Born in Regina in 1918, Joan grew up on a dairy farm. The Fletchers were prosperous British cotton merchants, and sent Joan and her sisters to boarding school in England. Joan completed her studies in Belgium and France, before returning to Canada to work for the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration.
Joan was eager to play an active role in the Second World War. After completing a mechanics course and training as a driver for the Canadian Red Cross, Joan paid her own fare to Britain. She joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), a civilian service whose volunteers were uniformed. They drove vehicles, operated hospitals, worked as interpreters or decoders, and served as secret agents. During the war, Joan was stationed in Scotland, where she drove vehicles for the Polish army.
After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, Joan was reassigned to the Far East to assist in the evacuation of Allied captives. Joan was first posted to India with the British Red Cross, then to Malaysia to tend the sick in prison camps. She was named as assistant to the commander of the brigade, with the rank of lieutenant.
Now twenty-seven, Joan was sent to evacuate nearly 2,000 women and children detainees from the prison camp in Bangkinang to the city of Padang on the Indian Ocean. The mission was extremely dangerous since Indonesia was in chaos: defeated Japanese soldiers remained, and a bloody battle for independence had erupted as armed rebels were attacking Dutch prisoners in some areas of the Dutch East Indies.
Lieutenant Fletcher needed troops to protect the civilian internees and convinced the Japanese army to provide forty soldiers, vehicles, and a translator.[2] As she commanded her reluctant troops, convoys began transporting the ailing women and children through the mountainous jungle terrain. Joan monitored each of the journeys, driving back and forth to check for problems — everything from blown-up bridges, to road barricades, and treacherous driving conditions.
Once, a rebel truck struck her down, but she was back in action a few hours later. The four-inch slice in her scalp was pulled together and bandaged; stitches had to wait. Another time Joan raced after Indonesians who’d stolen one of the vehicles and taken its Dutch passengers captive. She saved the day.
As hostilities escalated with each convoy, the number of guards was increased to seventy Japanese soldiers armed with machine guns. When Allied troops finally arrived at Padang, she was supposed to be relieved of her rescue duties, but the brigadier-general recognized her commitment to the mission and permitted her to complete it. In six weeks, she commanded a total of twenty trips through the Sumatran jungle.
“It shook the Japanese a bit to find themselves under the command of a woman,”[3] Joan reported. This remarkable Canadian earned the respect and admiration of her unlikely contingent of soldiers. As a token of his esteem, the Japanese officer in the group presented her with his own Samurai sword, which had belonged to his family for 300 years.
The Canadian War Museum has the Samurai sword that Joan received as a gift.
CWM 19800177-001, ©Canadian War Museum
Following her jungle adventures, Joan was sent to Hong Kong where she was hospitalized with a severe case of swamp fever. She eventually lost half of her lower teeth and some of her jaw, which was replaced with a piece of plastic. When she had recovered, Joan was posted to Warsaw in the Information Section at the British Embassy. In 1946, the British ambassador to Poland presented her with the prestigious Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) medal for her heroism. Joan eventually rejoined her family in Canada, where she died in 1979.
When news spread about the expedition in Sumatra, the press (including Time magazine) praised Lieutenant Fletcher as a heroine. In 2005, her incredible mission was depicted in the documentary Rescue from Sumatra. As historian Dean Oliver remarked, “this is a woman who in extraordinary times put her life on the line to save several thousand people … by anybody’s definition that is heroism of the highest grade.”[4]
Quote:
“It was fatal to stop. I just loved every minute of it.”[5]
Lillian Freiman
Paul Horsdal/Canadian Jewish Congress Charities Committee National Archives
Mother of the Jewish People in Canada[1]
Lillian Freiman
1885–1940
One of the most outstanding women in the Zionist movement, she was praised by Golda Meir as “a symbol of what a proud Jewish woman should be.”[2]
An excited young woman strode down the gangplank of the Scandinavian after it docked in Quebec City in August 1921. Lillian Freiman was surrounded by more than 100 children — orphans from the Ukraine. She and another woman had cared for the young immigrants from the time they boarded the ship in Antwerp, and would ensure that they were placed in Jewish homes in Canada.
