Lily Laverock
{{Infobox person
| birth_date = 14 June 1880
| birth_place = Edinburgh, Scotland
| death_date = 1969
| death_place = Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| education = Victoria High School (British Columbia)
| alma_mater = McGill University
| occupation = journalist, impresario and suffragist
| employer = The World, Vancouver Daily News Advertiser, The Chronicle
| organization = Canadian Women’s Press Club, Pioneer Political Equality League
}}
{{Short description|Scottish journalist, impresario and suffragist in Canada (1880–1969)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}{{Use Canadian English|date=March 2025}}
Lily Laverock (14 June 1880 – 1969) was a Scottish journalist, impresario and suffragist. She emigrated to Canada when she was ten years old.
Biography
Laverock was born in 1880 in Edinburgh, Scotland.{{Cite web |last=Gooch |first=Bryan |date=15 December 2013 |title=Lily Laverock |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/lily-laverock-emc |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |language=en}} She emigrated to Canada in the 1890s.
Laverock was educated at Victoria High School in British Columbia{{Cite web |last=Edwards |first=Helen |date=2021-02-01 |title=Lily Laverock, reporter, suffragette, influencer |url=https://vichigh.com/lily-laverock-reporter-suffragette-influencer/ |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=Victoria High School Alumni Association |language=en-US}} then studied moral philosophy{{Cite book |last=Lang |first=Marjory |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fGUXSfMt8hwC&dq=Lily+Laverock&pg=PA220 |title=Women Who Made the News: Female Journalists in Canada, 1880-1945 |date=1999-08-26 |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP |isbn=978-0-7735-6774-0 |pages=220–221 |language=en}} at McGill University in Vancouver, where she became a founding member of the University Women's Club.
In 1908, Laverock became the first woman employed as a reporter by a Vancouver newspaper, working at The World. The following year, she moved to work at the Vancouver Daily News Advertiser, and also became the first secretary and treasurer of the first Vancouver branch of the Canadian Women’s Press Club. In 1910, Laverock left the News Advertiser{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oyENAQAAMAAJ&q=Lily+Laverock |title=B C Studies |date=1989 |publisher=University of British Columbia Press |volume=84-87 |pages=16 |language=en}} then in 1911 she launched the first women's newspaper in British Columbia, The Chronicle.{{Cite book |last=Howard |first=Irene |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YiiG1GllqHoC&dq=Lily+Laverock&pg=PA70 |title=The Struggle for Social Justice in British Columbia: Helena Gutteridge, the Unknown Reformer |date=2011-11-01 |publisher=UBC Press |isbn=978-0-7748-4287-7 |pages=70 |language=en}} In 1918, Laverock was elected to the Vancouver’s Carnegie Library management board.
Lavercock was also involved in activism as a member of the Pioneer Political Equality League and was among suffragist journalists who covered women's organisations and issues.{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Lara |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jmfqDwAAQBAJ&dq=Lily+Laverock&pg=PA110 |title=A Great Revolutionary Wave: Women and the Vote in British Columbia |date=2020-06-15 |publisher=UBC Press |isbn=978-0-7748-6325-4 |pages=110 |language=en}} She was part of a large deputation to the Attorney General who campaigned for better property laws for women and equal guardianship of children for mothers.{{Cite book |last=Harper |first=Ida Husted |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X09RAQAAMAAJ&q=Lily+Laverock |title=The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume VI |date=1920 |publisher=National American Woman Suffrage Association |pages=756 |language=en}}
Lavercock was also an avid arts supporter.{{Cite web |last=Davis |first=Chuck |date=2010-05-18 |title=A Year in Five Minutes: Vancouver 1969 |url=https://spacing.ca/vancouver/2010/05/17/a-year-in-five-minutes-vancouver-1969/ |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=Spacing Vancouver |language=en-US}} By 1921, she worked as an impresario and organised International Celebrity Concerts featuring international stars such as Geraldine Farrar, Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Nellie Melba, John McCormack, Benno Moiseivitsch, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Maurice Ravel, Rosa Ponselle, the Belgian Royal Symphonic Band and the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.
Lavercock retired in the 1950s, but continued attending concerts with her friend Helena Gutteridge. She died in 1969 in Duncan, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
References
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Category:Scottish emigrants to Canada
Category:McGill University alumni
Category:Journalists from Edinburgh
Category:20th-century Scottish journalists