The teaching profession, your country and the Empire

The title comes from text within 'A few hints to the members of the party' 

written by The Rev E Crummy, BSc, DD, Hon Chaplain and Lecturer

My grandmother, Mabel Rodger, having graduated from Macdonald College in 1920 with a First Class Model School Diploma, went on a trip to Europe with other teachers in 1922. This trip was provided and operated by the Overseas Education League. 

As you will see, the leader of the tour - Major Frederick Ney, MC (Military Cross) - was an accomplished citizen of the Empire who served with distinction during the Great War, 1914-1918. He also had particular views about which cultural objects and which ideals should be elevated in society.

This is an artifact-rich and (I believe) formative period in Mabel's life, and several posts will be dedicated to fully documenting her experience. Exploring the views and later projects of Major Ney will also provide historical insights into some of the ideas competing for influence within Canadian society at the time.

The artifacts reproduced in this post are very firmed glued into Mabel's Macdonald College 'yearbook/scrapbook' and have been carefully scanned from within that book.

Frederick James Ney (1884-1973)

 [text copied directly from: The Manitoba Historical Society website]

Educator.

Born at Westfield, Sussex County, England on 17 September 1884, son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward F. Ney, he was educated at Rye Grammar School and privately. He was headmaster at the English College at Nicosia, Cyprus; and Headmaster of St. Mary’s High School at Cairo, Egypt. He came to Canada in 1909 where he was Headmaster at the West Treherne School, then Russell High School (1908-1909), and Chief Secretary of the Department of Education for the Manitoba Government.

In September 1914, he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force, serving with the RAMC [Royal Army Medical Corps], being gazetted as a Captain and sent overseas where he transferred to South Wales Borderers, 1916 (25th Division). He was in France from 1915 to the end of the war, seeing service in Ypres and Mons and was mentioned three times in dispatches. He was awarded the Military Cross (Messines), Belgian Croix de Guerre, and French Croix de Guerre. He was promoted to a Major on the eve of the armistice and was, for a time, specially attached to French Army in charge of large Motor Ambulance Convoy. He returned to Canada in 1920 and resumed his position with the Department of Education.

He married Helena Aikins, daughter of J. A. M. Aikins. He was the Founder and Honorary Organizer of the Overseas Educational League, Executive Secretary of the National Council of Education, and Honorary Secretary for Canada of the International Moral Education Congress. As organizer of the Overseas Education League, he was responsible for the organization of the scheme of Interchange of Teachers between Canada and other parts of the British Empire. As Secretary of the National Council of Education, he was responsible for the organization of the National Lectureship scheme, inaugurated in the spring of 1923 by Sir Henry Newbolt and Sir Michael Sadler.

He was awarded the Gold Medal of the City of Paris presented by the President of the Council at the Hotel de Ville, 19 July 1923. He was a member of the Masons (Wellington Lodge, No. 22, Rye, England), United Service Club (Winnipeg), Arts and Letters Club (Toronto), and Royal Colonial Institute (London, England).

He died at Nanaimo, British Columbia on 7 March 1973 and was buried in the Cedar Valley Memorial Gardens at Nanaimo.

*  *  *

Below, in this post, is a general orientation and preparation guide for teachers travelling on the Overseas Education League's Visit of Teachers during the summer of 1922.

The Canadian Pacific Steamship Scotian was a single-stacked passenger liner in use between 1898 (built in Belfast by Harland and Wolff) and 1927 (scrapped). In terms of size: it was about half the length and beam of the Queen Mary with about 15% of its 'tonnage'. It had a top speed of about 15 knots. In the Great War, it was first a troopship, then a prison ship for German POWs until being taken over by the CPR in 1917. The touring party actually returned to Canada on another ship.

My father's handwriting points out the rubber stamp of Major Ney's signature.

A few pieces had been cut out of this guide for ready reference, I believe.

A steamer rug is a heavy blanket draped over the legs while sitting on a deck chair.

Char-a-bancs were early open-topped buses which could generally transport 15-20 people.

There is no captioning at all with this photograph, but you can see Mabel Rodger at the extreme right with her box camera aboard an unidentified ship. She wrote that she was particularly seasick as they passed Newfoundland, but recovered quickly.

Macdonald College Classmates, 1920

Images from the archives of L.C. Gagnon

My grandmother, third from the left, at Macdonald College. Perhaps at Easter?

