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PREFACE

In the course of the over five years that this book has been in the making many people have given me invaluable support and encouragement. Chief among these has been my husband David who patiently instructed me in the use of a word processor, without which the whole enterprise would have been doomed, and who relieved me of many of the technical chores associated with the preparation of this manuscript. Without his assistance and encouragement I may not have persevered.

To the Honourable George Mcllraith goes the credit for encouraging me to embark on this project in the first place. He also lent me important source material, gave generously of his time in interviews and kindly provided an introduction. From his home in Princeton, New Jersey, Dr William Heckscher sent a steady stream of letters replete with useful advice, insights and encouragement. In Ottawa, the late Cairine Wilson, the Senator’s daughter and namesake, answered countless queries and located letters and documents that enabled me to plug some of the gaps in my research.

Other members of the Wilson family also furnished much appreciated assistance, notably Angus Wilson, Janet Burns and Norma Davies. A niece of Senator Wilson, Anna Cundill, frequently came to the rescue with information about the Mackay family. Because of the paucity of correspondence in the Cairine Wilson papers in the National Archives, the aid that family members furnished was invaluable.

I am extremely grateful to the many people who granted me interviews and/or supplied information and recollections by letter. I only hope that I expressed the depth of my gratitude adequately by means of footnotes in the book and thanks expressed over the phone or in letters.

I am indebted to Dr Donald Page who provided me with important material for the chapter entitled “Citizen of the World” and made valuable suggestions for its redrafting; to Dr Gerald Dirks who made a number of helpful recommendations for the rewriting of the chapters relating to Cairine Wilson’s work with refugees; to the Honourable Eugene Forsey who read various chapters with an eagle eye and made many useful comments; to Mrs Isobel Dobell who contributed useful comments for the rewriting of the chapter on the Mackays; and to my father-in-law, the Reverend Dr E. Clifford Knowles, who tracked down contacts for me and who, along with my mother-in-law, Dorothy, supplied constructive suggestions for the rewriting of some early chapters.

Helping me to find my way through the labyrinth of research were staff at the National Archives, the Library of Parliament, the National Library, the Canadian Jewish Congress, the British Museum, the Department of External Affairs, the Canadian Centre for Architecture and the Ottawa Public Library. Here I would like to extend special thanks to archivists Glen Wright and Maureen Hoogenraad of the National Archives of Canada; Judith Nefsky, Director, National Archives, Canadian Jewish Congress; librarian Marjorie Bull of the Department of External Affairs library, Ottawa; researcher Robert Lemire of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal; and historian Ted Kelly of the Department of External Affairs.

Finally, I would like to thank the following: Jonathan Williams who edited some of my preliminary chapters before returning to Ireland; Janet Keith and Peggy Blackstock who took over from where he left off and helped me immeasurably; and Jeanne MacDonald of Dundurn Press, who piloted the manuscript through its final stages. And last, but far from least, I would like to thank my agent, Joanne Kellock. She made valuable suggestions for the manuscript’s improvement and shared many of my agonies in the trip down to the wire.

Valerie Knowles

Ottawa April, 1988