Torrence Newton, Lilias, 1896-1980 : Lilias Torrance Newton has left a legacy as one of Canada's most prolific portrait artists, with a painting career spanning over 50 years. She was the youngest child and only daughter of Mary Alice Stewart and Forbes Torrance.
Her father, an amateur artist and original member of the Pen and Pencil Club of Montréal, died while Lilias was still an infant. It was during convalescence, in 1906, that Lilias began to develop an interest in art, having spent much of her time studying her father's sketchbooks. She began formal art instruction at the Montréal Art Association and while a student at Miss Edgar's and Miss Cramp's School in Montréal.
At the age of sixteen, Lilias began more formal studies with the Art Association of Montréal, under renowned instructor William Brymner. She was highly accomplished, having been awarded two scholarships in her first year. She travelled to England during the First World War and served with the Red Cross, in addition to expanding her studies, before returning to Montréal in 1919.
Lilias married Frederick G. Newton in 1921. She continued to paint and exhibited her work at the Art Association of Montréal and the Royal Canadian Academy [of Art]. The National Gallery of Canada acquired several of her works. In 1923, she returned to Europe in order to pursue her studies. She studied in Paris under painter Alexandre Jacovleff, who persuaded Newton to submit her work to the Paris Salon; she won a Premier Mention d'Honneur for a portrait entitled Denise. The international cachet helped Newton make a name for herself upon her return to Canada, and her works were showcased at several national and international exhibits.
Lilias Torrance Newton continued to paint through the mid-1970s, in spite of her declining health. She died in Cowansville, Quebec in 1980.
Macdonald, Malcolm, 1901-1981 : Malcolm MacDonald (1901-1981) played a central role in the decolonization of the British Empire. The son of Britain's first Socialist prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald, Malcolm soon emerged from his father's shadow to take a crucial political and diplomatic part in the shaping of the Commonwealth.
As colonial secretary MacDonald moved British colonial policy from a laissez-faire attitude to a developmental view; he was responsible for creating the Colonial Development and Welfare Fund, the first aid program. His last Cabinet post was as health minister during the London blitz, where he worked with Winston Churchill. Sent to Canada as British high commissioner, MacDonald became Mackenzie King's confidant during the conscription crisis, the Gouzenko spy revelations, and the American "occupation" during the building of the Alaska Highway. His greatest work was done during his fourteen years in Asia, most notably in preparing Malaya's different racial groups for independence and mending fences between India and Britain after the Suez invasion of 1956.
