Diana Kingsmill Wright (24 December 1908 – 24 January 1982) was a Canadian athlete, journalist and activist.[3]
Diana Kingsmill Wright | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Diana Kingsmill 24 December 1908[1] Ottawa, Ontario |
| Died | 24 January 1982 (aged 73)[2] |
| Occupation | athlete, journalist, environmentalist |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Period | 1920s-1970s |
| Spouse | Victor Gordon-Lennox (1932–1940) J. F. C. Wright (1944–1970) |
Biography
editDiana Kingsmill Wright was born in Ottawa, Ontario, on 24 December 1908. She was the daughter of Naval Service of Canada admiral Sir Charles Kingsmill,[3] She was raised and educated in Canada and England.
In her youth, she was a competitive figure skater, who was a winner of the Devonshire Cup.[4] She was later a member of the Canadian alpine skiing team at the 1936 Winter Olympics,[5] and competed despite having suffered a broken hand.[6]
She married Victor Gordon-Lennox, the son of British politician Lord Walter Gordon-Lennox, in 1932.[7] In this era she was a friend of actor David Niven,[3] who wrote about her in his autobiography The Moon Is a Balloon.[8]
She returned to Ottawa in 1940 after separating from Gordon-Lennox.[9] She remarried historian J. F. C. Wright in 1944, in the Parliament Hill office of J. S. Woodsworth,[10] and moved with Wright to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.[3] Active in the Saskatchewan chapter of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, the Wrights became co-editors of Union Farmer, the newspaper of the Saskatchewan Farmers' Union, in 1950.[3] Wright died by suicide in 1970.[10]
In the 1960s, she was active in Voice of Women. She leased the Kingsmill family summer home on Grindstone Island to the Society of Friends to serve as a Quaker retreat centre and an institution for peace studies.[11] She later served as editor of Environment Probe,[3] and served on an advisory committee to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on its coverage of agriculture and farming issues.[3]
References
edit- ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Diana Gordon-Lennox". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 18, 2020. Retrieved December 28, 2018.
- ^ "Wright, Diana". Montreal Gazette. Postmedia Network. January 26, 1982. p. 48. Retrieved December 28, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Diana Kingsmill Wright" Archived 2014-10-18 at the Wayback Machine. Saskatchewan Eco Network.
- ^ "Canada in Switzerland". Winnipeg Tribune, February 6, 1925.
- ^ "Ottawa Ski Star Chosen on Team". Ottawa Journal, September 16, 1935.
- ^ "Applaud Efforts Diana Lennox". Ottawa Journal, February 8, 1936.
- ^ "Diana Kingsmill Is Bride of Capt. Gordon-Lennox". Winnipeg Tribune, December 28, 1932.
- ^ Niven, David (1971). The Moon's a Balloon. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 0-340-15817-4.
- ^ "Ottawa Women Enter Inter-City Ski Meet". Ottawa Journal, January 27, 1940.
- ^ a b "Biography - Wright, James Frederick Church" . Saskatoon Public Library Local History Collections.
- ^ "Rebels run retreat". Ottawa Citizen, August 27, 1980.
