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The National Federation of Canadian University Students came into being in December of 1926 in the wake of a British Empire debating team which toured Canada. The founding conference was held at McGill University in Montreal. The organization was founded to create "a better understanding among students, more cooperation ... among ... universities, ... and to furnish a means of creating international ties with groups of students in other countries."

The Federation became dormant during the years of World War II but revived in 1946. In 1964 the Federation underwent a re-organization and was renamed the Canadian Union of Students in an attempt to conciliate differences between English-speaking and French-speaking students. The fonds contains an essay which outlines these problems, titled "Assessment of the History of CUS/NFCUS (1926-1965)". It officially dissolved in 1969.

The National Committee for Independent Canadian Unions, based in Toronto, was formed in 1973 and operated until 1976. One of the donors of the fonds, Terence W. Barker, wrote of the organization: "it operated ... as a fellow traveller of the Canadian Liberation Movement (Marxist/Leninist/Maoist). Not surprisingly, perhaps, it was dissention-ridden from start to finish." Barker believes he was the last official spokesperson for the National Committee at the founding congress in Ottawa in October 1976 of the Canadian Voice for Independence, one of the successor organizations to the National Committee for Independent Canadian Unions. Barker also included some records of other associations either affiliated with the National Committee or of which Barker was a member, including the North York High School Teachers' Association, 1976-1982 and the Metropolitan Association of Supply Teachers, 1971-1975.

Paul Nash, artist, was born in London on 11 May 1889. He studied art at the Chelsea Polytechnic and then at the Slade School of Fine Art. In 1930 he began his illustrations for Sir Thomas Browne's Urne Buriall and The Garden of Cyrus (London: Cassell's, 1932). Nash was a water-colourist of great individuality although remaining within the fold of the English tradition. He died in Boscombe on 11 July 1946.

Robert Jack Mutart was born on 7 May 1923 to Reginald and Carrie Mutart. Following the death of his father in 1929, his mother remarried a man named A. Lebert. Robert enlisted for service in the Second World War on 25 March 1942, and served in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve. Attaining the rank of Leading Signalman, Robert would serve in the Atlantic Theatre on minesweeping and convoy missions. He was honourably discharged on 25 October 1945, but continued to serve as a reservist until 1957. On 12 May 1945 he married Anne Mattiuz, with whom he had three children: Donna, Bobby, and Jimmy. After the war, Robert would become a dentist in Hamilton. Robert died on 3 February 1962 in Detroit, Michigan, at the age of 38.

Reginald Francis Mutart was born on 7 June 1897 in Mimico, Ontario to Charles and Augusta Mutart, and worked as a clerk prior to the First World War. On 22 May 1916 he enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force, and was assigned to the 64th Battery Canadian Field Artillery, 2nd Division French Mortars. During his service in the war, he saw action in France, including at the Battle of Vimy Ridge. He was honourably discharged on 19 August 1919, having attained the rank of Gunner. Following the war he would work for the Canadian National Railways as a clerk. He would marry a woman named Carrie, with whom he had at least one child, a son named Robert Jack Mutart. Reginald died on 2 August 1929 in Niagara Falls, Ontario following injures sustained in a gas explosion in the cellar of his home.

Muskoka Cottage Sanatorium was located on Lake Muskoka, north of Gravenhurst, Ont. It was established in 1897 as a 35-bed tuberculosis hospital and was the first of its kind in Canada. It was not closed until 1994, although it had long ceased to be a sanatorium. The Ontario Department of Health used it for other purposes.

Susan Musgrave was born on March 12, 1951 in Santa Cruz, California. She has lived in Hawaii, Ireland, England and Columbia and presently resides in Sidney, British Columbia. She is married to Stephen Reid whose fonds is also at McMaster. She has published novels, children's books, collections of essays and poetry. Her published works include Entrance of the Celebrant (1972), Selected Strawberries and Other Poems (1977), The Charcoal Burners (1980), The Dancing Chicken (1987), Great Musgrave (1989) Forcing the Narcissus (1994), The Situation in Which We Are Both Amateurs (1997), Things That Keep and Do Not Change (1999) and Cargo of Orchids (2000) and Origami Dove (2011), A Taste of Haida Gwaii (2016), More Blueberries (2019) (Chldren’s book) and Kiss Tickle Cuddle Hug (2010) (Children’s book).

Born in Cooksville, Ontario, Emily Murphy (née Ferguson) was educated at Bishop Strahan School in Toronto. A feminist and lawyer, she was appointed to the Women's Court in Edmonton in 1916, the first woman magistrate appointed to such a position in the British Empire. She also wrote several accounts of life and travel in Manitoba, Alberta, and Europe under the pseudonym of "Janey Canuck".

Iris Murdoch, novelist and philosopher, was born in Dublin, Ireland, on 15 July 1919, and educated at Somerville College, Oxford, and Newnham College, Cambridge. She was a fellow and university lecturer in philosophy at St. Anne's College, Oxford, from 1948 to 1963 when she became an honorary fellow. Her novel, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine (1974) won the Whitehead Literary Award for fiction in 1974 while The Black Prince won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in the same year. In 1978, The Sea won the Booker Prize. She has also published several books of philosophy, beginning with Sartre: Romantic Rationalist (1953). Iris Murdoch died on 8 February 1999 in Oxford.

