Memorable Manitobans: Irene Heywood Hemsworth (1912-1989)

Sculptor, educator, art critic.

Born in Waskada on 10 July 1912, eldest of three daughters of Rev. Percy Heywood and Ethel Lucinda Bradley, she was educated in Winnipeg and Trenton, Ontario. She entered the Winnipeg School of Art in 1931 and studied there until 1934. It is alleged that, while there, she had a romantic relationship with instructor Lionel LeMoine Fitzgerald. She subsequently studied sculpture at the Ontario College of Art. She married composer Wade Hemsworth in 1945 and moved to Montreal, where she taught at the Museum of Fine Arts school and wrote art criticism for Montreal newspapers.

Sources:

Birth registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.

1916 Canada census, Ancestry.

Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.

“Lucky 7” by Alison Mayes, Winnipeg Free Press, 10 March 2009, page 33.

Obituary [Kathleen Ethel Findlay-Ireland], Winnipeg Free Press, 17 November 2012, page 45.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 2 November 2022

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

This is a collection of noteworthy Manitobans from the past, compiled by the Manitoba Historical Society. We acknowledge that the collection contains both reputable and disreputable people. All are worth remembering as a lesson to future generations.

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