next up previous contents
Next: The Dales Up: No Title Previous: Town and School

McGill and Employment

  In My McGill Sir Arthur Currie was Principal and Col. Bovey his Assistant gif I think perhaps ``Public Relations Officer'' is a likelier term but, actually, I really don't know.; kind, courtly Bill Gentleman was the Superintendent of the Arts Building and ``Shakespeare'' Harry Barker his Assistant. Such luminaries as Adair, Leacock, Gilson, Cyrus MacMillan, Waugh, Fles, Tommy Clark were My Professors. Sir Edward Beatty was Chancellor. Daddy taught two courses in the Law Faculty. The university was small enough then for students to know their professors in a way completely unknown in later years. Many of the Professors invited students to Sunday tea (``Bun fights'') in their homes so that a lot of us got to know them as individuals. Both the Principal and the Dean (Ira MacKay in my case) were felt to be approachable friends. I well remember, on a soaking wet morning driving with Evelyn in the convertible Model T Ford through the Roddick Gates and up the long avenue to the Arts Building and overtaking Sir Arthur battling his way in the rain. So, of course, we stopped to offer him a lift which, of course, he accepted. And another occasion when Sir Arthur and Col. Bovey joined me as I, released from my duties behind scenes, was watching the dress rehearsals of the Red and White Revues (held in 1930 for the first time in Moyse Hall). I, knowing the irreverences that were coming up, was nervous at first but then delighted with these great men who so relished every quip and dig dished out at their expense.

Of course I took Dr MacMillan's course English 2: a survey of English literature. All freshmen in Arts and Science had to and attendance was compusory! It was given in Moyse Hall and even to me, unaccustomed as I was to taking notes, it was a great course. And in my Second year I enjoyed even more his lectures on Shakespeare. Dr MacMillan's greatest interest was in the theatre and frequently he demonstrated his acting abilities and sense of the drama in his lectures. In 1928--29 I was enrolled in English 13 --- ``The Technique of the Drama'' --- and in the hope that I could overcome my paralysingly unhelpful fright of the stage I let myself be persuaded to act in the full length play we produced (which I seem to remember was The Importance of Being Ernest). Actually it wasn't that difficult to get me to play. I was so flattered at being asked that I actually thought I was a real actress! In 1929, also, I joined the Players Club --- a heresy which Dr. MacMillan graciously forgave me. We put on ``Dear Brutus'' and later took it on tour to Quebec City where we were tremendously entertained by the Price family. I played the part of Jeanna and Kay Barrie the other female lead and for us Gaby Bernier --- the mostest[?] couturière in Montreal --- made our ball gowns, all for the special mention she got in the programme. Mine was gold satin, and very slinky, which I wore to all the R.M.C. and Armoury dances until it became actually fuzzy from rubbing against uniforms. I really fancied myself in that dress!

Col. Bovey was instrumental in my getting the job with the Southam Publishing Company after I graduated. It happened this way. In 1930--31 I was enrolled in a course in Chinese History --- Chinese I --- under Professor Kiang Kang Hu. It was intensely interesting and is the only course on which I have kept my notes. Prof. Kiang (who was a dear and perhaps lonely) for some reason used, every once in a while, to take me out to lunch. We went to a Chinese Restaurant on Ste Catherine Street near University where of course he was treated with much bowing and great respect. Perhaps he took other students out at other times. I don't know. Anyway, Col. Bovey must have been aware of all this because one morning as we students were rushing between classes there he was in the front hall of the Arts Building swinging his arms around his nice round body obviously looking for somebody --- anybody --- and on me he pounced. One didn't say ``no'' to Col. Bovey and so it was that there and then I found myself secretary to the Hung Tao Society (I can't remember what the Hung Tao Society was all about but as Col. Bovey was Director of External Relations I suppose that should explain something). Paul Reading, the President, was a Southam Newspaper Correspondent (Financial-oriented stories) who had lived in China. Later on, aftet I had got my degree, we met to buy a cloisonne jar for Mrs F. M. G. Johnson who had become the chief Patron of the Society. I was taking a Secretarial course that October and was carrying my note books. Paul was intrigued and ten weeks later I was office boy in the Head Office of the Southam Publishing Company in the Southam Building on Bleury street! How could I ever believe that it was supposed to be difficult in 1931 to get a job? There was, however, a sad side to this because Daddy was terribly upset that a daughter of his was working --- and especially that she was doing so in a business office where someone he knew, F. N. Southam, was President. It took a long time and a lot of lunching together in Pauzé's (then on Place d'Armes) for him to become reconciled and I like to think that in the end he was happy about it.

