Lilian LeveridgeLinnea McNallyKaryn HuenemannKatie GillespieCanada's Early Women WritersCanadian Writing Research CollaboratoryBorn digital object, initially housed by the Simon Fraser University libraryEnglishBorn digitalLife writingBiographyBibliographyLilian Leveridge (1879-1953)Image from Edward S. Caswell, ed., Canadian Singers and Their Songs: A Collection of Portraits, Autograph Poems and Brief Biographies, 3rd ed. (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1925).
Born in England, Lillian Leveridge became an active poet later in life.
15 April 1879, Hockering, Norfolk, England24 November 1953, Carrying Place, ONName at birth: LilianLeveridgeAcknowledgements
We would like to thank Bonnie Crompton, great-niece of the author, for family contributions.
Entry revised by Linnea McNally, Katie Gillespie, and Karyn Huenemann
Lilian Leveridge (1879-1953)
With her mother and six siblings, Lilian Leveridge arrived in Canada on 9 July 1883, following a farmer father who left England the previous year to start afresh after being scammed by a friend who defaulted on a loan. The family settled in a one-room shanty on a 100-acre plot just north of Coe Hill, in Wollaston Township, ON. The setting of these early years in Canada is described in
Your Loving Anna, a collection of letters written by Lilian's mother and published by a Leveridge descendant in 1972.
After living in Carrying Place, ON, and later graduating from the Collegiate and Normal School in Winnipeg, MB, Lilian taught for seven years in Manitoba and Ontario before switching to office work in 1916. In 1945, she captured two prizes in the McNab Poetry Award. Ill health forced her to stop working, and she retired to Carrying Place, supporting herself by writing short stories, articles, and poems for periodicals, as well as issuing six volumes of verse. According to family stories, she and her sister Gertrude ran a lending library in Carrying Place, lending out their own books to customers. She died in 1953.
Published TextsPoetryOver the Hills of Home, and Other Poems (Toronto: McClelland; New York: Dutton, 1918)A Breath of the Woods (Toronto: Ryerson, 1926)The Hero Songs of Canada (Toronto: Canadian Magazine, 1927)The Blossom Trail (Toronto: Ryerson, 1932)Still Waters (Toronto: Writers' Studio, 1933)Lyrics and Sonnets (Toronto: Ryerson, 1939)Periodical ContributionsAlberta Poetry Year Book (Edmonton, AB)Canadian Bookman (Montreal, QC)Canadian Farmer (Welland, ON)Canadian Home Journal (Toronto, ON)Canadian Magazine (Toronto, ON)Christian Guardian (Toronto, ON)Delineator (New York, NY)Family Herald and Weekly Star (Montreal, QC)Mail and Empire (Toronto, ON)Montreal Poetry Year Book (1937)New Outlook (Toronto, ON)Occult Digest (Chicago, IL)Ontario Farmer (London, ON)Ontario Intelligencer (Belleville, ON)Picton Gazette (Picton, ON)Other PublicationsAnthologized in:Carman, Bliss, and Lorne Pierce, eds. Our Canadian Literature: Representative Verse, English and French, 3rd ed. (Toronto: Ryerson, 1934).Caswell, Edward S., ed. Canadian Singers and Their Songs: A Collection of Portraits, Autograph Poems and Brief Biographies, 2nd ed. (Toronto: McClelland &Stewart, 1919).Caswell, Edward S., ed. Canadian Singers and Their Songs: A Collection of Portraits, Autograph Poems and Brief Biographies 3rd ed. (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1925).French, Donald G., ed. Standard Canadian Reciter: A Book of the Best Readings and Recitations From Canadian Literature (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1918).Garvin, John W., ed. Canadian Poems of the Great War (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1918).Toronto Women's Press Club. Verse and Reverse (Toronto: Toronto Women's Press Club, 1921).Toronto Women's Press Club. Verse and Reverse. Intro. Isabella Valancy Crawford (Toronto: Goodchild, 1922).Family and RelationshipsFather: David William Leveridge(4 March 1840 – 4 January 1929)
David William Leveridge, son of Moses and Hannah Leveridge, was born in Yaxham, Norfolk, England in 1840. He was a farm overseer in Norwich before moving to Canada in 1882 to be a farmer. In early 1871, he married Anna Maria Godbolt (1846-1927), with whom he had eight children. He died in 1929 in Murray Township, Northumberland, ON.
