Thomas D’Arcy McGee, journalist, politician, and poet, was born on 13 April 1825 in Carlingford, County Louth, Ireland. He left for New England for the first time in 1842. It was not until 1857, after a return to Ireland and a further sojourn in the United States, that he moved to Montreal. In December 1857 he was elected to represent Montreal in the Legislative Assembly. By 1867 the Irish Republican Brotherhood, more popularly known as the Fenians, were on the rise. McGee opposed them because of their support of republicans and their plans to invade British North America. McGee lost his support in the Irish community and was on the verge of withdrawing from politics when he was assassinated in Ottawa on 7 April 1868. An Irish immigrant, Patrick James Whelan, was convicted of the crime and executed on 11 February 1869. In addition to his journalism and speeches, McGee wrote A Popular History of Ireland (1863), which is considered to be his best work, and poetry which was collected and published after his death.
N. Clarke Wallace (1844-1901) was a life-long resident of Woodbridge and Deputy Reeve of Vaughan. He was president of the West York Agricultural Society (1889-1890), and a member of Parliament.
The Hon. Nathaniel Clarke Wallace (1844-1901) was a Member of Parliament in Canada, the Controller of Customs, and Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of British America in the late nineteenth century.
The Hon. Nathaniel Clarke Wallace was born in Woodbridge, Ontario, and was educated at the Woodbridge Public School and the Weston Grammar School. After completing his studies at the Weston Grammar School, he taught there from 1864 to 1869. He then entered into partnership with his older brother, Thomas F. Wallace, in the flour mill and general store businesses they had established in Woodbridge in 1867. He held the post of First Deputy Reeve of Vaughn Township from 1874 to 1878, and in 1878 was chosen Warden of York County. In 1877 he married Belinda Gilmore of Ottawa, by whom he had seven children. In 1878 he was elected as a Liberal-Conservative to represent West York in the House of Commons, a riding he represented until his death in 1901. In 1887, he chaired a special committee of the House of Commons to investigate the problems of combines in the restraint of trade. In 1888 he introduced a Bill to incorporate the Grand Orange Lodge of British America, of which he was an active member, serving as Grand Master from 1897 until his death. From 1892 to 1895, he served as Controller of Customs. He resigned his position as Controller of Customs in a disagreement with his government over the Manitoba School Question. In the election of 1896, he ran as an independent, and by 1900 had rejoined the Liberal-Conservative party. He was also a member of the Church of England, and was superintendent of Christ Church Sunday School in Woodbridge for twenty-five years.
Nathaniel Clarke Wallace Jr. (1890-1955) served Canada in the first World War, and later became a minister in the Anglican Church.
Nathaniel Clarke Wallace Jr. was a younger son of the Hon. Nathaniel Clarke Wallace, and served as a lieutenant in the 20th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force in the First World War, later rising to the rank of captain. He was also a student at Trinity University in Toronto, and became an Anglican clergyman.
Thomas Gordon Wallace (1879-1921) was a soldier in the Boer War and served as a Member of Parliament during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Thomas Gordon Wallace was the eldest son of the Hon. Nathaniel Clarke Wallace, and was educated at the Woodbridge Public School and the Weston High School. He was an active member of the militia and was made a captain in 1899. During the Boer War he resigned his commission to serve in South Africa as a private in the Royal Canadian Regiment. He was also an active member of the Grand Orange Lodge of British America, and served as Rector's Warden of Christ Church in Woodbridge for fifteen years. In the general election of 1907, he unsuccessfully contested the constituency of West York for the Liberal-Conservative party, but was elected in a by-election the following year. He held this seat until his death in 1921.
William George Wallace (1858-1949) was a Presbyterian minister and administrator. He was born in Galt, Ontario and studied at the University of Toronto and Knox College. He was ordained into the Presbyterian Church in 1883, and served churches in Ontario, including Bloor St. Presbyterian Church, Toronto, which he served as its first minister, from 1888 until his retirement in 1918. He also served on the Senate and the Board of Examiners of Knox College, and as the Secretary of the Church and Manse Board of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. He was married to Margaret and had two children W. Stewart Wallace and Mrs. F.G. Maxwell-Williams.
