Adler in Vienna and at the University of London where she published two articles in the British Journal of Medical Psychology.31 She was a member of the founding staff at Summerhill, the famous British alternative school. Marsh married in the late 1930s, moved to South Africa and had two sons.
She returned to Canada, with the two boys, in 1946 and stayed with True in Streetsville for a year. This was soon after their mother’s death and may have been an attempt by Marsh to provide True with some of the support that she needed then.32 While her children were still young and at boarding school, Marsh was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her decision to leave her husband and children and come home to Canada to die may be the best possible illustration of the depth of attachment between the sisters, despite True’s underlying rivalry. Marsh died soon after her arrival in Canada and was buried beside her parents. Her decision to return to Canada at that time was something her children never understood other than to say that “they [the Davidsons] were an unusual family.”33
CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL DAYS
True told few stories of her early years and even fewer of the people she had met then. Most of her childhood stories related to the places where she had lived and demonstrated her strong, poetic attachment to Canada’s geography and history and her love of nature. She told one reporter that she had been born in a village near Montreal “on the shores of that Lake of Two Mountains that knew the steps of Champlain.”34 She recalled her father taking her to hear Sir Wilfrid Laurier talk when she was nine years old:
I might as well say it, I was a precocious child, and when my younger sister was sleeping in my father’s lap, there I was listening to that courtly, white-haired, dignified man—and thinking even then that what I wanted to be was a...politician.35
A common comment by those who knew True is that she rarely discussed her past, her family or other people. Her activities were constantly focussed on what she was doing now and her conversations were almost always about ideas. Several noted that she seemed to prefer talking to men, perhaps because she felt that their discussions were more likely to be of this sort. It was fascinating to note in Doris Pennington’s book about Agnes MacPhail that Agnes had the same preferences.
In a CBC tape [Agnes MacPhail’s sister] said that at parties it was the custom for women to visit in one room, men in another, while the young people gathered in a third. Agnes was generally to be found with the men, “discussing such things as farm prices.” Lilly would go after her and say, “Why don’t you come in with the rest of us? We’re playing cards.” But Agnes would generally stay with the men.36
True’s deepest attachments from her teenaged years were to the open lands of the prairies. One of her poems, quoted in part below, expressed her love of their natural beauty and the sense of emotional refreshment they gave her.
Land of Greatness
I used to walk on the prairies,
In the tangled, wild-flower spring
With the wet wind sweet on my forehead
And the migrant birds a-wing.
And life was a wonderful thing.
................................
I must go back to the prairies,
For, whatever change I meet,
I must sense again the vastness Of those miles of cattle and wheat,
Where earth and heaven meet.37
True began writing poetry at an early age and later claimed that the idea for her best poem was conceived when she was fifteen years old.38 She excelled at school, matriculating from South Vancouver High School in 1915, then graduating from Regina Collegiate Institute.39 One of her early resumes included information about her first summer job—working in a shoe store and doing playground work—followed by three summers of clerical work during 1917-19 for the Government of Saskatchewn, one year in the Treasury Department and two in the Education Department. Her final summer, between receiving her B.A. and entering Normal School (teacher’s college), she worked for the Regina Public Library.40
True’s mother had been instrumental in the formation of a C.G.I.T. group in Lumsden, Saskatchewan and True became one of its most active leaders. Sixty years later she recalled the day that she made her pledge as a Canadian Girl in Training in Saskatchewan.
At the end of a conference we sang an old-fashioned song, “Beulah Land.” I said, “For three days we have been living on the mountains, underneath a cloudless sky. Now we are parting and going down into the valleys. There will be clouds and sometimes we shall feel alone. But we shall not be alone and we shall remember the sun is still there even when we cannot see it. And we shall keep our pledge.”41
Although its influence has decreased greatly in recent years, the C.G.I.T. provided leadership for many young women. According to The Canadian Encyclopedia, it “was established in 1915 by the Y.W.C.A. and the major Protestant denominations to promote the Christian education of girls aged 12 to 17. Based on the small group whose members planned activities under the leadership of adult women, the program reflected the influence on Canadian Protestantism of progressive education, historical criticism of the Bible, the social gospel and Canadian nationalism.”42 The pledge, or purpose, that is still said aloud at meetings by both members and leaders had a large influence on True and reads:
As a Canadian Girl in Training
Under the leadership of Jesus
It is my purpose to
Cherish health,
Seek truth,
Know God
Serve others
And thus, with His help,
Become the girl God would have me be.43
UNIVERSITY DAYS
A little more can be discovered about True’s university days. She later recalled that: “My father sent me to Victoria, which is the first line of the college song. An awful song. My father sent me to Victoria and resolved that I should be a man. And so I settled down in the quiet college town on the old Ontario strand. That was when Victoria was at Cobourg.”44 She began her studies at Victoria in 1917 when she was only sixteen years old. A classmate recalled many years later that “she was the youngest and smartest student in the freshman class.”45 Clara Thomas knew several women who graduated from Victoria College around the same time as True and said that they all seemed imbued with the same drive, dedication and strong sense of ethics, whatever field they later entered. They were a small, select group. Women composed only a handful of Victoria’s graduates at that time. They were also the first generation of female graduates empowered by womens’ acquisition of the right to vote.
Once again, True excelled academically and was involved intensely in all the activities that the university had to offer. Margaret Addison, the Dean of Women, wrote in her letter of reference in 1922 that: “Miss Davidson has unusual ability, did very well in her college course, especially in English, in which she is exceptionally gifted. She has much originality and initiative; she is energetic, interested in games and in dramatics, in which she took a prominent part while at College.”46 The College Registrar and Associate Professor of English, C. E. Augery, noted in her reference letter that: “I can confidently say that she is one of the best students I have ever had....She has exceptional ability in debating and as an essayist and writer of verse. She is thoughtful and courageous and well qualified to exert a strong influence in any school fortunate enough to secure her services.”47
Brandon Collegiate Institute, Manitoba. True taught English here in 1923 to help raise the money needed to return to Victoria University to take her Masters Degree. Courtesy David Cobden
In addition to topping her classes academically, True was active in a myriad of committees including