Annie Garland Foster spent much of her adult life in British Columbia, where she was variously a nurse, teacher, politician, and journalist. In 1931, she published the first extended study of Pauline Johnson.
Entry written by Karyn Huenemann
Ann Harvie Ross was born in Fredericton, NB, on 15 February 1875. Her early years were spent in a number of locales near Fredericton, and she graduated from high school in 1892. She attended the University of New Brunswick, earning her teaching license concomitantly with her BA in 1896. After graduation, she continued her education in nursing, eventually earning her degree in Philadelphia in 1901. She worked for a number of years as a nurse—including helping to found and becoming the first matron of Carleton County Hospital in Woodstock, NB—until severe bronchitis caused her to move to a more rural environment. She spent the next three years teaching in various communities in Saskatchewan.
In August 1908, she took a teaching post in Nelson, BC. Another resident in the boarding house where she lived was William Garland Foster (1879-1918), who would later become her husband. In Nelson, Annie became reacquainted with the family of
When war was declared in 1914, William immediately signed up. At Christmas, he proposed to Annie, and they were married on 16 January 1915. In the spring of 1916, William was stricken by pleurisy in the British training camps. Annie joined the hoards of volunteer medical practitioners in Europe, but was rejected by the Canadian Nursing Service on account of her age and marital status. She joined the British Red Cross and St. John's Ambulance, and was also "commissioned by Canada's Minister of Trade and Commerce, Sir George Eulas Foster (no relation) to report on the London toy trade, an activity she enjoyed greatly.
In 1917, William was finally granted leave, and the couple met in London, during which visit Annie became pregnant. En route home to Canada, weakened by illness in her lungs, Annie miscarried the twins she was carrying. On 14 October 1918, William died from wounds suffered in an earlier battle.
By this time, Annie was again in British Columbia. Finally diagnosed with tuberculosis, she was granted a 50% disability pension and in the summer of 1919 purchased a homestead adjoining her husband's 300 acres of land south of Nelson. The homesteading enterprise failed, and she returned to Nelson as winter set in.
In January of 1920, she turned her energies to politics. In the January 15th elections, she was proclaimed Nelson's first female Alderman, campaigning "as an independent, unassociated with any ticket except the veterans' ticket. As Vice-President of the Great War Veterans Association (GWVA), she was the first woman to attend the National Conference, held in Montreal in 1920. By July, she was declared President of the GWVA. In January 1921, she joined the Canadian Authors Association as well as the Women's Institute (WI), where she advocated for an increased interest in women's home-crafts to help offset current economic conditions. At a WI conference in September 1921, she met
Having travelled home to New Brunswick to settle her aging mother, Annie ran in absentia for Mayor of Nelson in the 1922 election, in which she was defeated. She applied for a Nursing program at UBC, but was rejected, and so stayed in Skowhegan, ME, where she had relocated with her mother. By early in 1923, however, she returned to Nelson and her work with the WI. In 1924, she ran as a candidate for the Provincial Party of British Columbia in the neighbouring Creston district (courtesy of her 300 acres of land in the Pend d'Oreille). She was again defeated, and would not run in a political election again. Having been a nurse, a teacher, and a politician, Annie now turned her energies more fully toward journalism, contributing articles to a number of Canadian periodicals. In 1924, she moved to Vancouver, but would remain in contact with those she had known in Nelson, most specifically her future second husband, Patrick Hanley (1887-1975).
In 1925, Hanley had shot and killed a young nurse, Mildred Neilson. The defense of insanity caused by war-time stress was not successful, and on 6 May 1926 he was convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. Annie engaged herself in Hanley's cause. His conviction was ultimately commuted to "not guilty by reason of insanity," and he was remanded to the British Columbia Penitentiary in New Westminster. In the following years, Annie would petition relentlessly for his release. With growing support fostered by Annie's petitions, Hanley was finally released in 1945.
In 1926, shortly after the Hanley affair, Annie began her work on a much-needed biography of
In 1927, she had purchased "The Studio," a small summer home in White Rock, BC; she spent summers in White Rock and winters in Vancouver. When Patrick Hanley was released in 1945, Annie married him and brought him with her to White Rock, where the couple settled permanently, although biographer Frances Welwood notes that Hanley "did not make her happy."
