Colonel G.D. "Gerry" Royds was a Canadian pilot who served with the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War 2.

The University Lying-In Hospital was opened in 1843 with the Professor of Midwifery Dr. Michael McCulloch as its Director and other members of the McGill Medical Faculty as consulting physicians. The Hospital was incorporated in 1854; in 1884 its name was changed to the University Maternity Hospital and in 1887 its name changed again to the Montreal Maternity Hospital. In 1923, a merger was arranged with the Royal Victoria Hospital, and in 1926, the Montreal Maternity Hospital moved into a new building, now the Women's Pavillion of the R.V.H.

In 1899 the Royal Victoria College opened as a McGill residential college for women with Hilda Diana Oakeley, a British philosopher, educationalist and author, as the head. It was named in honour of Queen Victoria. At the opening of the building, a statue of the Queen, executed by Princess Louise, was presented to the College and today still sits enthroned on the steps of Strathcona's building.
The original, central edifice, named the Hurlbatt Wing after the College's first warden, is of the British chateau style. Its five storeys crowned by many gables and dormers still create a fine facade on Sherbrooke Street. The building is decorated by many carvings that refer both to wisdom and to its namesake, the Queen.
Until the 1970s, all female undergraduate students, known as "Donaldas" (after the first name of Lord Strathcona), were considered to be members of the Royal Victoria College. Beginning in the autumn of 2010, its newer Tower section became a co-ed dormitory, whereas the older West Wing remains strictly for women. Both the Tower and the West Wing of Royal Victoria College form part of the university's residence system.