Introduction

Biography

Adelaide was the wife of Hen­ry Pem­ber­ton Plump­tre.

She stu­died at Som­er­ville Col­lege, Ox­ford Uni­ver­si­ty, where she met and mar­ried Hen­ry, who was vice-prin­ci­pal of the col­lege.

They moved to To­ron­to, Ca­na­da, in 1901 when he ac­cept­ed the po­si­tion of prin­ci­pal at Wy­cliffe Col­lege. Up­on ar­riv­al, Ade­laide took a job at Ha­ver­gal Col­lege, an elite Ang­li­can girls’ school.

Adelaide served an ar­ray of dif­fer­ent caus­es. She was ac­tive in the Young Wo­men’s Chris­tian As­so­cia­tion; was a found­ing mem­ber of Girl Guides of Ca­na­da, and was ac­tive in the wo­men’s move­ment and the Ca­na­di­an Coun­cil of Wo­men.

She be­came Di­rect­or of Sup­plies of the Ca­na­di­an Red Cross in Sep­tem­ber 1914, and stayed in that role for the whole of World War I.

She took the lead in or­gan­iz­ing the lo­gis­tics of the Red Cross’ war­time re­lief ef­forts across Ca­na­da and ov­er­seas.

She al­so di­rect­ed the com­mu­ni­ca­tions and re­cruit­ment of the Red Cross, writ­ing much of the ma­te­ri­al her­self. She was the first wo­man named to the ex­ec­ut­ive of the Ca­na­di­an Red Cross.

In 1918, she was ap­point­ed by the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to be chair of the Wo­man’s War Coun­cil.

In 1926, Plumptre was elect­ed to the lo­cal school board. She served on the board nine years, and be­came the first wo­man elect­ed chair of the To­ron­to Board of Edu­ca­tion.

In 1931, she was Ca­na­da’s of­fi­cial de­le­gate to the League of Na­tions in Ge­ne­va, one of on­ly two wo­men to be a de­le­gate to the League.

In 1934, she was the Ca­na­di­an de­le­gate to the In­ter­na­tion­al Red Cross meet­ing held in To­kyo.

In 1936, she be­came the third wo­man ev­er elect­ed to the To­ron­to Ci­ty Coun­cil, where she was a ac­ti­vist for the ci­ty’s poor.

In 1941 she ran for a seat on the Board of Con­trol, los­ing by on­ly a few hun­dred votes.

In World War II, she re­sumed her work with the Red Cross and led the Pris­on­er of War Bu­reau.

She was made a Com­man­der of the Most Ex­cel­lent Or­der of the Brit­ish Em­pire in 1943.

Works

• A Turn of the Road: Or, the Home­seek­ers (Re­li­gious Tract So­ci­ety, 1916)
• Six Hymns and Po­ems