A Short Discussion of 1920s Demographics

Inscription in Mabel Rodger's 'yearbook'.

There might be a grim aspect to the playful jest about 'boys' in this yearbook inscription.

When my grandmother was getting her First Class Model Diploma at Macdonald College in 1919 and 1920, soldiers were still returning from the Great War 1914-1918 in Europe. Canadian soldiers had been 'voluntold' to march east to the Rhine - after the November 1918 Armistice - as part of the effort to attenuate any remaining industrial might the German Empire might be able to show to the world or its citizens. This delayed their return to Canada. As it was, the crush of Empire soldiers waiting to be repatriated from Europe overwhelmed the fleet of ships available to carry them. 

Looking in the Canadian Encyclopedia, I was surprised to learn that when the last pre-war census was taken in Canada - in 1911 - there were 113 men for every 100 women in Canada. Some of this might be accounted for by the 'exploratory' immigration of single American males across the line to the burgeoning Canadian west during this period. As well, there was also the long-standing pattern of immigration from the British Isles by adventurous males in search of better opportunities in one of the Empire's 'dominions' where 'social class' didn't matter as much.

In contrast to the 113:100 male:female ratio before the war ... after the war ... as my grandmother's cohort of graduates of the Macdonald College teachers program were approaching the age of 30, they had faced greater than normal competition in finding male spouses. In the Statistics Canada population pyramid for 1930 below, notice the large 'bite' the Great War had taken out of the population of young men between the ages of 25 and 35.

Why is the female population similarly decreased in that age group? The returning soldiers brought the 'Spanish' influenza back with them and it was particularly lethal to young adults. About 50,000 Canadians - the total for both sexes in the 20 to 45 age group - were killed by the 1919 flu pandemic.

In 1916, Canada had had a population of  8 million. In the Great War, 625,000 Canadians had served in the armed forces. Over 60,000 were killed and 173,000 were wounded. (During my 1960s elementary schooling in Lachine, a teacher told our Grade 5 class that survivors of World War One poison gas could be found 'just down the road' at the veterans' hospital at St Anne's - just across the tracks from Macdonald College.)

Usually, 'wounded' in the Great War described physical wounds. However, the effects of what are called 'Operational Stress Injuries' today ... 'Shell Shock' back then ... and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, generally ... were seldom properly understood or treated or recorded as a long-term disability.

The teachers would have plenty of boys to teach during the 1920s, but healthy 'boys' to marry were in shorter supply. Then, in the 1930s, these young adults had to experience the preventable scourge of the Great Depression.

Back to happier times at Macdonald College

Macdonald College Campus c1950, from: College pamphlet 

The skewed image above comes from a pamphlet from my father's time at Macdonald College. I have not corrected the angle so no details are lost from the edges of the photo. The Montreal to Toronto highway is barely visible. I have not yet found a similar image of the grounds as Mabel Rodger saw them in 1920.

A brief official history follows, taken from my father's Macdonald College Student Handbook of 1951.

Mabel Rodger (right) and classmates at Macdonald College in 1920.

A gathering of Macdonald College students, c1920.

Macdonald College c1920. The gentleman operating the 'church key' is not identified.

... nor is the beverage identified.

Off campus activities. Notice the drinking water pitcher  and the box camera.

Time at the beach, including tooth brushing.

Another view at the beach.

Here is a list of the Macdonald College students who signed Mabel Rodger's 'yearbook' in 1919 and 1920. Most were in her teacher training program, but there are also some notes written by students in the science program. All locations in the list were in Quebec - unless otherwise noted. I made an effort to search and check names when the signatures were difficult to read.