Mulberry Harbours were artificial harbours, assembled and built in Britain, and transported to France during World War II. The initial components for the two harbours, one for the American sector, and one for the British-Canadian sector, arrived in France on D-Day, 6 June 1944. By D-Day plus 7, the harbour erected in the British sector at Arromanches, Mulberry B, was operational. Mulberry A, in the American sector at St. Laurent, was so badly damaged by a storm that it could no longer be used. Colonel Vassal C. Steer-Webster headed the War Office branch co-ordinating all aspects of the invention, design, development, trials and siting of the harbours.

J.M. Moyes was with the Canadian Infantry, 13th Battalion. Originally from Dundee, Scotland, he enlisted in Quebec in 1914 as a Private. His attestation papers list his occupation as an artist. Throughout the war he continued to draw and paint, including teaching his fellow soldiers to draw while waiting to return home in 1919. By the end of the war he had attained the rank of Lieutenant and continued to paint after the war, though he is best known for his depictions of the war. At least one of his paintings is at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, and another at the Black Watch of Canada Regimental Museum in Montreal.

Farley Mowat was born on May 12, 1921 in Belleville, Ont. and educated at the University of Toronto. In 1952 he published People of the Deer, a book about the Ihalmiut people of the Barrenlands, the first of his many books with a northern theme. Other popular Mowat themes are stories that involve the sea, Newfoundland and the protection of the environment and all living creatures. He was a man of strong opinions who described himself as a "rampant nationalist" and a "story-teller who is more concerned with reaching his audience than with garnering kudos from the arbiters of literary greatness." Among the many honours and awards that he received was an honorary doctorate from McMaster University in 1994. Farley Mowat died on May 6, 2014.

Claire Angel Wheeler Mowat, A.O.C.A., author and illustrator, was born in Toronto, Ont. on February 5, 1933. She was educated at Havergal College and the Ontario College of Art. She is married to the author Farley Mowat. In her early career, she worked as a graphic artist and travelled extensively. She has collaborated with her husband on research and illustrations for various books. Travels for these projects have included Siberia, Greenland, Iceland and the Canadian Arctic.

Over the years, the emphasis of her work has changed from the visual arts to writing. Claire Mowat is the author of The Outport People (1983), Pomp and Circumstances (1989), The Girl from Away (1992) and The French Isles (1994).

Oswald Mosley was the father of Sir Oswald Mosley. Sir Oswald was created a baronet in 1720. He was fourth in descent from Anthony Mosley, brother of Nicholas Mosley who became the Lord Mayor of London in 1599. This creation of the baronetcy became extinct in 1779. The family lived in Rolleston, Staffordshire.

Daniel David Moses is an award-winning poet, playwright, and essayist who is of Delaware descent. He grew up on a farm on Six Nations lands near Brantford, Ontario, and he has a B.A. from York University and a M.F.A. from UBC.

Daniel David Moses is known for his original voice and his ability to portray a thriving, “organic” native culture in his plays, eschewing the tragic motif often apparent in depictions of native people. His plays include Coyote City (1988), Big Buck City (1991), Almighty Voice and His Wife (1991), and The Witch of Niagara (1998), and Moses’ works of poetry include Delicate Bodies (1980) and The White Line (1990). He has been a writer-in-residence at various institutions including Theatre Passe Muraille, the Banff Centre for the Arts, the University of British Columbia, the University of Western Ontario, the University of Windsor, the University of Toronto (Scarborough), the Sage Hill Writing Experience, McMaster University, and Concordia University. He has also served on various boards relating to native culture and the arts, including being a founding member of the Committee to Re-establish the Trickster. Moses passed away on 13 July 2020, at the age of 68.

William Lewis Morton, historian, was born in Gladstone, Manitoba on 13 December 1908. Having obtained his first degree at the University of Manitoba he pursued further studies as a Rhodes Scholar at St. John's College, Oxford, before returning to lecture in history at what was then known as St. John's College, Winnipeg, later to become part of the University of Manitoba. Professor Morton's association with Manitoba continued unbroken until 1966 when, having completed terms as Head of the Department of History and as Provost of the newly established University College, he left Manitoba to become Master of Champlain College at the University of Trent. In 1969 he was appointed Vanier Professor of Canadian History at Trent, retiring in 1975 to return to Manitoba. Professor Morton continued to teach, research and write at the University of Manitoba until his death in Medicine Hat, Alberta on 7 December 1980. He was the author of several books including The Progressive Party of Canada (1957) and Manitoba: A History (1957). He was also the recipient of several awards and honorary degrees.

Born on 2 February 1745 at Stapleton, Gloucestershire, Hannah More was a moral and religious writer. She was educated at home and then at a school her sisters had established in Bristol. In 1788 she published anonymously the first of her more serious reflections, Thoughts and Importance of the Manners of the Great to General Society. A series of writings followed which were among the most widely read books of the day. Her most popular work, Cœlebs in Search of a Wife was published in December 1809. Her works have been published in collected editions several times. She died on 7 September 1833 in Clifton.

Henri de Montmorency was born in Chantilly, Oise to Anne de Montmorency and Madeleine of Savoy, 15 June 1534. He was the leader of the Politiques party during the French religious wars. He became the Constable of France in 1593.