portrait of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, mother to the
present Queen Elizabeth,
painted by Miss E. Gertrude Thomson R.M.S. (d.1932).
|
Biography
of Lesley (Dalrymple) O'Neil
(great-grandniece of Emily Gertrude
Thomson)
Emily Gertrude Thomson
Lesley (Dalrymple) O'Neil
Lesley was born in Montreal, Canada during WWII. Her
father Kenneth Dalrymple was in the RCAF; too 'old' to
fly anything other than a desk, he was overseas as
administrator of a bomber base in Yorkshire, England
during the latter part of the war. With her mother's help,
she sent him a copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
during that time.
Her father told her when she was in her teens that she
had a great aunt who was an artist, and perhaps thought
he had told her that this aunt (great grandaunt, in fact)
had been an illustrator for Lewis Carroll, but in fact it
wasn't until Lesley started doing intensive genealogical
research later in life that she learned the full identity
of that aunt, Emily Gertrude Thomson.
Some of EGT's artistic genes
continued through the family. Ken was doing his own black
& white photography work in the 1930s; his older
brother Walter was a commercial artist all his life,
starting by doing movie theatre posters in Montreal in
the 1920s. In 1964, Lesley herself graduated as an
Associate of the Ontario College of Art in Advertising
Design. She worked in photography for over a decade,
including as a photographer for a daily newspaper, a
freelancer, and manager of the photography collection for
a large provincial corporation in Ontario.
Later, Lesley joined her father in his general insurance
business, and after a subsequent move to Edmonton,
Alberta with her husband Hal O'Neil, she continued in
that field. She retired from a senior risk management
position with the Government of Alberta when Hal retired
in 1999. However, photography was her first love, and now
she literally never leaves home without one of her
digital cameras.
RELATIONSHIP TO EMILY GERTRUDE
THOMSON
Alexander Thomson (1815-1895) +
Emma Jane East (1819-1888)
|
Emily Gertrude
Thomson (1850-1929) - Ann Baldwin
Thomson (1848-1880) + William Pearson (?)
|
Elsie Edith Pearson (1871-1940) + (James Dalrymple 1847-1922)
|
Kenneth Dalrymple (1909-1998) + Wendy Cross (1911-2001)
|
Lesley Dalrymple (1942 -)
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