Annie Charlotte DaltonLinnea McNallyCanada's Early Women WritersCanadian Writing Research CollaboratoryBorn digital object, initially housed by the Simon Fraser University libraryEnglishBorn digitalLife writingBiographyBibliographyAnnie Charlotte Dalton (1865-1938)Image from John. W. Garvin, ed., Canadian Poets, 2nd ed. (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1926).
Deafness did not prevent Annie Charlotte Dalton from enjoying a lengthy writing life as poet, while living in Vancouver, BC.
9 December 1865, Birkby, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England12 January 1938, Vancouver, BCName at birth: Annie CharlotteArmitageAlternate names: Annie C. DaltonA.C. DaltonNote
This author's life has been researched earlier for inclusion in the
Canada's Early Women Writers project at Simon Fraser University. Information in this entry therefore may not be comprehensive, but has been verified.
Entry revised by Linnea McNally
Annie Charlotte Dalton (1865-1938)
Annie Charlotte Armitage was born in 1865 in Huddersfield, England, to John Armitage (b. c1837) and Sarah Elizabeth Stoney (b. c1842). She was raised from infancy by her maternal grandparents, James and Hannah Stoney, who educated her privately. Annie's siblings remained with their parents until approximately the late 1870s when they moved in with the Stoneys as well, suggesting that their parents had died by this point. Annie was afflicted with a childhood illness that left her almost totally deaf.
In 1891, Annie married businessman William Dalton (1866-c1953) and emigrated with him and their daughter to Vancouver in 1904. The Daltons contributed significantly to the artistic life of Vancouver: William was director of the Vancouver Art Gallery, while Annie, as well as being a skilled painter, served as vice-president of the Vancouver Poetry Club and was active in the Vancouver Poetry Society and the Vancouver branch of the Canadian Authors Association.
Annie’s literary friends included Mary Elizabeth Colman, Joan S. Grigsby, Audrey Alexandra Brown, W.A. Deacon, and Lorne Pierce. In 1935, Annie was recognized for her eleven volumes of verse by being named a “Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire” (MBE), the only woman poet to be thus honoured at that time. As well, she was awarded the Tweedsmuir medal for the best poem appearing in
Canadian Poetry Magazine during 1937.
Annie died of a spinal embolism in Vancouver in 1938.
Published TextsNon-fictionA Souvenir of Vancouver ([Vancouver, BC]: s.n., 1906)—as Annie C. Dalton; decorations by J. KylePoetryThe Marriage of Music (Vancouver, BC: Evans & Hastings, 1910)—2nd, expanded edition (London: Erskine Macdonald, 1915)A Christmas Carol for All Good Soldiers and Sailors (Vancouver, BC: s.n., 1914)Flame and Adventure (Toronto: Macmillan, 1924)—as A.C. DaltonSongs and Carols (Vancouver, BC: Author, 1925—“Printed for private circulation only”; “Printed by C.B. at The Sign of the Raven”)The Ear Trumpet. Ryerson Poetry Chapbook 5 (Toronto: Ryerson, 1926)—as Annie C. DaltonThe Silent Zone (Vancouver, BC: Cowan & Brookhouse, 1926)The Amber-Riders, and Other Poems (Toronto: Ryerson, 1929)The Call of the Carillon (s.l.: s.n., c1935—“Printed for private circulation”)—cover design by Rowena GrossThe Neighing North (Toronto: Ryerson, 1931)The Future of Our Poetry (Vancouver, BC: Author, 1931)Lilies and Leopards (Toronto: Ryerson, 1935)—illustrated by Rowena GrossPeriodical ContributionsCanadian Bookman (Montreal, QC)Canadian Poetry Magazine (Toronto)Crucible (Toronto)Montreal Poetry Year BookQueen’s Quarterly (Kingston, ON)Vancouver ProvinceVancouver Sunday ProvinceOther PublicationsAnthologized in: Bennett, Ethel Hume, ed. New Harvesting: Contemporary Canadian Poetry, 1918-1938 (Toronto: Macmillan, 1938).Carman, Bliss, and Lorne Pierce, eds. Our Canadian Literature: Representative Verse, English and French. 3rd ed. (Toronto: Ryerson, 1934).Fowler Wright, S., ed. From Overseas—First Series: An Anthology of Contemporary Dominion and Colonial Verse (London: Merton, 1924).Garvin, John W., ed. Canadian Poets, 2nd ed. (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1926).Garvin, John W., ed. Cap and Bells: An Anthology of Light Verse by Canadian Poets (Toronto: Ryerson, 1936).Gustafson, Ralph, ed. Anthology of Canadian Poetry (Toronto: Penguin, 1942).Roberts, Charles G.D., ed. Flying Colours (Toronto: Ryerson, 1942).Robins, John D., ed. A Pocketful of Canada. (Toronto: Collins, 1946)—illustrated by Laurence HydeStephen, A.M., ed. The Golden Treasury of Canadian Verse (Toronto: Dent, 1931)—illustrated by E. WallcousinsStephen, A.M., ed. The Voice of Canada: A Selection of Prose and Verse (Toronto: Dent, 1926)—illustrated by E. WallcousinsVancouver Poetry Society. The Vancouver Poetry Society, 1916-1949: A Book of Days (Toronto: Ryerson, 1946).Contributed to: Mayer, Harry H., ed. The Lyric Psalter: The Modern Reader’s Book of Psalms (New York: Liverpool, 1940).Other Artistic ProductionsVisual arts
Painting
Family and RelationshipsFather: John Armitage(b. c1837)
John Armitage was born in about 1837 in Huddersfield, England, where the extensive Armitage families were involved in the cloth manufacturing and dispensing industries. A woolen cloth salesman, John met and married Sarah Elizabeth Stoney (b. c1841), a daughter of a cloth dealer. John was last listed as alive and unemployed in Huddersfield in 1871; it is likely he died shortly thereafter. After his wife’s death, the couple’s children lived with their mother’s parents.
