Ivy Lawrence Maynier
Ivy Lawrence Maynier | |
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 Ivy Lawrence, from the 1940 yearbook of McGill University | |
| Born | Ivy Marjorie Lawrence 29 January 1921 Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Died | 31 May 1999 (aged 78) Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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Ivy Marjorie Lawrence Maynier (née Lawrence; 29 January 1921 – 31 May 1999) was a Canadian lawyer, educator, and diplomatic hostess. She was the first woman of colour to graduate from the University of Toronto Law School.[1]
Early life and education
Lawrence was born Ivy Marjorie Lawrence on 29 January 1921 in Montreal,[2] the daughter of Alexander W. Lawrence and Bernice Herbert Lawrence. Her parents moved to Canada from Trinidad (then part of the British West Indies) in 1919. She graduated from McGill University in 1942, and received a scholarship to attend law school at the University of Toronto.[1] In college, she was the first woman to be awarded the McGill Debating Key, when she was president of the Women's Debating Union.[3] In 1945 she was the first woman of colour to graduate from the University of Toronto's law school, and the first student there to earn an honours degree in international law.[4]
Career
Lawrence was called to the bar in England in 1947; she was also a member of the bar in Trinidad and Tobago, and in Barbados.[5] She worked for the United States Information Service in Paris. She later taught at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, where she was also the school's assistant registrar.[1][6] She lived in Ottawa in the 1960s, and was a diplomatic hostess while her husband was Jamaica's High Commissioner to Canada.[6] In 1964 she praised the potential of television for education, as one of Jamaica's delegates to the Commonwealth Education Conference.[5]
Personal life and legacy
Lawrence was engaged to fellow law student Peter Harry Fuld, but his mother forbid their marriage.[7] She married Pierre Gemma in 1955; they divorced within the year.[7] She was the third wife of Jamaican diplomat Earle Maynier; they married in 1959. Her husband died in 1972, and she died in 1999, in her seventies, at a hospital in Toronto.[8]
References
- 1 2 3 "Women in Law Through the Decades". Henry N.R. Jackman Faculty of Law. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
- ↑ "Stigmas Melt in Sunny Clime". The Hamilton Spectator. 8 December 1964. p. 53. Retrieved 2 July 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ "Notable People". Bicentennial - McGill University. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
- ↑ Smith, Malinda S. (18 February 2020). "Beyond a Single Story: Black Lives and Hidden Figures in the Canadian Academy". Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
- 1 2 Balfour, Lisa (25 August 1964). "Education via Mass Media Lauded by Jamaican Teacher". The Montreal Star. p. 12. Retrieved 2 July 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
- 1 2 Goodman, Joyce (20 March 1964). "McGill Graduate Comes Home as High Commissioner's Wife". The Montreal Star. p. 16. Retrieved 2 July 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
- 1 2 Sanders, Charles L. (March 1968). "The Legacy of a Love Affair". Ebony: 89–94.
- ↑ "Obituary for Ivy L. Maynier". The Toronto Star. 2 June 1999. p. 30. Retrieved 2 July 2026 – via Newspapers.com.