x x x x x x x x x x To solve the lunch problem Daddy made me, as he had Jane, a member of the Monteregian Club --- a small lunch club for women students on McTavish Street. Marjorie Stevenson, who was taking Fine Arts in the Ecole des Beaux Arts, was also a member there and we became friends. She was older than I and self-assured --- which I certainly was not --- and I was delighted to be taken under her wing. We explored together the small galleries of the Art Dealers as well as the Montreal Art Gallery and the Quebec Handicraft Store. She also included me in all sorts of outings she organised (always Dutch Treat) such as visiting the Stations of the Cross on Oka Mountain in the autumn with our evening picnic eaten beside a fire, and spending a week-end in Rawdon so we could explore the Church. Her ``gang'' included Roy and Cliff and Kay Wilson, Eleanor Hamilton, John Frosst, Jack LeMoine, Og Leslie.

Beatrice Howell was another real friend. It was she who introduced me to the blessed tranquility of Christ Church Cathedral and, when I was allowed a Stack Permit in the Redpath Library, to the most exciting shelves and a range of reading far wider than even my English courses took me. All through Evelyn's and my Traf years Beatrice was a constant companion but she was far too bright to have to spend two years in the Sixth Form and so was a year ahead of me at McGill.

In my Second Year Evelyn and I ``Came Out'' which Jane had done two years before. It was all so self-conscious and out of our orbit that it was really quite a frightening experience. We felt we were being thrown to the wolves little realizing that the shattering reality was in fact being ignored by the wolves! But we didn't know how to say ``No'' since the parents obviously thought it was important. Four years later Alma did say ``No'' and this Daddy accepted gratefully. The Depression was on and there wasn't any longer that kind of money. However, in the end Evelyn and I learned to take ``society'' life in better stride and we had a lot of fun. In that last year before the Crash there were many private balls --- mostly in the Ritz Carleton but one (for Rosanna Todd) in ``Ravenscrag'' and one, at least, at the Hunt Club. I used to leave calling cards (one of mine, one of Mother's and two of Daddy's) on my hostess after my two o'clock lecture during the week following her ball. There were also the St Andrew's Ball (Windsor Hotel) and the Charity Ball (Mount Royal Hotel). These I took in year after year first with assorted escorts and then with Campbell. Always in our Deb. year there were dinner parties before the dances so that we had partners all laid on for some of the dances at any rate! When Mother and Daddy were the hosts the guest list generally included the sons of their friends (Websters, Donalds, Nicholls, etc.) who could be trusted to see that the girls got home safely!

In that year, too, Evelyn and I joined the Junior League. We both did our weekly hours in the Griffintown Club, on Ottawa Street, which had been founded to keep underprivileged boys and girls off the streets. Eveylyn ``worked'' with the younger girls and I with the younger boys. I remember clearly only one incident connected with me and the Griffintown Club. Some of the R.M.C. men were in town during their Fall break --- probably in 1931. Gordon Best from Vancouver was staying at 655 so of course I took him along to Griffintown to give my boys a proper boxing lesson. The kids were tough but little and Gordon was tall so he boxed them on his knees and was almost immediately knocked out! Great success! Even Gordon (when he came to) thought it was hilarious. Bless him! I also did a stint each week in the Cafeteria of the R.V.H. Outdoor[?] Clinic. Working like this in places where I and my inexperience could do no harm gave me some experience and also introduced me to Community work. Of course, during the ten years in which I was working for pay, though I remained a member of the Junior League, I had to drop volunteer work. Actually it wasn't until Tim was ready for Nursery School that I took it up again.

