Sara Anne McLagan
{{Short description|Irish-born Canadian newspaper editor and clubwoman}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Sara Anne McLagan
| image = SaraAnneMcLagan1924.png
| alt = Portrait of a white woman with her light hair in a wavy bouffant updo.
| caption = Sara Anne McLagan, from a 1924 newspaper obituary
| birth_name = Sara Anne Maclure
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1855|04|01|df=yes}}
| birth_place = near Belfast, County Tyrone
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1924|05|20|1855|04|01|df=yes}}
| death_place = Vancouver
| occupation = Newspaper editor, clubwoman
| spouse = {{marriage|John McLagan|1884|1901|end=died}}
| children = 5
}}
Sara Anne McLagan (1 April 1855 – 20 March 1924), born Sara Anne Maclure, was an Irish-born Canadian newspaper editor and clubwoman, co-founder and publisher of the Vancouver Daily World. She is often described as "the first female publisher of a daily newspaper in Canada"{{Cite book|last=Davis |first=Chuck |title=The Chuck Davis history of Metropolitan Vancouver|date=2011|publisher=Harbour Pub|isbn=978-1-55017-533-2|location=Madeira Park, B.C.|oclc=740466952}} or "the first Canadian female newspaper editor."{{Cite web|url=https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-public-spaces-new-names|title=15 public spaces have been named after prominent Vancouver residents|last=Chan|first=Kenneth|date=21 September 2018|website=Urbanized|language=en|access-date=2020-03-10}}
Early life
Sara Anne Maclure was born near Belfast, County Tyrone, the daughter of daughter of John Cunningham Maclure and Martha McIntyre Maclure.{{Cite book|last=Leonard|first=John William|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQnhIJhYbbMC&q=Sara%20Anne%20McLagan&pg=PA526|title=Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada|date=1914|publisher=American Commonwealth Company|pages=526|language=en}} Her father moved to New Westminster in 1858, as a surveyor with the Royal Engineers. The following year, she emigrated to Canada with her mother and baby sister, to join him.Hale, Linda L. {{cite DCB|ID=8263}}
Maclure's father taught her telegraphy. At the age of 12, when a major forest fire threatened their home in Matsqui (now part of Abbotsford), Sara tapped a message through to New Westminster to call for help. At 15 she was employed at the New Westminster telegraph station.
= Career =
= Telegraphy and journalism =
McLagan worked at the Western Union Telegraph Company in Matsqui and in Victoria, as an operator, tester, dispatcher, and office manager, until she married in 1884. In 1888 she was a co-founder (with her husband) of the Vancouver Daily World newspaper. After her husband's death in 1901, she continued as president and editor of the paper, the largest Canadian daily published west of Winnipeg, with her brother Frederick S. Maclure.{{Cite book|last1=Roberts|first1=Sir Charles George Douglas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QG1IAAAAYAAJ&q=Sara%20Anne%20McLagan&pg=PA159|title=The Canadian Who's who|last2=Tunnell|first2=Arthur L.|date=1910|publisher=University of Toronto Press|pages=159|language=en}} She is often described as "the first female publisher of a daily newspaper in Canada."{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46453545/the-vancouver-sun/|title=Mountain View Cemetery: Final Resting Place for Titanic Survivors, Politicians, and Other Notable People|date=25 August 2012|work=The Vancouver Sun|access-date=March 10, 2020|page=14|via=Newspapers.com}} During her tenure, the newspaper added a woman's page. She sold the paper to a group of businessmen in 1905.
McLagan was an early member of the Canadian Women's Press Club,{{Cite book|last=Kay|first=Linda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aSz22k4CiAMC&q=Sara%20Anne%20McLagan&pg=PA68|title=The Sweet Sixteen: The Journey That Inspired the Canadian Women's Press Club|date=2012-03-09|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP|isbn=978-0-7735-3967-9|pages=68|language=en}} and of the British Columbia Institute of Journalists.