Their arrival was the culmination of the campaign Lillian Freiman launched through the Jewish War Orphans’ Committee. It brought 150 Jewish orphans to Canada. At the time there were serious concerns about orphaned Jewish girls being pulled into slavery. Lillian adopted one girl to raise alongside her three other children.
The rescue mission was a remarkable achievement during a time when prejudice against Eastern European immigrants was widespread and Canada limited the number of Jewish immigrants. For this, and other projects, Lillian Freiman was considered the leading Canadian Jewish figure of her generation.[3] “A saintly woman whose heart knew no bounds,”[4] Lillian was a dedicated community worker, a talented organizer, and a generous philanthropist. She effectively used her wealth, social position, and political connections to help those in need. An important leader in the Canadian Zionist movement, she was the most prominent Jewish woman in the country during the years between the First and Second World Wars. In addition to spearheading Jewish causes, she forged ties with all Canadians through her community service.
Born Lillian Bilsky, she grew up in Ottawa in a large Jewish family that thrived on public service and Zionism. Her father, Moses, was an eminent member of the community and their home on Nicholas Street became the focus of Jewish life in the city. By the time she was sixteen, Lillian was involved in philanthropy, joining her mother at the Ladies Hebrew Benevolent Society.
At eighteen, Lillian married Archibald Freiman, the prosperous owner of a furniture and clothing store. He shared her devotion to community work and Zionism. The couple led Canadian Zionism, with Archie the head of the Zionist Organization of Canada and Lillian president of the Canadian Hadassah-WIZO (Women’s International Zionist Organization).[5] The latter supported the settlement of Jews in Palestine, and the health and well-being of women and children in the Jewish diaspora.
While president of Hadassah, from 1919–40, Lillian transformed it into a strong national organization, raising substantial funds to support a variety of institutions in Palestine. Under her leadership, Hadassah supported the reconstruction of Jewish settlements in Palestine as well as many public health and education initiatives. In 1927, she convinced the board of Hadassah-WIZO to take on full financial responsibility for the first agricultural college for women in Palestine. The initiative provided training in a traditionally male occupation, encouraging female independence and equality.
One of Lillian Freiman’s first projects as president of Hadassah was to launch (at her own expense) a national fundraising campaign to support impoverished Palestinians. She managed to raise $160,000 and $40,000 in clothing donations. As noted by H.M. Caiserman, first secretary-general of the Canadian Jewish Congress, she “revolutionized the measure of contribution in Canada for Palestine.”[6] Lillian also focused Hadassah on women’s issues, and made it the “strongest, most coherent, and best-led national organization on the Canadian Jewish scene.”[7]
Under Lillian’s leadership, Hadassah supported Youth Aliyah when it was formed in 1933 to save Jewish youth in Nazi Germany and Austria. Before the outbreak of the Second World War the group rescued about 5,000 teenagers, bringing them to safety in Palestine.
Hadassah is one of Lillian’s most notable legacies. Today the Hadassah-WIZO is the leading J
ewish women’s philanthropic organization in Canada, with 10,000 members.
Lillian Freiman was very active in both the Jewish and non-Jewish communities. During the First World War, she created a Red Cross sewing circle that became the Disraeli Chapter of the Daughters of the Empire. In 1917, she participated in the creation of the Great War Veterans Association, a precursor of the Canadian Legion. She also raised funds for the Institut Jeanne d’Arc, and assisted the Protestant Infants Home, the Ottawa Women’s Canadian Club, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Girl Guides, the Ottawa Day Nursery, and the Ottawa Welfare Bureau.
