadian Who Was Who, vol. 2 (Toronto, 1938).

Spofford, Anne Cecilia teacher, politician and housewife; b.
Sidney, Nova Scotia, 1859, fa. Duncan McNaughton; hus.
William Spofford, contractor, 1 daughter and at least 1 son; d.
Victoria, British Columbia, 1938.
Arrived in Victoria in 1876 with her parents. Married in 1883.
Taught in early schools on Saanich Peninsula on Salt Spring
Island.
Founding member of the Victoria WCTU 1883,
provincial vice-president of the WCTU 1886, recording secretary
1887, president of the Victoria WCTU 1887. Founding member
of the Victoria Local Council of Women 1894, corresponding secretary 1903 - 1908,
convener of the Committee on Laws for the Protection of Women and Children 1904,
member of the Legislative Committee 1909 - 1910 and vice president 1933 - 1936.
Organizer of the Victoria Political Equality League 1910 and member of the British
Columbia Political Equality League. Elected to the Victoria School Board 1919 - 1921.
Charter member of the Victoria Women’s Canadian Club and the Women’s Union First
Baptist Church. Member of the Victoria Young Women’s Christian Association. Ladies
of the Macabees and the Children’s Aid society (president 1915). Baptist Convention
president 1929. Provincial Council of Women president 1937 - 1938. Member of the
Social Welfare Commission and the Minimum Wage Board in Victoria. Candidate for
the Woman’s Independent Political Association in a provincial by-election in 1918,
defeated. Mother charter member of the New Westminster WCTU, initiator of the Band
of Good Hope School and the WCTU Provincial District organizer for the 1880’s.
Politically non-partisan. Baptist.
C. Cleverdon, The Woman Suffrage Movenent in Canada; Mrs. M. Cunningham, “The History of the
Organization” (1925); J. Gordon, “History of the Women’s Canadian Club” (1959); L. MacPherson,
“Historical Sketch of the WCTU of BC”(1953); NCWC Report (1895 - 1936); C. Spofford, Miscellaneous
Papers, 1877, 1879, 1880 (British Columbia Provincial Archives); Daily Colonist, 18 February 1938;
Province, 18 February 1938; Victoria Daily Times, 14 December 1909; ibid., 18 February 1938.

Townley, Alice Ashworth author, politician and housewife; b.
Quebec, Quebec, 1870, fa. William Henry Ashworth, mo. b.
Jane Moray; hus. C.R. Townley, realtor; d. Vancouver, British
Columbia, 1941
Arrived in Vancouver in 1903. Founding member of the
Vancouver Women’s Press Club, president 1910 - 1911.
Organizer of the Vancouver Women’s Canadian Club, 1909.
Member of Vancouver Local Council of Women, vice-president
1911. National convener on recreation for the National Council
of Women of Canada. Member of the Imperial Order of Daughters of the Empire, The
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Women’s Musical Club, the King
Edward Parent-Teacher Association, The New Westminster Academy of Arts, the
Vancouver Art Gallery, the Vancouver Art, Historical and Scientific Association, the
Child Welfare Association, the Women’s Institute, the Women’s Auxiliary to disabled
Veterans and the Horticultural Society. Member of the first Board of Directors of the
Vancouver Women’s Building Limited 1911. President of the Vancouver Political

Equality League 1911. Founder and president of the British Columbia Equal Franchise
Association, 1912 - 1917. President of the League of Women Voters, 1918. Advocate
of women being on all boards interested in public welfare. Elected to the Vancouver
Park Board, 1928 - 1935. Author of Points in the Laws of British Columbia Regarding
the Legal Status of Women (1911), Opinions of Mary (1909), Just a Little Girl (1907),
Just a Little Boy (1897) and numerous newspaper and magazine articles.
Conservative. Anglican.
Mrs. J. Macaulay, Women’s Canadian Club, Vancouver, B.C., 1909 - 1930 (City Archives of Vancouver,
1930); C. Parker, Who’s Who and Why 1912 (Vancouver, 1912);E. Stoddard, “The Feminine Side of the
Western West”, Man to Man Magazine VI; Vancouver Local Council of Women, Minutes, 1910 - 1917; V.
Vectis, “Women Writers of the West”, British Columbia Magazine VII; City Archives of Vancouver
newspaper clippings docket; Province, 6 January 1941; Sun, 6 January 1941.