Robert Fulton Ross was born in Maugerville, NB. His family moved to Fredericton shortly thereafter. Biographer Frances Welwood notes that he was registered at various times as a fireman, stationary engineer, and foundry worker. He married Christine (or Christina) Doak (1847-1935) in 1873. Shortly after the birth of their son, James Loggie Ross (1877-1953), the family moved away from Fredericton to engage in a more rural lifestyle in Acton, NB. This lasted only until 1881, when Robert Ross moved his family to Kings Ward, closer to Fredericton where he was again working as a mechanic. Unhappy with "the naughty habits of the children of the mill neighbourhood and the risk of contagious diseases," the family moved back into the city in 1883. In 1885, after the death of his father, Robert Ross moved his family again, this time to Woodstock, NB, where the family would stay for generations to come.
Robert Ross died in Woodstock in August 1921.
Christine Doak was born in Doakville, Canada East, in 1847, second of ten children of James Doak, Jr. and Susannah Storey. The town was named after one of its founding families. Robert Doak (1785-1847) immigrated from Scotland in 1813, and was joined in 1818 by his brother, James (1783-1861), and shortly thereafter by their father, Robert Doak, Senior (1758-1823). James became Christine Doak's grandfather.
William Garland Foster, son of Benjamin Foster (1850-1933) and Eleanor Garland (1854-1885), was born in Bell's Corners, ON, near Ottawa, on 25 April 1879. He was a journalist for the Ottawa Free Press until his journalism took him west to the Winnipeg Telegram, the Portage-la-Prairie Evening Review, the Victoria Colonist and the Victoria Times. He moved to Nelson, BC, to become the editor and manager of the Nelson Daily News in August 1908, the same time as Annie Ross arrived. Under William, the Nelson Daily News became a very successful operation, and he remained editor and manager until 1915, when he took up a commission with the 54th Kootenay Battalion, headed eventually for Europe. Christmas 1914, before he was set to leave, he proposed to Annie, and they were married 16 January 1915. Annie was almost 40 years old; William 36. The couple spent time together in England before William's battalion left for France, and had one brief visit in 1917. William died 14 October 1918, of a chest wound received in an earlier battle, and is buried in Ficheux, Pas-de-Calais, France.
Patrick Hanley was born 26 May 1887 in Missouri, USA and worked in Trail, BC, at the start of the First World War. Like William Garland Foster (1879-1918), Patrick served in the 54th Kootenay Battalion, but unlike William he was invalided out in October 1916. He spent the rest of his war working in the background, and returned to Trail in June 1919. He joined the Nelson Great War Veterans Association as Secretary in 1920, when he first met Annie Garland Foster (1875-1974). On the morning of 6 February 1925, in the sitting room of her nursing residence, he shot Mildred Neilson, a young Trail nurse who did not return his affections. He then attempted to kill himself, but failed. The defense of insanity caused by war-time stress was not successful, and on 6 May 1926 he was convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. Annie Foster took up his case as exemplary of the injustices visited upon suffering War veterans, and fought to have his sentence commuted to imprisonment on the plea of insanity, at which she succeeded. He was remanded to the British Columbia Penitentiary in New Westminster, whereupon Annie worked relentlessly to have him released. In 1945, her efforts paid off. They were married 21 April 1945, 16 days after his release. The marriage was not one of love, but rather a continuation of the support she had shown him throughout his incarceration, and biographer Frances Welwood notes that he "did not make her happy."
Biographer
Journalist
Nurse
Schoolteacher
Municipal politician
Great War Veterans Association (Vice-President then President, 1920)
Nelson City Council (Alderman, 1920)
University Club of Nelson (Secretary-Treasurer 1908-9)
University of New Brunswick Alumni Association (executive member)
Vancouver Art, Historical and Scientific Association
Women's Canadian Club of Vancouver (executive member)
Women's Civic League, White Rock (President)
Women's Institute