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Nellie Letitia (Mooney) McClung was born at Chatsworth, Ontario on October 20, 1873, the youngest of six children of an Irish immigrant family. When Nellie was six years old, the Mooneys moved to a homestead near Wawanesa, Manitoba. Although she was ten when she started school, Nellie earned a teaching certificate by the time she was sixteen. When she married a druggist named Robert Wesley McClung in 1896, she gave up her teaching career. While living in Manitou, Manitoba Nellie became active in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, a group that believed the abuse of alcohol caused unemployment, disease, poverty and immorality. In addition to campaigning to prohibit alcohol, the WCTU promoted the idea that women should be permitted to vote. McClung published her first novel, Sowing Seeds in Danny, in 1908 and it quickly became a national bestseller. Following this success, Nellie began her writing career in earnest, publishing stories and articles in Canadian and American magazines. In 1911, the McClungs moved to Winnipeg where Nellie had her fifth and last child. She continued to use her skill as a writer and a witty public speaker to promote causes which she believed in; prohibition, women’s suffrage, dower rights for women and factory safety legislation. As a result of McClung’s efforts, Manitoba women won the right to vote in 1916. The McClung family moved to Edmonton in the fall of 1914 just after the outbreak of World War I. In 1921 Nellie was elected to Alberta’s Legislative Assembly as a Liberal. When the McClungs moved to a house in Calgary at 803 15th Avenue S.W. in 1923, Nellie was already a well-known suffragette, prohibitionist, social reformer, published author and an Alberta MLA. For three years she commuted between Edmonton and Calgary, living in the capital during the week and returning home on weekends to her husband Wesley and two of their five children still living at home. Nellie’s formal political career ended abruptly in 1926 when she lost her seat running as a Liberal in Calgary. In the days and months following her defeat Nellie sat at her desk in a large second floor bedroom and wrote articles promoting her own brand of social reform and equal rights for women. Her work appeared in the Canadian Home Journal, Chatelaine, Macleans Magazine and a weekly column in the Calgary Albertan called "Nellie McClung Chats with Albertan Readers." During this time she published at least four books including Painted Fires (1925) and Be Good to Yourself (1930). In 1929 McClung, along with four other Alberta women; Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby and Emily Murphy, successfully challenged the definition of "personhood" in the British North America Act. The "Persons Case" attracted international attention. The women who became known as the "Famous Five," won their appeal to the judicial committee of the British Privy Council in London, England. On October 29, 1929, the Council ruled that the word "persons" in section 24 of the BNA Act included women and that "women are eligible to be summoned to and become members of the Senate of Canada." It was a significant victory and a turning point for Canadian women. Around 1932 the McClungs sold their Calgary house and moved to Victoria, British Columbia where Nellie continued with an active public life. In 1936 McClung was the only woman appointed to the first Board of Governors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Two years later, at the age of 65, she was the only female Canadian delegate to the League of Nations. During her life Nellie McClung wrote sixteen books, hundreds of short stories, articles and columns and amused audiences the world over with her witty and powerful speeches about women’s issues and social reform. After devoting a lifetime to the causes she believed in, Nellie McClung, the woman variously called "Windy Nellie, "Calamity Nell," "Holy Terror" and "The Hyena in Petticoats," died in Victoria, British Columbia on September 1, 1951. On Monday October 18, 1999, the 1st Annual Persons Day, a statue commemorating the "Famous Five" was unveiled in Calgary’s Olympic Plaza by Canada’s first female Governor General, Adrienne Clarkson. Commissioned by the Famous Five Foundation, the monument depicts the larger than life bronze figures of the Famous Five; Nellie McClung, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby and Emily Murphy. Gathered in the parlour around a tea table, the group celebrates the victory of 1929. On August 29, 1973, an 8-cent stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of Nellie McClung’s birth went on sale in post offices across Canada. Postmaster General Andre Ouellet said, "Nellie McClung can rightly be considered one of the pioneers of the feminist movement. Her successful leadership in the cause of political equality for women and her own, precedent setting achievements in public life helped to open the way for Canadian women to participate fully in the political affairs of their country." In 1978, the Province of Alberta designated McClung’s Calgary residence at 803 15th Avenue S.W. as a Provincial Historic Resource. For more information about Nellie McClung and the Famous Five check out your local branch of the Calgary Public Library. Among the many titles available are Nellie McClung by Mary Lile Benham, No Small Legacy by Carol L. Hancock and Nellie McClung and Women’s Rights by Helen K. Wright.
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© Calgary Public Library. 2000
McClung, Nellie