Grant, Gwendolyn Margaret

Person

Grant, Gwendolyn Margaret

1920-2002

Gwendolyn Margaret Grant (née Irwin) was born in Toronto on May 14, 1920, the daughter of John S. Irwin and Ethel Brookbank. After attending St. Clement's School and Trinity College, she went on to receive a B.A. from the University of Toronto in 1941. During World War II she worked for the Farm Radio Forum outside Montreal, and then in Ottawa for the Wartime Prices and Trade Board. In June 1944 she married the United Church minister John Webster Grant; and in 1946 she earned an M.A. from Dalhousie University.

Gwen accompanied her husband at Oxford from 1946 to 1949, and then in British Columbia, where he taught at Union College to 1959. During her time in Vancouver she directed student theatre and originated a weekly words and music radio program. When John Webster Grant was on sabbatical leave in India, 1957-1958, she wrote descriptive letters used by CBC Radio, and subsequently wrote a study book on South Asia for the Woman's Missionary Society of the United Church.

In 1959 Gwen and John Webster Grant moved to Toronto, and Gwen spent an increased amount of time writing poetry. At one point she read two poems on a local radio station. In later years her poetry was influenced by Asian culture and religion; she visited a brother who was teaching in Linfen, China.

Gwendolyn Grant died on September 1, 2002.

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