When a flu epidemic swept through Ottawa in 1918, the young woman accepted the mayor’s plea to lead the campaign against it. With the support of the city medical officer, she supervised 1,500 volunteers, developed a filing system to monitor all patients and volunteers, arranged for local newspapers to distribute epidemic reports, and planned and managed three temporary hospitals. Lillian was a born caregiver, eager to help anyone in need.
Lillian died in Montreal in 1940. Her funeral was attended by many dignitaries, including Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, Mayor Stanley Lewis, Canadian Legion President Alex Walker, and Canadian Jewish Congress President Samuel Bronfman. Golda Meir gave a moving eulogy at a memorial service in Tel Aviv.
Lillian received considerable recognition during her lifetime. In 1934, she became the first Jewish Canadian to be awarded the Order of the British Empire. She also received the King George VI Coronation Medal in 1937, and the Vimy Medal, for her work with ex-soldiers. Poet Abraham M. Klein wrote a poem in her honour, while the Royal Canadian Legion dedicated a memorial plaque and made her an honorary lifetime member. Lillian had the rare privilege of having a settlement in Israel named after her: Moshav Havatselet HaSharon (based on her Hebrew name). While Lillian Freiman may not be well-known across Canada today, in 2008 the Historic Site and Monuments Board of Canada recognized her as a person of national significance.
Quote:
“As a daughter of an ancient race I must not look back on the past and be overwhelmed by unhappiness, but from our long history I must derive strength to go on. Courage is the lesson that the Jewish past teaches every member of our race.”[8]
Alexandrine Gibb.
Getting Girls in the Game
Alexandrine Gibb
1891–1958
Guided by her slogan “girls’ sports run by girls,”[1] she changed the leadership of women’s sport in Canada.
When women were first permitted to compete in sports such as track and field at the 1928 Olympics, some people thought Alexandrine Gibb was just a chaperone. Turns out, she was the women’s team manager and one of the most influential leaders in the organization and promotion of women’s sport in Canada.
An accomplished athlete, Alexandrine Gibb managed several teams that competed internationally. She was also the most prominent female sports journalist in Canada during the 1920s and 1930s. Throughout her life, she fought to advance women’s participation, training, and development with female coaches for all types of sports.
Alexandrine was born in Toronto in 1891, to dairy farmer John Gibb and his wife, Sarah. They encouraged her involvement in sports: her mother was the type of woman who ignored disapproving looks to row, which was considered unladylike. Alex attended Havergal College, a private girls school and a leader in athletic opportunities. Havergal offered a well-equipped gym and pool, as well as instruction in everything from basketball and cricket to hockey and golf.
Alex, a dark young lady with beautiful brown eyes and a great mass of hair,[2] worked as a secretary after graduation. In her free time she was a member of the women’s basketball league in Toronto. Before the First World War, she enjoyed a growing number of opportunities to play sports, which were largely organized by men. But with many men away, the women got involved in organizing the activities, and staged competitions to raise money for the war effort. It is believed that Alex was engaged to Lieutenant Harry Dibble, but he was killed in France in August 1918.
After the war, Canadian women had more opportunities to be active as citizens, which included participation in sports. Alex became increasingly involved in sport, as an athlete, administrator, organizer, and promoter. In addition to being an avid golfer and tennis player, she played basketball for the Maple Leafs until 1925.
By the fall of that year, Alexandrine had launched her long career in sports journalism. From May 1928 to November 1940, Alex wrote an influential daily sports column for the Toronto Daily Star called “No Man’s Land of Sport: News and Views of Feminine Activities.” Deemed a role model, she would later be hailed as the dean of women sportswriters. Some said she was a lousy writer, but a gutsy journalist who knew how to get a story. Alex continued writing for the Star until 1956.