Looking back on all this activity --- and I haven't mentioned Sunday and week-end ski-ing in the Laurentians or Tea Dances at the Fraternities after football games or Dinner and Supper dancing in the Ritz or Mount Royal to the music of Jack Denny, or the Junior Prom and the Plumber's Ball and the Med. Ball, and those ``Jazz Teas'' at the Union all featuring Bram Rose and Fred Gross and Izzy Aspler, etc. nor the fact that I spent a huge amount of unprofitable time being madly in love with a guy who, though he took me out quite a lot, wasn't thinking of me --- I'm amazed that I ever got my degree! Of course, the Roaring Twenties turned into the Grim Thirties and even in our Deb year all parties had ceased by February leaving a bit of time in which to catch up. In my final year I was invited to join the newly organized K.K.G. fraternity which has a scholarship goal and that helped to keep me in line!

I think my last fling as an undergraduate at McGill was the Convocation Ball. I was the R.V.C. representative on the Committee and John Marler the chairman. In that year Lord Bessborough was G.G. and Visitor to McGill. Their Excellencies were in Residence in Ravenscrag at the time of the Ball and their son, Lord Duncannon, being in the right age group, was invited to attend. He accepted and had such a splendid time that when the Ball ended at I think it was about 2 a.m. when all McGill parties were supposed to finish John and I drove him around the Mountain in a caleche for ``hours'' before we thought him sober enough to return home. Anyway, it was John's idea so I can only think that Vice-regals weren't supposed to drink --- or at any rate Duncannon wasn't!!

I was supposed to begin work on the day after Christmas, 1931, but Christopher Bryson was coming from England to spend his Christmas break from Oxford meeting Jane's family and, of course, we all went out to the Farm. So it wasn't until the day after New Year's that I galvanized myself into action and got back to town and to my job. It was years later that George Finley, who was office manager and a very gentle man, told me what a spot I had thrown him into by this cavalier behavior. At the moment I was so dazzled by the opulence of my surroundings and the politeness of everyone that I was completely unaware that anyone was questioning it. Also I was blindly naive.

The office was in the Southam Building on the top floor (the 9), Southam Press being below at 1070 (now 2050) Bleury Street. It's now a warehouse, the Southam Head-Office, Press and all having been moved to Toronto.

After a couple of years of office-boy work and being Paul Reading's secretary Philip Fisher, Secretary-General and later President of the Company, took me on as his secretary. This was really a plush job. It gave me a privileged place in his large family (for instance, ski-ing ``holidays'' every January with 4 or 5 of the children; supervising the house and its large staff when Margaret and Philip were away; the use of a car, and even crewing for my boss in his ackroyd which he kept at the R.St L.Y.C.) There was also secretarial work! and this was made a lot more stimulating because it included Philip's active interest in welfare work. He was, or became, president of the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, chairman of the board of Welfare Federation of Montreal and president of the Canadian Welfare Council --- all of which he had been instrumental in organizing --- and I, in lieu of dictaphones, was taken along to meetings both in Montreal and Ottawa. It was all tremendously interesting and time consuming --- so much so, in fact, that I virtually lost touch with a lot of my school and college friends.

While I was Paul Reading's secretary he introduced me to Gilbert Jackson who, I think, was probably Paul's mentor. He was an economist teaching in the U. of T. and an advisor to industry. Over the years he became a loyal and devoted friend to Campbell and me entertaining us and visiting us after we were married whenever he came to Montreal or to Saint John, N.B. He came to Montreal beginning during the years I was in the Principal's office.

Early in the Southam years I joined the Hillside Tennis Club (I was one of the very first women members) and it was there that Campbell and I met. This is my story about how it happened. This guy turned up at the Club one day and I realized that I had seen him on the Boulevard street car. He was fair with a long face and was as charming-looking as any of the Griers. Of course I thought he was yet another of Diana's brothers, so boldly I introduced myself and told him so! gif That was in the summer of 1935. We were married on April 26 1937, and it was Margaret Fisher who, because Daddy was dead and Mother rather lost, gave us our wedding reception in her own house on Belvedere Circle.

