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Tom Monto

Margaret and Roland McWilliams - and temperance

I find this interesting.


A man who later was named lieutenant-governor of Manitoba was married to a feminist activist and author. Here is excerpt from Wikipedia. Words in square brackets [ ] are my comments.

Roland McWilliams lieutenant-governor of Manitoba 1940-1953.


He married journalist and feminist Margaret Stovel (1875-1952). She was author of four books, publishing the first one under the name Oliver Stowell, apparently to cover up that it was written by a woman!


In 1930 her words were published in pamphlet All Along The River. It was described as the "Text of an Address by Mrs. R. F. McWilliams given at a luncheon tendered to the visiting ladies of the British Medical Association at the Manitoba Agricultural College, Winnipeg on Wednesday, August 28th, 1930.")


In 1931 she wrote the book If I Were King of Canada, published under the pseudonym "Oliver Stowell."


From 1933 to 1940 she served on Winnipeg's city council. She was Winnipeg's second female councillor.


In 1943 she was appointed by the federal government to be head of the "Subcommittee on the Post-War Problems of Women," which planned how to deal with the problems women in war industry were likely to encounter once war ended. Its parvenu was expanded to cover problems faced by all Canadian women in the post-war period. Although its term of operation was shortened to just eight months, it produced a comprehensive report, which was described by some as a "bill of rights" for Canadian women. (Prentice et al., Canadian Women a History, p. 304-5, 462) Roland and Margaret McWilliams visited the USSR in 1926. They wrote a book on their visit, simply entitled Russia in Nineteen Twenty-Six. Roland wrote a book during the Great Depression entitled Does History Repeat Itself? A Comparison of the Conditions - Political and Economic - Which Followed the Napoleonic Wars with Those of the Present Time, published by J.M. Dent & Sons, London. In answer to his question, yes, history does often repeat itself. And each time the same circumstance comes around, the decision-makers have the same choice to make - and often choose the same option and for the same reasons.

Roland was appointed as Manitoba's lieutenant-governor in 1940 and held the position until 1953. Margaret died in the vice-regal residence, Government House, in 1952.


A strict temperance man, McWilliams forbade the serving of alcohol at Government House during his time in the post. (Alberta's first lieutenant-governor, George Bulyea, was the same way - liquor was not served at the annual levee he put on.)


Temperance man is another word for teatotaller - someone who did not drink liquor but drank only tea in total!


Perhaps Margaret, being a journalist, was a big drinker if given the chance - journalists have reputation for being big drinkers - but that is a generalization.


But for sure Roland was against liquor, as many were in the old days. I know an older couple who are not drinkers - they once shared a beer and that is all the drinking they have ever done.


Thanks for reading.

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