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The Socialist Party of Canada was founded in 1904 when the Socialist Party of British Columbia merged with the Canadian Socialist League. By 1910 the party stretched across Canada. The party's philosophy is revolutionary, holding a view known as "impossibilism", that is that capitalism is not capable of being reformed. Support for the party waned after the collapse of the 1919 general strikes. The Socialist Party of Canada is affiliated with the World Socialist Party of the United States and the Socialist Party of Great Britain.

Léon Hennique was born in Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe on 4 November 1850. At the age of nine he moved to France where he received much of his formal education. He received educational training in Brest and Saint Quentin, and from 1865 to 1869 in Paris at the Jesuit school de la rue de Vaugirard. Hennique tried his hand at painting but did not find it as rewarding as writing. He was a novelist, playwright, journalist and a man of letters. His first published work appeared on 20 March 1876 in The Republic of Letters. Hennique followed the Naturalist school of thought, contributing several works to this literary movement.

Hennique was a close friend and associate of Emile Zola and the brothers Goncourt. He was a member of the Group of Médan presided over by Zola. Hennique assumed the presidency of the Goncourt academy from 1907 to 1912. He was also involved in developments in the Théatre-Libre in Paris. He was named a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1895 and was also named an Officer of the National Order.

The Highland Society was founded in 1853 to assist new Scottish immigrants and to preserve Celtic culture in Hamilton.

Lily Edward Jones was a poet who lived in Hamilton, Ont. She published two books with local printers, Odd Echoes in 1929, and Woodland Songs in 1936. Both books are in Research Collections.

Nancy Kennedy-Reid was born in Carnarvon, North Wales, on 2 August 1902 and educated in England. She emigrated to Canada in 1926 and trained as a nurse at the Montreal General Hospital in 1929. She travelled with The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada to England in December 1940. Once there she worked as an Assistant Matron, Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps (R.C.A.M.C.) at No. 1 Canadian Hospital, Marston Green. The hospital moved to Hailsham, Sussex two years later. In June 1942 she was promoted to Matron. In November 1943 she was posted to No. 1 Canadian General Hospital, Andria, Italy, later moving to Rome. She returned to England in August 1944 to serve at No. 23 Canadian General Hospital, Leavesden, near Watford. Kennedy-Reid was appointed a member of the Royal Red Cross by George V. She returned to Canada on 1 January 1946 where she became the director of nursing at St. Anne's Hospital, St. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec. She retired in 1967.

Charles R. Totton was born at Wellman's Corners, Ontario on 13 June 1881. He graduated from the University of Toronto as a medical doctor. He served with the British army Medical Corps during World War I. He died on 19 April 1955 in Sarnia, Ontario.

Merle R. Tingley was born on 9 July 1921 in Montreal and educated at the Valentine School of Commercial Art. He was editorial cartoonist with the London Free Press from 1947 to 1986, using the pen name of Ting. During his career he won many national and international awards; his cartoons were collected and published several times, beginning in 1957.

The collection was amassed by Frank S. Wood and continued by his son Alfred E. Wood.

H.R.H. Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert was born on 1 May 1850, the seventh child of Queen Victoria. He was created Duke of Connaught and Strathearn on 24 May 1874. From 1911 to 1916 he served as Governor-General of Canada.

Harold LeRoy Ward was born in the environs of London, Ont. on 10 July 1921. He attended Dorchester School. During World War II, he was a flying officer, specifically a wireless air gunner, in the Royal Canadian Air Force. After the war he worked for the CPR as a train dispatcher. He was the husband of Violet Jean (née Wright) for 67 years. They had two daughters, Sharon (later Kormendi) and Cicily (later Squire). He died in his eighty-ninth year at Victoria Hospital in London on 21 May 2010.

Iris Amy Warden, author and illustrator, was born in 1904 presumably in England.

Carrie Webster was born on 29 November 1898 in Leeds. Her father was Dr. Hugh Webster, one of the original members of the Independent Labour Party. He became a member of the Hull City Council and served for 25 years. Most of Carrie’s life was spent in Hull. She cared for her father who died in 1952 at the age of 85. Carrie became a life-long friend of Constance Malleson; their correspondence begins in 1925. She died in November 1992.

James F. Westhead (1907-1995) was a member of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps in 1941, commanding “C” Squadron of the Lord Strathcona Horse. He was promoted to the rank of Major around 1943. In the final years of World War II, Westhead was Deputy to the Military Governor of the Netherlands. In 1947, he re-enlisted with the Militia, eventually becoming Brigadier General of the 18th Militia Group in Northern Ontario. For more biographical information consult Westhead’s obituary, published in The Globe and Mail on 13 November, 1995.

Roy McKeen Wiles was born on 15 October 1903 in Truro, Nova Scotia, and educated at Dalhousie University and Harvard University. He began his academic career at the University of Alberta as a lecturer in English in 1928. He came to McMaster University as an assistant professor of English in 1935, eventually rising to professor and then department chair. He also served as a lay reader for the Anglican Diocese of Niagara. He is the author of Serial Publications in England Before 1750 (1957) and Freshest Advices: Early Provincial Newspapers in England (1965). He died in Ottawa, Ontario on 9 March 1974.

Charles Wilkinson was born in England in 1909. He worked in London's Fleet Street before emigrating to Canada. His first employment at The Hamilton Spectator was as a copy editor. He was appointed religion editor there in 1963. He retired in 1985. An interview with Wilkinson appeared in The Spectator on 16 February 1985. He died on 2 May 1994 in Hamilton, Ont.

Healey Willan, composer, teacher, organist and choirmaster, was born at Balham, London, England on 12 October 1880. He was educated at St. Saviour's Choir School, Eastbourne. In 1913 he moved to Canada to become head of theory at the Toronto Conservatory and organist at St. Paul's church. The following year he was appointed lecturer at the University of Toronto. In 1919 he was appointed music director of the Hart House Theatre, a post he held until 1925. In 1921 he became precentor of St. Mary Magdalene church where he established the high-church music tradition through the use of plainsong and Renaissance music. He stayed at St. Mary Magdalene until his death in Toronto on 16 February 1968. His other posts included: Vice-Principal of the Conservatory, 1920-1936; professor at the University of Toronto, 1936-1950; University organist, 1932-1964.
Agnes Butcher (1915-), pianist and teacher, premiered the concerto dedicated to her on 24 August 1944 in a broadcast performance in Montreal for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation with the orchestra conducted by Jean-Marie Beaudet. These same performers later recorded the concerto for release on the CBC IS Canadian Album No. 1, RCA DM-1229. The first public performance of the concerto was held in November 1944 with Butcher being joined by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ettore Mazzoleni. Sometime before 1984 Butcher changed her surname to Boucher.

Virginia Woolf, novelist and essayist, was born in Kensington on 25 January 1882 and educated at home by her father, Sir Leslie Stephen. In 1912 she married Leonard Woolf. Together they established the Hogarth Press in 1917. Although her early novels employed a more traditional style of writing, she later explored different techniques such as stream of consciousness. In addition to her fiction, Woolf wrote essays, biography, and the feminist classic A Room of One's Own. She suffered from bouts of mental instability throughout her life and drowned herself on 28 March 1941.