McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Maude Lilian Bremner collection
Collection
1 scrapbook (approximately 80 leaves) ; 39 x 28 cm
.5 cm of textual records
1 photograph : black and white ; 11 x 15 cm
Maude Lillian (or Lilian) Bremner de Castilla was born on August 5, 1880, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and died on March 31, 1953, in Cape Town, South Africa. She was the daughter of Prince Edward Island historian Benjamin Bremner (1851-1938) and Mary Jane Webster. Bremner was an educator, she volunteered to travel to South Africa and teach Boer children in refugee camps during and after the Boer War. In 1904, while in South Africa, she married Australian Major John Stephen Ramos de Castilla (1866-1938), who was serving with the West Australian Mounted Infantry. Bremner’s teaching experience is described in the book titled “A Canadian Girl in South Africa: A Teacher’s Experiences in the South African War, 1899-1902,” written by E. Maud Graham and published in 1905.
Purchased from Gallery 18, 2021.
Collection includes a scrapbook created by Maude Lilian Bremner during her time in South Africa as a teacher to Boer children in refugee camps, as well as other related loose clippings and ephemera. The scrapbook contains newspaper clippings, postcards, and other ephemera tipped in. Many of the clippings are articles reprinting letters written home by Bremner and other volunteer teachers in her contingent. Collection also includes a published Memorandum respecting the engagement of teachers for the refugee camps in South Africa.