Collection search - Birdie Smith fonds [textual record, graphic material]

Record information – Brief
1
Birdie Smith fonds [textual record, graphic material]

Hierarchical level:

Fonds

Date:

1936; ca. 1980.

Reference:

R16419-0-1-E

Type of material:

Textual material, Photographs

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

5319127

Context of this record:

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Birdie Smith fonds
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Record information – Details

Date(s):

1936; ca. 1980.

Bilingual equivalent:

Click here

Place of creation:

Ontario

Extent:

0.5 cm of textual records.
3 photographs : col.
Positive - paper - colour

Language of material:

English

Scope and content:

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The fonds consists of Smith's diary, which runs from 15 July to 21 August 1936, and spans the preparations for the Pilgrimage and her return home. The diary shows that Smith was a talented writer and observer of the world around her.

The fonds also includes three photographs of Smith in later life.

Provenance:

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Smith, Birdie Mary, 1896-1990

Biography/Administrative history:

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Smith, Birdie Mary, 1896-1990 : Birdie Mary Smith was born in the small community of Rothsay, near Guelph, Ontario in 1896, one of Edward J. and Naomi (Cowen) Smith's six children. She was engaged to a man who LAC has not been able to identify, who was killed in the First World War. After the war, Birdie Smith moved to Toronto where she worked as a secretary.

In July 1936, Smith was among the six thousand veterans, their families and friends who took part in the Vimy Pilgrimage. The Pilgrimage was organised by the Royal Canadian Legion to coincide with the unveiling of the Vimy Ridge Memorial. The pilgrims sailed from Montreal aboard five specially chartered ocean liners. They were given distinctive berets and medals and told that they were Canada's ambassadors to Europe. At Antwerp, Belgium, the pilgrims boarded buses that carried them past First World War battlefields and cemeteries to Vimy Ridge. There, they watched King Edward VIII dedicate the Memorial on 26 July 1936. In the following days, the pilgrims laid wreaths at the Cenotaph in Whitehall and at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris.

Birdie Smith never married. She died at Toronto on 12 November 1990.

Finding aid:

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(No finding aid) (not applicable)

Source:

Private

Related control no.:

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2020-00056-3
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Conditions of access:

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Textual records

[Consultation90 Open]

Volume [R16419] 1

[Consultation 90 Open]

Graphic (photo)

[Consultation90 Open]

Volume [R16419] 1

[Consultation 90 Open]

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