She coined the slogan “girls’ sports run by girls,” and helped establish both the Ontario Ladies’ Basketball Association and the Toronto Ladies Athletic Club (and served as its first president). When the Canadian Amateur Basketball Association was formed in 1922, Alex was the only woman on the executive. She was elected president of the Ontario Ladies’ Basketball Association in 1925. When she became the first woman appointed to the Ontario Athletic Commission in 1934, the highly respected sports editor Lou Marsh defended her selection by noting that “Miss Gibbs knows sport better than any other woman in the country and any other man whose name was mentioned in the tentative line-ups.”[3]
In 1925, the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada (AAU of C) offered Alex a challenging assignment: select a team of Canadian women athletes within a week to depart for a major international track and field competition in England. An experienced male coach had been named to the position first, but Alex’s controversial appointment went through since the Brits were paying the tab and insisted on an all-female group. Alex quickly selected her team and travelled overseas as the manager. Impressed by the British Women’s Amateur Athletic Association, she returned to Canada determined to establish a similar organization.
Alex worked with other sports leaders in Toronto to start the Women’s Amateur Athletic Federation of Canada. The attitude of male advisers such as John DeGruchy wasn't always positive. He commented that “the important thing is not so much athletics for women as that they are the mothers of the coming nation.”[4]
Alex ensured that Canadian women participated in some other major international competitions during the interwar years, including the Olympics and the Women’s World Games. She managed the amazing Matchless Six who competed in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics; they brought home two gold medals, a silver, and a bronze. Alex also convinced teenager Marilyn Bell to attempt her swim across Lake Ontario in 1954.[5]
According to sportswriter Bruce Kidd, “[few] Canadian women have advanced the cause of girls and women in sport more than Alexandrine Gibb,”[6] yet she seems to be largely forgotten. Gibb should be recognized as an inspirational figure who contributed to the golden era of women’s sports during the interwar years.
Quote:
“Men have had years and years of experience in sport organizations and the girls have only been in the game for the past ten years. So we have lots to learn, girls. But we want a chance to learn it.”[7]
Hilwie Hamdon.
Courtesy of Karen Hamdon
Building Al Rashid
Hilwie Hamdon
1905–1988
One important thing was missing from her life: a place of prayer for the Muslim community.
Hilwie Hamdon led a group of Muslim women determined to build a place to pray in their new homeland. Despite prejudice and the Great Depression, they succeeded. The Al Rashid Mosque opened its doors in Edmonton in 1938, becoming Canada’s first mosque. For the first time since Muslim immigrants began arriving in Alberta at the turn of the twentieth century, they would be able to celebrate their faith in a mosque.
Hilwie Taha Jomha was born in 1905 in Lala in the Baka’a Valley of Lebanon. She received little formal education. When she
was about seventeen, Hilwie married Ali Hamdon, a forty-two-year-old man who had saved up to travel back to Lebanon from Alberta in search of a bride.
The couple sailed for New York in 1922, where Ali bought Hilwie a full-length fur coat for the cold winters ahead. The Hamdons travelled across the continent by train to Fort Chipewyan, a remote fur trading post in northern Alberta. It was there that Ali had settled to earn his living, trading with the Natives.
When Hilwie arrived, she couldn’t speak English; one can only imagine the culture shock she experienced in the early years in the isolated post, which was primarily inhabited by Cree. Hilwie gave birth to the Hamdon’s six children in Fort Chipewyan. There were no other Muslims at the post, though by the late 1920s there were a handful of Muslim families in Alberta. Most worked as merchants, mink ranchers, and fur traders.
With temperatures dropping as low as 69 degrees below zero some years, Hilwie must’ve appreciated her fur coat. During the winter, she travelled around the country by dogsled. One frigid winter their first baby became seriously ill, so the Hamdons went all the way to Edmonton to find a doctor. It took them seven days to make the 500-kilometre journey to Fort McMurray, where they boarded the train to the city. Hilwie was always glad to return to Edmonton for their annual summer vacations.
The young mother became a respected member of the settlement, but found it difficult to raise her children as Muslims in a community where no one shared her faith. When the Hamdons decided to move to Edmonton in the 1930s, the local chief presented Hilwie with a beautiful fox skin, a gift for a person he considered “the finest white woman of the north.”[1]
100 More Canadian Heroines Page 13