Mother: Sarah Elizabeth Stoney(b. c1842)
Sarah Elizabeth Stoney was born in about 1842 in Huddersfield, England, to Hannah Thornton (1819-c1883) and James Stoney (c1819-1886), a cloth dealer. Sarah may have met her husband, woolen-cloth salesman John Armitage (b. c1837), through her father, who operated Stoney and Armitage cloth finishers with a William Armitage in Huddersfield until 1877. Sarah and John married in 1862 and had four children together.
Likely widowed in the early 1870s, Sarah appears to have died in the late 1870s, leaving her teenaged children to be cared for by her parents until their deaths in the early and mid-1880s.
SiblingsEmeline Armitage(23 July 1863 – after 1908): m. Oliver HowardEdith Armitage(c1867 – 15 June 1937): m. James Arthur NetherwoodJames Willie Armitage(c1871 – after 1911): m. Maud Annie Lunn
James was a civil engineer in Huddersfield.
Spouse: William Dalton(8 March 1866 – 20 November 1946)Marriage: 13 October 1891, England
William Dalton, called “Willie,” was born in about 1866 in Huddersfield, England, to James Dalton (b. c1825) and Jane (b. c1833). A junior clerk during his youth, Willie married Annie Charlotte Armitage (1865-1938) in 1891. With his brother-in-law, he operated Netherwood, Dalton, & Company, “Manufacturing Stationers, Letterpress and Lithographic Colour Printers, Bookbinders, and Tailors’ Pattern Card Manufacturers.” In 1903, Willie dissolved his business partnership; in 1904, with his wife and daughter, he moved to Vancouver, BC. The family initially lived on Beach Avenue, and later on Granville Street. Willie worked as secretary of the Mainland Transfer Company Limited, a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In the 1930s, he was chairman of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Willie died of heart disease in 1946 in Vancouver, BC.
ChildrenEdith Evelyn Dalton (daughter) (10 August 1892 – 1 January 1980): m. Sydney Dunn ScottReligionTheosophistResidences
Huddersfield, England(1865-c1903)
Vancouver, BC(1904-1938)
EducationAwards
Order of the British Empire (British Government, 1935)
1st place, Best Poem Competition, (Canadian Poetry Magazine, 1937)
Tweedsmuir Medal for Wheat and Barley, (1938)
Employment and Volunteer ActivitiesMemberships
British Authors' Association
Bronte Society (England)
Canadian Authors Association
New Westminster Fellowship of Arts
Vancouver Poetry Society
Tangential Information
In 1927, Annie’s poem
Daffodils, from The Marriage of Music, was set to music for voice and piano by Mabel P. Cave-Browne-Cave (1881-1958). Annie also wrote poetry specifically for her Christmas greeting cards, as well as lyrics to a number of Christmas carols: A Christmas Carol, with music by Mabel P. Cave-Browne-Cave (1929); O Little Jesus! O Best of Children! with music by C. Wood (1931); and Three Christmas Carols, with music by Henry Morey.
Archival HoldingsAlfred Myrick Pound fonds, Rare Books and Special Collections, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (3 letters to A.M. Pound)Annie C. Dalton file, Vancouver Poetry Society fonds, City of Vancouver Archives, Vancouver, BC (unpublished writings)Annie Charlotte Dalton fonds, Rare Books and Special Collections, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCDalton, Annie Charlotte, 1865-1938. Special Collections, University of Calgary Library, Calgary, AB (correspondence with R.L. Megroz)Elsie Pomeroy fonds, Mount Allison University Archives, Sackville, NB (54 letters to Elsie Pomeroy)Frederick William Howay fonds, Rare Books and Special Collections, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (6 letters to Judge F.W. Howay)Lorne and Edith Pierce collection, Queen's University Archives, Kingston, ON (extensive correspondence and manuscripts)Ryerson Press Textual Records, Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON (publishing agreement)Willam Arthur Deacon papers, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON (several letters to W.A. Deacon)Published Resources1871 England Census.1881 England Census.1891 England Census.1901 England Census.Annie Charlotte Dalton,FamilySearch: British Columbia Death Registrations. Web. 31 March 2016.British Columbia Death Index: 1872 to 1979.Campbell, Wanda, ed. Annie Charlotte Dalton,Hidden Rooms: Early Canadian Women Poets (London, ON: Canadian Poetry, 2000): 238-67.Daffodils,The LiederNet Archive. Web. 31 March 2016.England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index, 1837-1915.Flemington, Frank. Annie Charlotte Dalton (1865-1938),Canadian Author and Bookman 22 (September 1946): 42-44.Notice of dissolution of Stoney and Armitage,London Gazette (12 October 1877).Notice of dissolution of Netherwood, Dalton & Co.,London Gazette (7 April 1903).Watters, R.E. A Checklist of Canadian Literature and Background Materials 1628-1960. 1959 (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1972): 53, 915.Willie Dalton.FamilySearch: British Columbia Death Registrations.Web. 31 March 2016.