Mother: Anna Maria Godbolt(9 November 1846 – 8 February 1927)
Born in Harleston, Norfolk, England in 1846 Anna Maria married David William Leveridge (1840-1929) in 1871. She followed him to Canada with their seven children in 1883, having a final child in 1890. Her letters about life in Coe Hill, ON, were collected into
Your Loving Anna: Letters from the Ontario Frontier (1972) by her grandson, Louis Tivy, who edited and supplemented the volume. She died in 1927 in Carrying Place, ON, survived by her husband.
SiblingsEdward William Leveridge(b. 15 November 1871)Arthur James Leveridge(b. 28 November 1872): m. Jane McEntyre
Arthur married Jane McEntyre in Ontario on 9 July 1901, and they had at least two children together.
Florence Leveridge(15 April 1874 – 3 June 1965): m. Joseph Manson Hanthorn (b. 1974)
Florence married Joseph Hanthorn on 22 December 1899, and they had at least nine children together.
Gertrude Leveridge(13 August 1875): m. James Newton
Getrude married James Newton on 9 June 1897, and they had at least three children; Gertrude was widowed sometime before 1901.
Catherine Leveridge(b. 10 November 1877): m. Charles Gream Tivy
Catherine married Charles Gream Tivy on 27 September 1899.
John Henry Leveridge(b. 14 March 1881): m. Agnes May Tivy
May Tivy was the sister of Catherine Leveridge's husband Charles.
Frank A. Leveridge(29 July 1890 – 1916)
Frank fought and died in the First World War.
ReligionAnglicanResidences
Carrying Place, Prince Edward County, ON(1914, -1953)
Coe Hill, Woolaston, Hastings, ON(1883-1914)
Hockering, Norfolk, England(1879-1883)
Toronto, ON(1916-)
Winnipeg, MB(1908-1910)
Education
Collegiate and Normal School, Winnipeg, MB (Teaching certificate)
Awards
Archie McKishnie Award, Short Story Competition ($15) (Canadian Literature Club of Toronto, 193-)
Honourable mention for The Whitethroat, Best Bird Poem Competition, Montreal Poetry Yearbook Contest (Canadian Authors Association, 1937)
2nd place for Glamoresque,McNab Poetry Award (1945)
4th place for Open Gate,McNab Poetry Award (1945)
Employment and Volunteer ActivitiesEmployment
Journalism
Schoolteacher (1915-1922)
Stenographer
Memberships
Canadian Authors Association
Canadian Literature Club
Canadian Women's Press Club
Tangential Information
Margaret Marshall Saunders used a poem by Lilian Leveridge as the epigraph to
Bonnie Prince Fetlar (1920).
Archival HoldingsBlanche Hume Papers, Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB (letters to Blanche Hume)Charles Gordonsmith Papers, National Archives of Quebec, Montreal, QC (letter)Manuscript Collections, University of Calgary Libraries and Cultural Resources, Calgary, AB (letter to Anne Merrill)Anna Leveridge fonds, Trent University Archives, Peterborough, ON (letters and photographs)Lorne and Edith Pierce collection, Queen's University Archives, Kingston, ON (correspondence, poetry, and reviews)Newton McTavish fonds, Canadiana Collection, North York Central Library, North York, ON (poem)Ryerson Press Textual Records, Archives and Special Collections, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON (publishing agreement)Published Resources1881 England Census.1891 Census of Canada.1911 Census of Canada.Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935.England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1915.Leveridge, Anna. Your Loving Anna: Letters from the Ontario Frontier. Ed. Louis Tivy (Toronto, ON: U of Toronto P, 1972).National Union Catalogue.Watters, R.E. Checklist of Canadian Literature and Background Materials, 1620-1960 (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1972): 113-14.