Margaret ( Peggy) Emily Jerrold

Bowden

1895-Unknown

Description

Life and Work

"I visited her in hospital when she was 90 and she was reading Shakespeare. She was close to 100 when she passed away. I felt honoured in her friendship."
- Elsie Nelson, citizen of Bowden and former mayor

Peggy Jerrold usually wore a mid-calf skirt, a starched white blouse and her hair up in a bun. She had attended a private school in Wales and presented herself as the proper Welsh lady she was.

Trained as a nurse, she worked for women's voting privileges in the early part of the century. She gave her time to the Anglican Church, the Women's Institute, the library and the Cubs and Scouts. She was firm and didn't give in easily. She charmed everyone.

Peggy lived in grand style in a house called Hastings, one of the largest in Bowden. When visiting her house she served tea from the finest china. The hardwood floors shone. Oriental rugs graced the floors with starched doilies on the tables. In the sitting room her piano stood ready to be used to entertain guests. Large pictures hung on the walls with the fireplace draped in a velvet and gold-fringed mantle cover. All was neat, tidy and clean.

In her attic were trunks of Welsh clothing, old books - a collector's dream to wander through. But even the attic was perfectly organized with not a thing out of place.

Margaret was born in Wales in 1895 and came to Canada in 1912. She trained as a nurse and worked at the Medicine Hat Hospital until her marriage to Doug Jerrold. She was involved in the movement to enfranchise women. She worked with her Anglican church parish, Women's Institute, the library and local troops of Cubs and Scouts.