We moved into a tiny mews apartment at the top of Stanley Street (No. 3491 belonging to Mrs Barnard) for which Campbell designed and had built all the furniture. Nothing could have been more perfect. (Please see Campbell's autobiography where pictures are to be found.)

I remember about this time beginning to feel more and more boxed in by my job. As I have said, it was very privileged but I wasn't a Fisher: I was a Howard and, now, a Merrett and I felt that I wanted to get into something where I might do something on my own. Well, I didn't. Instead I became personal secretary to Cyril James as he became Principal of Mcgill in January 1939, in which rôle there were few privileges --- except those marvellous tea ``hours'' I managed to spend upstairs in the Law Faculty whare Frank Scott kept us in gales of laughter and appreciation with his marvellous quips and thumb-nail critiques (the Principal's offices were then on the second floor of the Dawson Building: Bursar and registrar on the ground floor) and my automatic membership in the Faculty Club --- less pay, and much longer hours. But I was back on Campus at McGill in a very different capacity than previously and off ``St James Street'', and this I rather liked. But Philip wasn't at all happy about it. Somehow it never occurred to me that he had fully expected me to stay with him until he retired --- just like Miss Crowley, Mr. F. N. Southam's secretary had done. Altogether it wasn't the happiest move I ever made. gif

I was there for exactly two years growing more and more worried that I was running the risk that soon gif I would be too old to have children (and it was, of course, unthinkable that I could work and have a child at the same time!) So we braved everything. I stopped working! (Campbell, as he tells you in his autobiography, was during these years in the Architectural Office of the CNR and on loan as a wartime bureaucrat in Ottawa). To my in-laws delight Tim was born on Sept. 25 1942 --- and ours, of course!! But, before he was born, we moved from Stanley Street to an equally charming apartment on the 3rd and top floor of a small Apartment building on the east side of Lorne Crecent. This one had the added luxury of more space and in the living room a fire place and a bay window on the west side with a seat in it for which we blew ourselves to cushions. (Before us George & Mary McDonald had lived in that flat.)

A small note here about our wedding: April 26 1937.

It was held in the chapel of St Andrews and St Paul Presbyterian Church on Sherbrooke Street. Wilbert Howard ``gave me away'', Alma stood up for me and Campbell's brother Stuart stood up for him. Dr. Donald officiated. There were about a dozen immediate family members prsent. At the reception, given by Margaret Fisher in her house on Belvedere Circle, Wilbert toasted the bride as follows:

                On the marriage of

         HAZEL HOWARD AND CAMPBELL MERRETT

"The Campbells are coming", the old refrain goes,
"They're coming, they're coming, Hurray and Hurray!"
But none ever arrived, though why not, no one knows,
Until, as you see, one turned up here today.

Yes a Campbell has come, has come into his own,
Rejoicing and happy, as well he might be;
He will still journey far, but no longer alone,
For a wife will be with him, through land and o'er sea.

But what of this wife that our Campbell has won?
Are her merits so many they merit the name?
Do you think she will do, that she'll suit every one,
That as we all love her, they'll love her the same?

I've the answers right quick, there's no need to ponder,
She out-merits e'en Merretts, they will all love her.
You see she is beautiful, charming and tender
I know she is tactful, sweet-tempered and clever.

So charge all your glasses, and join me instanter,
Bottome up! not a drop nor a dreg leave inside.
Forget, for the moment, all jesting and banter,
And drink, with full hearts, to the fairest of brides

Good luck and good health, clear skies and fair weather,
Long life and a happy triumphant career,
Let no storms affright you, two stout hearts together,
And, sweetest of brides, God go with you, my dear.



next up previous contents
Next: The Dales Up: No Title Previous: Town and School



Prof. T.H. MERRETT
Fri Oct 17 12:03:53 EDT 1997