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The Honourable Cairine Reay Wilson

The Honourable Cairine Reay Wilson's appointment in February 1930 was made possible by the final ruling in a legal battle known as the Persons Case. She accomplished much during her 32-year tenure in the Red Chamber; she became the first female senator to chair a Senate committee, the first female Canadian delegate to the United Nations and, in the years before and during the Second World War, a vocal opponent of fascism. 

The bust of Ms. Wilson was carved in 1939 by Felix de Weldon, a prolific Austrian-born sculptor who also carved busts of British kings, American presidents and a Canadian prime minister. He first sculpted Ms. Wilson’s bust in clay and finally in marble, using an old Greek column. The bust was previously on display in the senator’s Ottawa home and installed in the Senate in 1960.

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