• Ella Dow, Port Daniel Centre
• Estella Primerman, Stanbridge East
• Lillis Baker, Stanbridge East
• Winifrid Horner, Bordeaux
• Sara Gardner, Quebec
• Katie A. Taylor
• Flossy Brundage, Bury
• Bernice Parsons, Coaticook
• Grace Mitchell, Montreal
• Jean Laurie
• Esther Hoffman, Montreal
• Sara M. Sargeant, Waterloo
• Alice Hunter, Bondville
• Edna N Gilbert, Lime Ridge
• Helen Thomson
• Peggy McCanimmon, Inverness
• Marjorie Godfrey
• Edith Hunter
• Dorothy M. Roberts, Granby
• Mary I. Fowler
• Sophia Towne
• Mary I Gilbert, Huntingdon
• Hattie Giles
• Doris Hammond, Lachute
• Jean Campbell
• Flora MacLeod, Gould
• Helena Rodgers, Lachute
• Irene Hawley, Clarenceville
• Frances Patterson, Bolton Centre
• Ruby Millar, Lachute
• Edith L. Bryant, Bolton Centre
• Dulcie LeDain
• Edith Wheeler
• Helen Johnston
• Dot Cullen
• Lillian Greig, Allan's Corners
• Muriel P. Code
• Isabel C. Nesbitt
• Freddie Southwood
• Frances E. Rogers, Hopewell Hill, NB
• Goldie Louis
• Dorothy Nicholson, Newcastle, NB
• Jean McLaurin, Vankleek Hill, ON
• Maud Barnes, Montreal
• Dorothy E. Browne, Sherbrooke
• Mabel H. Ellicott, Montreal
• Briney Kirshner, Montreal
• Marjorie James
• Tina B.C. Donaldson, Montreal West
• Alice Goldstein, Montreal
• Maybelle Hodgman, Birchton
• Flo Soles, Knowlton
• Helen Hall

Mabel Rodger, Teacher, at East Settlement, early 1920s

A 'Model' at Macdonald College - Mabel Rodger

Images from the archives of L.C. Gagnon

Model School Teacher Class at Macdonald College 1919-1920

Long before our modern use of the term, the students working to obtain a First Class Model School Diploma  referred to themselves as 'Models'. They became qualified to teach in, or to run a school between an 'elementary' school and an 'academy'.

In the photo above, my grandmother Mabel is in the front row, first on the right.

A Model Yell

A 2 cm Macdonald College symbol carefully preserved in the 'yearbook'.

Map: Montreal Region 1924, Citizen's Atlas of the World; John Bartholomew; Edinburgh. 

Macdonald College was/is primarily an agricultural college set up on a large expanse of farmland at the west end of Montreal Island - see 'St Anne' above for the precise location. The McGill teachers college was moved from McGill University, in downtown Montreal, to Macdonald College when the latter opened in 1907. After the Great War 1914-1918 a sprawling veteran's hospital was also built at St Anne - across the railway tracks from the teachers college. During that era, soldiers were brought to the hospital railway spur track aboard specially-constructed and staffed military hospital trains - usually running from Halifax.

Above, the black lines represent railways on the map of Quebec - as seen from Britain in 1924. My grandmother's home near the Geneva 'post village' is just north of the St Andrews, Quebec dot ... to the west of St Anne and up the Ottawa River.

Macdonald College postcard view c1960. 

The St Lawrence River is to the south and the Toronto-Montreal highway and railway tracks are to the north.

Macdonald College teachers on the river c1920.

A skewed, tiny, very faded photo in my grandmother's yearbook (3 cm x 5 cm) appears to show students and a teacher in an academic gown (foreground) on a cable ferry or barge. Beside it is the following photo.

Mabel Rodger and Macdonald College student friend c1920

Mabel Rodger and a Macdonald College friend c1920.

One of many inscriptions in my grandmother's 'yearbook'.

Mabel Rodger and a Macdonald College friend at St Anne de Bellevue

Behind them are the Canadian Pacific and Grand Trunk (later Canadian National) railway bridges. The Ottawa River is flowing by them toward its confluence with the St. Lawrence.

A Macdonald College teaching student in winter c1920.

A 1920 Macdonald College cheer which marries tradition and modern history.

My Grandmother - A Mystery

Images from the archives of L.C. Gagnon

My paternal grandmother has always been a mystery to me.

When I was about 4 years old, I did an inventory of my 'personally known' grandparents - I only had two. It seemed I was missing one grandparent from each side of my family. When I asked directly about my father's mother, a parent gave me a direct answer which I didn't understand. I filed the strange answer away. My grandmother was not talked about during the two decades I lived 'at home'.

About 25 years after my initial question, while visiting 'Geneva' at the same time as other long distance relatives who would know, I repeated what I was told at age 4. My question was somewhat disruptive, but some of the mystery was finally removed.

My grandmother circa 1925 - around the time of her wedding.

Thirty years after that confirmation, I have received a large quantity of books, files and photos - some of which fill in much more detail about my grandmother's life. 

My parents' families are infested with enthusiastic, conscientious genealogists. For this reason, I had always seen little necessity in memorizing the particulars of the hundreds of relatives discussed over the years - most of them already neatly arranged on printed family trees for 50 years or more.