= Clubwork =
McLagan was a founder of the Local Council of Women of Vancouver, and president of the organization from 1898 to 1900.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46454036/womans-work/|title=Woman's Work|date=1901-02-05|work=The Province|access-date=2020-03-10|pages=3|via=Newspapers.com}} She was a provincial leader of the National Council of Women of Canada from 1903 to 1907, advocating for women's suffrage in Canada and improved career opportunities for women. She helped found a Vancouver chapter of the Victorian Order of Nurses, presiding over the chapter from 1902 to 1906, and helped establish a nurses' training home in the city. In 1903 she served as president of the Art, Historical and Scientific Association of Vancouver. She was also involved in the city's YWCA and YMCA, and active in the Georgian Club and the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE).
= World War I =
McLagan's only son, Patrick Douglas Maclure McLagan, died at Ypres in 1917, in World War I.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/93320|title=McLagan, Patrick Douglas Maclure|website=Commonwealth War Graves Commission|access-date=2020-03-10}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46454780/pays-full-price/|title=Pays Full Price|date=1917-10-22|work=Vancouver Daily World|access-date=2020-03-10|pages=4|via=Newspapers.com}} In 1920 she was presented with the "Cross of Sacrifice" for her postwar relief work with the Red Cross at Vitry-en-Artois, France, sponsored by the IODE.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46453712/cross-of-sacrifice-to-vancouver-woman/|title=Cross of Sacrifice to Vancouver Woman|date=1920-12-30|work=The Ottawa Citizen|access-date=2020-03-10|pages=3|via=Newspapers.com}} She and her daughter were the only British Columbians at the unveiling of the Cenotaph to the Unknown Warrior in Whitehall in 1921.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46454462/mrs-mclagan-saw-unveiling-of-cenotaph/|title=Mrs. McLagan Saw Unveiling of Cenotaph|date=1921-01-28|work=The Vancouver Sun|access-date=2020-03-10|pages=12|via=Newspapers.com}} Later that year, she chose St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Vancouver to house a bronze memorial tablet to her son's memory.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46455113/memorial-table-is-unveiled-to-gallant/|title=Memorial Table is Unveiled to Gallant Vancouver Soldier|date=1921-10-10|work=Vancouver Daily World|access-date=2020-03-10|pages=3|via=Newspapers.com}}
Personal life
Sara Anne Maclure married widowed printer John McLagan in 1884. He had a grown son,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46454145/suit-regarding-will/|title=Suit Regarding Will|date=1905-05-20|work=The Province|access-date=2020-03-10|pages=1|via=Newspapers.com}} and they had more children together, including four daughters Geraldine (who died in 1891), Hazel, Marguerite, and Doris,Orr, Linda Maeve. [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/pdfs/bchf/bchn_1998_fall.pdf "Sara's World"] British Columbia Historical News (Fall 1998): 4-9. and a son, Patrick Douglas{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46454330/unveil-memorial-to-lieut-mclagan/|title=Unveil Memorial to Lieut. McLagan|date=1921-10-10|work=The Province|access-date=2020-03-10|pages=24|via=Newspapers.com}} (who died in 1917). She died in 1924, aged 68 years, in Vancouver.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46456597/death-ends-sufferings-of-mrs-mclagan/|title=Death Ends Sufferings of Mrs. McLagan, Pioneer|date=1924-03-21|work=The Province|access-date=2020-03-10|pages=3|via=Newspapers.com}} As of 2012, her grave was unmarked.
In 2018, the Vancouver City Council named a public space at the corner of West Pender Street and Beatty Street as "Sara Anne McLagan Plaza".
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- Chung123 (12 July 2016). [https://findery.com/Chung123/notes/erotic-massage-spot-was-once-newspaper-hq-of-1st-woman-publisher-in-canada "Erotic massage spot was once newspaper HQ of 1st woman publisher in Canada"], Findery.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:McLagan, Sara Anne}}
Category:19th-century Canadian newspaper publishers (people)
Category:Canadian newspaper founders
Category:Canadian newspaper editors
Category:Canadian women newspaper editors
Category:Burials at Mountain View Cemetery (Vancouver)
Category:Canadian women non-fiction writers
Category:Canadian women in World War I
Category:Irish emigrants to Canada
Category:Irish women newspaper editors
Category:19th-century Canadian women journalists
Category:19th-century Canadian journalists