Teacher exchange - The League of the Empire

[DrElaine]

Does anyone have any information about an organisation called the League of the Empire, which apparently organised teacher exchanges between the UK and countries of the Empire from 1919 onwards.

An ancestor of my husband's, a lady called Isabella Scott Norwell, travelled to Canada (Montreal, en route for Toronto) in 1922, on a one year exchange with this organisation.  The opportunity to visit Canada would have been attractive to Isabella, since her parents and siblings had emigrated there from the UK over the preceding ten years or so. Isabella travelled to Canada in company of several other teachers, who also gave their addresses as c/o League of the Empire. 

Any information about where Isabella may have taught, or the educational system in Canada at that time, would be gratefully received.

Many thanks
DrElaine

[sillgen]

It might be worth looking for information on the League for the Exchange of Commonwealth Teachers which existed in 1987 as we used it to go to Australia for a year.  They may have archive records.   http://www.lect.org.uk/home.aspx
Andrea

[seaweed]

 Isabella Norwell age 37 sailed from Liverpool on 28/July/1922 as a passenger onboard the Canadian Pacific vessel MONTROSE official number 145919. Her occupation is given as Teacher.
It appears that the same person sailed from Liverpool 24/July/1936 as a passenger onboard the Donaldson Atlantic Line vessel  LETITIA o/n 148847 bound for Montreal.
There are some records  concerning The League of the Empire in the piece ED121/50 in the British National Archives.

[J.J.]

Bit of a timeline in here, earlier than 1919.......unfortunately the type recognition is bad, but you might get the guist
http://www.archive.org/stream/federalmagazinea116londuoft/federalmagazinea116londuoft_djvu.txt

many years later 1950
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001424/142425eb.pdf

today http://www.icvet.tafensw.edu.au/ezine/year_2005/nov_jan/snapshot_working_holiday.htm
The focus was, and still is, to promote international goodwill and an in depth understanding of different cultures as well as an avenue for the personal and professional development of teachers.

[DrElaine]

Many thanks to Sillgen, Seaweed and JJ for their helpful suggestions.  I have made contact with LECT (although their office appears to be closed for the Christmas and New Year holiday), asking if they have any historical records.  I will let you know if they come up with anything.

Isabella seems to have made two more trips to Canada after her exchange visit, in 1936 and 1947, staying for about two months on each occasion.  In 1936, her younger sister Alice, then a 34 year old telephone operator, accompanied her back to England, for a six-week visit.  Isabella died intestate in England 1956; a notice of her death was published in the London Gazette, asking for relatives to get in touch with the bank or solicitor.  I don't know if anyone did!

[DrElaine]

I have now found further information on Isabella's experience as an exchange teacher.  Sadly, due to religious prejudice, the visit was not as Isabella had hoped. A report in the Toronto Star of March 24th, 1923 tells how Isabella was removed from her teaching post at Earl Haig school, when the trustees discovered that she was a Roman Catholic.  Attempts were made to find her a teaching post in another public school, with a different school board, but these were unsuccessful.  Eventually, she was given a post as a temporary school secretary at Davenport High School.  There was a hiatus of several weeks between her removal from Earl Haig and her employment at Davenport, but at least she continued to be paid during this period.  The Toronto Star quizzed Chief Inspector Cowley, business administrator WW Pearse and Mr Burns, secretary to the Trustees at Earl Haig regarding Isabella’s dismissal.  Mr Burns stated “She was placed in Earl Haig school and it is true that she was taken out on account of her religion. Before the teachers came over from England, Mrs Orde Marshall, who was in charge of the party, cabled us to know if the board would have any objection to a Catholic teacher coming.  We replied that under no consideration would we allow it as Catholics cannot teach in our schools and we have no national schools as they do in England.  If anyone is to blame it is the people who sent her over here.”   It was not known who reported Isabella to be a Catholic, but as soon as the information came to the attention of the trustees, Trustees Douglas and Berlis effected her removal from the school.  An official told the Toronto Star that “It was thought that it was all right to place her in a collegiate as both Catholics and Protestants pay taxes in their support”.

[J.J.]

Oh, my dear good Lord....what a lot of hooey...
Religion Education and Politics always colliding...such a fabulous example for those young students....