Louise de Kiriline Lawrence (1894–1992)

Louise Flach was born on the Baltic coast of Sweden, the daughter of an aristocratic family. Her father was a naturalist who emphasized the importance of conservation at the family estate of Svensksund. In 1914, she made her official debut at the Swedish court. With the oubreak of World War I, against the wishes of her family, she trained as a nurse and went to work for the Red Cross in Denmark. There she met and married a Russian officer, Greb de Kiriline. He disappeared during the Bolsevik Revolution and she spent years searching for him in Russia, but in vain; unbeknown to her, he was shot in Siberia. In 1927, she emigrated to Canada. Working in rural northern Ontario, she became the head nurse to the famous Dionne quintuplets. She later wrote a book about the experience, The Quintuplets First Year (1936). Based on her longstanding interest in the natural world, Louise began a new career as an ornithologist and nature writer. In 1939, she married Leonard Lawrence, a carpenter. With his encouragement, she began to write for various publications and eventually wrote over 500 reviews, 17 scientific papers, and 5 books on birds and animals. Her book The Lovely and the Wild (1968) was adapted from her articles in the Audubon magazine, to which she was a highly prolific contributor, and received the John Burroughs Memorial Medal. Her other scientific books included The Loghouse Nest (1945), Mar: A Glimpse into the Natural Life of a Bird (1976), and To Whom the Wilderness Speaks (1980). Her autobiography, Another Winter, Another Spring: A Love Remembered, was published in 1987. In 1954, Louise de Kiriline Lawrence was the first Canadian woman elected a member of the American Ornithologists' Union. She received numerous other awards, including the Silver Jubilee Medal from King George V, the Francis H. Kortright Outdoor Writing Award (1980), and an honorary doctorate from Laurentian University, which established a scholarship in her name.