Asa Wallbridge settled in Meyers Creek in 1798. One of the Loyalist settlers, Asa built a log cabin which would later serve as an inn. He sent for the rest of his family from New York to join him in Upper Canada in the last years of the eighteenth century. Asa would come to accumulate over 2000 acres of land. He was born in 1747,died in 1820, and is buried in Ameliasburgh.
Lewis Wallbridge (1816-1887) was a lawyer, politician, Solicitor-General for Upper Canada, Speaker of the Ontario Legislature, and Chief Justice of Manitoba during the nineteenth century.
Lewis Wallbridge graduated from Toronto's Upper Canada College in 1839 and he returned to Belleville to become a lawyer for the Hastings area.
Lewis Wallbridge was a Queen's Counsel in Belleville, Ontario. He represented South Hastings in the Legislative Assembly of Canada, and was elected the Member of Parliament for North Hastings where he served as Solicitor-General in 1863. From 1863 to 1867 he served as Speaker of the Legislature. After confederation, Lewis served as the nation's first Speaker of the House of Commons. After leaving politics, Lewis continued to practice law with his brother Thomas at the brother's firm on North Front Street in Belleville Ontario. He was appointed Chief Justice of Manitoba in 1882, and held this position until his death in 1887.
Thomas Campbell Wallbridge (1830-1881) represented North Hastings in the Legislative Assembly of Canada, and was a participant in the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences of 1864 on confederation.
Thomas Wallbridge was involved in law and politics. Born in 1830, T.C. was a member of the Upper Canada Legislative Assembly and represented North Hastings. T.C. was present at both the Charlottetown and the Quebec conferences discussing confederation. He also served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the militia. He married Jane Alexandra Miller of Glasgow and died in 1871.
Royal Air Force Commodore Derek M. Waller is a naval historian, who has been attempting to research and document the fates of the 156 U-boats that surrendered to the Allies at the end of the Second World War.
R. Waller was either a carpenter or wagon maker who lived and worked in Campbellford, Ontario, at the turn of the century.
Henry Bull Wallis (dates unknown) of Richmond Hill, Ontario was a volunteer with the militia that defended against the Fenian Raids at the Battle of Ridgeway near Fort Erie in 1866, and another Fenian Raid with the 50th Battalion in 1870.
James Wallis (d. 1893) was a merchant and land owner in Upper Canada during the nineteenth century.
Katherine E. Wallis (1860-1957) was a noted artist and sculptor born in Peterborough, Ontario.
Constance Ellen Kilborn Walmsley (1898-1961) was a West China missionary. She was born in Chengdu, West China to a missionary family including her parents Retta Gifford and Omar Kilborn, and siblings Cora, Leslie and Roland. From 1911 to 1914 she attended the Ontario Ladies College in Whitby. In 1919 she graduated from Victoria College with an English Language and Literature degree. She was engaged to Lewis Walmsley in 1920, but they parted for a year and she went on to teach at Alma College in St. Thomas. In 1921 they were married and subsequently went to West China for missionary work. While there she taught at the Canadian School. She took an active part in Brownies and Guides and overall cultural and social life of the West China missionary community. During her time in China she had four children: Omar, Glenn, Enid and Marion. The family returned permanently to Canada in 1949. On furloughs and after her final return to Canada she often spoke about her missionary work at local churches.
Lewis Calvin Walmsley (1897-1998) was a West China missionary and educator, head of the East Asian Studies Department at the University of Toronto, and author. He was born in Milford, Ontario and studied at Victoria College and the College of Education in Toronto where he graduated in 1919. In 1920 he was engaged to Constance Kilborn, but they parted for a year and he went on to teach mathematics at Regina College in Saskatchewan. They married in 1921 and later that year they decided to become missionaries and later sailed to the West China Mission. He was appointed principal of the Canadian School for missionaries' children in 1923 and served there until 1947. During one furlough he completed his doctoral studies at the University of Toronto (D.Paed.). In 1929 he taught pedagogy as well as social and experimental phycology at the West China Union University. He accepted an appointment as head of the East Asian Studies Department at the University of Toronto in 1949, and retired in 1963. He wrote several books about China. He also wrote a biography entitled, "Bishop in Honan : mission and museum in the life of William C. White", [ca.1974].
T. Walmsley (fl. 1927-1928) was a Picton, Ontario barrister.