THEN & NOW
/ELSIE MacGILL
Queen of the Hurricanes!
by Fred Hume
(click images to enlarge)
It could be said that if your face and accomplishments appear on a stamp or commemorative coin, you have made the grade. Your accomplishments are of national or even international acclaim.
This is in fact the case with Vancouver-born and raised “war hero” Elsie MacGill, whose image you can now find on an attractive stamp and an impressive commemorative loonie.
The headlines in 1930 read, “She’s the Only Girl in North America Who Has Been Granted This Airy Degree,” that being a Master’s of Science in Aeronautical Engineering. This was followed by her Doctoral studies at MIT, all accomplished despite compromised health.
Notwithstanding the noteworthiness of her being the first woman to achieve these degrees, it was her work during the Second World War that vaulted her into public attention. There were articles, biographies, films, even a comic book, all emanating from the brilliance and curiosity of this young woman who came from a close-knit family living on Harwood street in Vancouver’s West End.
As the chief Aeronautical Engineer at Canadian Car Works in Fort William (now Thunder Bay, Ont.), when the war began, MacGill designed and tested the new “Maple Leaf Trainer” aircraft.
This was the first plane designed by a woman, and was only the beginning of the then 35-year-old MacGill’s lifetime of breaking gendered barriers through her engineering career and feminist advocacy.
Around the same time she was honoured as the first woman to be admitted to the membership of the Engineering Institute of Canada. Then, in 1940 as the first Canadian female member of the Association of Professional Engineers.
MacGill’s company (Cancar) was selected to build the Hawker Hurricane fighter plane for the Royal Air Force to battle the Luftwaffe over the English Channel. She led the team, streamlining operations to build these planes very quickly while improving their design, and shipped them out at a rate of 23 per week. “She has done a job experts said couldn’t be done,” said one news report. At the same time she was responsible for the design of aircraft de-icing equipment, as well as devising and conducting revolutionary stress tests, for which she won the Gzowski Leadership medal in 1941.
This masterful production gained her the nickname “Queen of the Hurricanes.” Other compliments were backhand; “This frail little woman (from Canada) who must walk with a cane, yet played a significant role in Britain’s valiant war effort,” one article opined.
Elsie MacGill inspecting parts.
Elsie and her sister Helen grew up in Vancouver’s West End, the daughters of pioneering female judge and suffragette, Dr. Helen MacGill – the first woman to receive an Honourary Doctor of Laws degree from UBC. A young Elsie began her public schooling at Lord Roberts Elementary (still standing), graduating as an honours student in 1921 from the original King George High School on Burrard street.
Influenced by their successful parents, the MacGill sisters experienced the finest of early Vancouver life, enjoying activities like swimming lessons at English Bay with Joe Fortes and being taught art by Emily Carr.
Both Elsie and Helen were impressive students at UBC, and were active in student affairs. Elsie, at age 16, was accepted into UBC’s Faculty of Applied Science. She attended for one term, until the Faculty Dean told her he did not want women in engineering studies at UBC and asked her to leave the program.
Meanwhile, Elsie’s family had ties with the University of Toronto, so she left UBC in 1923 to attain her Bachelor of Science degree there. Despite being in a male dominated field, her intelligence, determination, and skill prevailed as she went on to achieve her pioneering Master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Michigan.
the Hawker Hurricane.
During the war MacGill received many public exaltations (condescending and otherwise) such as, “110 pounds of charming genius,” and, “continues to overcome obstacles and sweep aside taboos.” She employed hundreds of women at Cancar, which was later acknowledged in a showcase of Canadian wartime production.
Following the war, MacGill served as Canadian Technical Advisor at the United Nations and assisted in drafting international worthiness regulations for the design and production of civilian aircraft.
MacGill became increasingly interested in feminism and the women’s movement, inspired by the work of her mother and grandmother. She became president of the Canadian Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs and in 1967 was named to the Royal Commission on the Status of Women. She wrote a book on the life of her mother, My Mother the Judge (1955), and in 2008 an academic biography of Elsie’s life was released, titled Her Daughter the Engineer.
Elsie MacGill died in 1980 at age 75 while visiting her sister Helen in Cambridge, Mass.
Over her life MacGill received many honours beginning in 1940 when she was named Vancouver’s Woman of the Year. This was followed by Hall of Fame inductions, honorary degrees, numerous awards and medals, and two schools being named after her. In 1971 she was honoured with the Order of Canada… and now, a national stamp and commemorative coin.
In 2006, a Vancouver Sun article announced, “Vintage plane sells for three million dollars: Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen buys restored 1941 Hawker Hurricane.” A rare piece of Canadian history built at Thunder Bay was, after years of painstaking reconstruction, bound for Allen’s Seattle-area collection.
This is one of her planes! The legacy of Elsie MacGill lives on!!
Fred Hume as member of the King George High School Archives Group.
