Item 0044 - Letter, 20 November 1899

Educator, missionary, and historian Edward Woodley was born in Montreal. He graduated with honors from McGill University in 1900, then completed the theological course at the affiliated Canadian Congregational College in 1902. That same year he married a fellow McGill student, Edythe Anne Garlick (Annie), who had graduated with first class standing in Greek and Latin. The couple left for missionary work in India, where Rev. Woodley taught English and theology while learning the language, and his wife cared for their two young children. Mrs. Woodley’s poor health required them to return to Canada for a few years, but they went back and tried to continue work in India; again they had to return because of Mrs. Woodley’s health. Rev. Woodley became a pastor in Danville, Quebec, and from 1908 to 1911 and lectured at Canadian Congregational College in Montreal on comparative religions and theology. In 1911 he became principal of St. Francis Collegiate School in Richmond, Quebec, and also became president of the Canadian Congregational Foreign Missionary Society. The family then headed to Turkey to serve with the Central Turkey Mission. After their return in 1919, both continued teaching, and in 1930, Edward was appointed Special Research Officer for the Quebec Department of Education. For the next decades he wrote, compiled and edited a number of history books and textbooks, mostly on French Canada, from “Legends of French Canada” (1931) to “Untold Tales from Old Quebec (1949). He died of leukemia in 1955. One of his daughters, Elsie Caroline Woodley, followed her parents footsteps in graduating from McGill and becoming a teacher, and she also published a book of poetry, “Bittersweet,” in 1930.