A history of TACW's Gavel

A great aunt (or cousin) Agnes Lind Smythe was President of Toronto Council of Women. My understanding from Carol was that she was “Agnes Lind” for part of the time and in a 1929 National Council of Women of Canada annual report I quote from below, inscribed "Presented to TACW - Agnes Lind Smith 1921-22” and has the bow and motto on the back. It showed her as Agnes Lind Smythe, and she was President of the Provincial Council of Women of Ontario. It seems from the gavel that she married while she was still President of Toronto Council. Carol also told me that one of the local Councils, possibly Alliston or Sudbury had presented her with the Gavel. In a book I saw on the internet a while ago about well-known women, Agnes Lind Smythe was noted as being a literary person-either a poetess or author.

A quote from the 1929 National Council of Women of Canada Year Book shows she was President of PCWO from 1924 to 1929:

“ONTARIO Agnes Lind Smythe, President. In presenting my fifth (and last) report as Provincial President, it is natural that some sadness should creep into my thoughts, and also considerable retrospection. The work has been interesting and harmonious-both with the government and the members of Council. In the beginning there was objection in some quarters to Provincial Councils, but in Ontario we have demonstrated that we can be a bulwark of strength to the National Council. We have committees on Legislation and Education and will form three others at the coming annual meeting viz. League of Nations, Mental Hygiene , and soldier’s and Sailor’s Pensions and Dependents”...”We have in affiliation the Federation of Women Teachers, the United Farm women of Ontario, the King’s Daughters (still a federate in Ottawa in 2015) and are working in close cooperation with the Women’s Institutes. Each year we before our delegation to Government we hold a joint committee of Women’s Institutes and the Provincial Council and present to the Cabinet both the rural and urban viewpoint.”

with files from Gracia Janes, May 2016