Marian Noel Sherman

Marian Noel Sherman (25 December 1891 – 18 August 1975), born Marian Noel Bostock, was an English-born Canadian physician and humanist.

Marian Noel Sherman
Born
Marian Noel Bostock

25 December 1891
Epsom, England
Died18 August 1975
British Columbia
NationalityBritish, Canadian
OccupationPhysician

Early life

Marian Noel Bostock was born in Christmas Day 1891 in Epsom, the eldest daughter of Hewitt Bostock and Lizzie Jean McCombie Cowie Bostock.[1] Her father was a publisher and politician, who served in both houses of the Canadian legislature.[2] She spent her childhood on Vancouver Island, and at the Bostock family ranch in Kamloops. She returned to England at age 15 to complete her education at Prior's Field.[3] She gained her medical qualifications at the London School of Medicine in 1917,[4] and became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1921.[5]

Career

Marian Bostock served as an acting house physician at the Queens Hospital for Children in Hackney, and as house surgeon at St. George's Hospital in London, during World War I. She went to India as a medical missionary after the war, and worked as a doctor in India from 1922 to 1934, including a stint as surgeon and medical officer at the Duchess of Teck Hospital in Patna.[2] The experience brought her, in time, from her Anglican upbringing to atheism: "I found it hard – finally impossible – to believe in a God of love when I saw the sufferings of the women of India", she explained later.[3]

After retiring to Canada, she was active in various causes, including mental health, women's rights, and peace. She was a public atheist, frequently consulted for positions and quotations by the Canadian press. She helped to found the Victorian Humanist Fellowship in 1956, and as president organized lectures and participated in presentations.[3] In 1968 she was one of the founders of the Humanist Association of Canada. She was named Canadian Humanist of the Year in 1975.[6][7]

Personal life

In 1928, Marian Noel Bostock married Victor Sherman, a Canadian bank manager she met in India.[8] She became stepmother to Sherman's daughter, Ruth, from a previous marriage. The couple retired to Victoria, British Columbia in 1936.[6] Sherman was widowed in 1960,[9] and she died in 1975, aged 83 years, in British Columbia.[10] Her papers are in the British Columbia Archives.[11]

References
  1. Hancock, Eleanor Whitton (Winter 1997). "British Gentlewomen at Monte Creek" (PDF). B. C. Historical News: 26–29.
  2. "Hon. Hewitt Bostock, Speaker of Senate, is Dead at 65". The Province. 1930-04-29. p. 13. Retrieved 2020-05-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Block, Tina (2014). "Ungodly Grandmother: Marian Sherman and the Social Dimensions of Atheism in Postwar Canada". Journal of Women's History. 26 (4): 132–154. doi:10.1353/jowh.2014.0067. ISSN 1527-2036.
  4. "Canadian Girl Wins High Medical Degree". Calgary Herald. 1917-05-08. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-05-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "Sherman, Marian Noel (1891 - 1975)". Plarr's Lives of the Fellows. Retrieved 2020-05-14.
  6. Green, Valerie (2004). If More Walls Could Talk: Vancouver Island's Houses from the Past. TouchWood Editions. pp. 8–10. ISBN 978-1-894898-22-5.
  7. "Woman with a Mission was 'Strong Character'". Victoria Daily Colonist. August 23, 1975. p. 17. Retrieved May 14, 2020 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  8. "Dr. Marian N. Bostock Weds Banker of India in Ottawa". The Winnipeg Tribune. 1928-05-24. p. 2. Retrieved 2020-05-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Victor Sherman obituary". The Ottawa Journal. 1960-12-20. p. 36. Retrieved 2020-05-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Obituary for Marian SHERMAN". Times Colonist. 1975-08-22. p. 27. Retrieved 2020-05-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Sherman, Marian Noel (Bostock). Victoria; Physician, Humanist". RBCM Archives. Retrieved 2020-05-14.
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