It had never 'registered' with me that my grandmother was, like me, a 'first born' - with all the unique experiences, privileges, stressors and minor tragedies linked to that birth position. All four of my grandparents grew up during the first two decades of the 20th Century - however their backgrounds and experiences were quite different ..

During the last decade I have read about two to three shelf-feet of books on the Great War and I've tried writing about it to better understand the times. This was partly because of my maternal grandfather's involvement in the Great War - he was in Europe from 1915 until 1919.

He was the other grandparent I had never met.  

His generation was the first to experience machine-manufactured 'convenient tobacco' in cigarette form which could be enjoyed anywhere. Cigarettes were very cheap or free to the soldiers. It was one of the few pleasures and stress-relievers one could enjoy - beside the theoretically 'daily' rum ration: "While you've a Lucifer to light your fag, smile boys that's the style." He died of lung cancer 35 years after the end of his war.

At this late date, I am surprised to discover that this grandmother and that grandfather were actually on the same battlefields - but at different times. But that is getting ahead of the chronology that I'm able to stitch together using my grandmother's new found artifacts ...

Mabel Rodger, circa 1900.

Reverse of the photo above.

Geneva, Quebec schoolhouse, circa 1912. My grandmother and two of her six siblings - the others were younger.

Lachute amateur historians are probably rather bored of this photo by now. It was published in the Lachute Watchman of March 13, 1989 - as indicated by my father's note.

Probably half of my deceased older relatives had attended Macdonald College for their teacher training. My parents' basement seemed full of overstuffed scrapbooks containing old Macdonald College artifacts and photos. 

After finding a file folder containing artifacts and just a few letters from my grandmother, I decided to check the 'book' below in case it shed more light on teacher training in Quebec - I knew my grandmother had taught school.

Instead, to my surprise this self-produced scrapbook/yearbook provided the 'missing link' between the rather dry file folder of my grandmother's artifacts, her interesting letters home to a favourite aunt from her 'trip' ... and detailed evidence of her actual experiences as a young adult.

The cover of my grandmother's scrapbook and 'yearbook'

From what little I know or have read about the history of education in Quebec, there are a few ideas which may help set the historical stage:

• Until 2000, schools functioned as part of a 'confessional system' based on Protestant or Catholic school boards - with subdivisions for English or French language instruction. For example, during the 1960s I attended schools operated by the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal in English. My parents had both attended 'Mac' and had both taught for this board.
• In the late 1800s, a Protestant school could have been funded variously by private concerns, local municipal supporters, local taxpayers and also through generous government grants for 'public' education. Teacher qualifications and curricula varied widely. In some rural one-room schoolhouses, where teacher training was minimal, it had been customary to allow students time off during the summer - and also for spring planting and fall harvesting.
• Near the end of the 1800s most Quebec Protestant schools were identified as follows: Common or Elementary (including 'one room' schoolhouses); Model - i.e. middle schools; Academies. Academies sometimes contained all three levels of instruction under one roof in some towns.
• Historically, Quebec's Protestant professional teacher training was done at McGill University in Montreal. Until the 1880s, women could not attend McGill. So only male teachers could function at the highest level as principals of Academies. British university-trained male teachers also had their qualifications recognized in the Protestant system. 

• Women could run Model schools if they had the passed the necessary examinations - as my grandmother had. Women principals of Model schools would generally not have a university degree.

I believe this baptism certificate was drawn up to provide proof of age and place of birth for my grandmother's admission to teachers' training.

Strathcona Trust PT certificate 1920.

Physical training seems to have been a special national certification sponsored by the Strathcona Trust and administered by military officials drawing initials in long trains behind them.

Quebec First Class Model School Diploma, 1920

Spot the spelling mistake.

Mabel Rodger. probably at Macdonald College

Mabel Rodger with her camera

Debate topic and rallying song for a Macdonald College debate

The female teaching students are to argue against having women elected to Parliament in 1920. 

Their rallying song is to be sung to the tune of 'British Grenadiers'.

The yearbook contains many of these notes.

In the next part of this series, I'll provide some more views of my grandmother's college experience.

Following that, will be a post on her trip ..

Here is a note sent to her on that trip from her youngest sibling. 

About fifty years later, 

Douglas hired me into my first job, and my best job ever ... on his dairy farm.