About Margaret Cecilia Mumford (1922-1998)

Margaret Cecilia (Mumford) Smith 1969

Margaret Cecilia Mumford was born on November 4, 1922 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her christening was on December 27, 1922 and her confirmation was on May 27, 1934 at St. Mary’s Cathedral. She was one of five children of Ernest H. Mumford (1886-1957) and Margaret Cecilia Naylor (1886-1965) who were married in Halifax on March 2, 1908. Ernest and Margaret were both 21 years old when they wed. Their marriage lasted 49 years, during which time they had five children (Margaret “Peggy” Louise, Ernest Patrick, Bernard Joseph, George and the youngest child, Margaret Cecilia).

Margaret married Russell Cannon Smith (1920-1995) during a major snowstorm on December 28, 1944 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They needed special dispensation to marry because she was marrying a soldier during war time. Russell was 24 and Margaret was 22. Their marriage lasted 50 years. They had five children: one boy (the oldest child) and four girls (one died when she was only nine years old).

The Canada Voting Records for 1945 show that Margaret was living with her older sister, Peggy Louise who was also married to a soldier. At that time, there was a severe housing shortage. The population of Halifax nearly doubled during the war as service personnel poured into the port city by the tens of thousands. Many of the military resented the overcrowding and strained facilities. Bad feelings, combined with the poor preparations by military and local authorities for VE Day, turned spontaneous celebrations into riots and rampage on May 7-8, 1945 (see Halifax VE Day Riots newspaper reports and the short film VE Day Riot 1945). The reports stated that 564 businesses suffered damage and 207 shops were looted. Three rioters died. A federal inquiry later blamed the navy for poor discipline of its personnel and the navy’s top officer on the east coast was fired.

Being an “army wife” Margaret and the family moved to Victoria, British Columbia, then back to Halifax, on to Ottawa, Ontario and then Oakville, Ontario where they stayed. When Russell retired from the army in October 1965, they bought their “dream house” with a large back yard in Oakville. To help pay the bills, Margaret went to work doing various jobs, including office cleaning. For a number of years, she also worked in the freeze-dried food preparation business, which she seemed to enjoy. The freeze-dried process was first developed in WWII as a means of preserving blood serum.

Russell Smith and Margaret (Mumford) Smith in retirement 1980s

Margaret and her husband had similar passions, such as eating steak and potatoes, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer. Russell was a long-time member of the Royal Canadian Legion so, after all the children had moved away, they spent many hours at the Legion enjoying the company of their army friends and associates. In her later years, she suffered a severe brain aneurysm but, after several years of rehabilitation, she recovered. Margaret Cecilia Mumford died on April 12, 1998, aged 75, in Oakville, Ontario and is buried next to her husband at Trafalgar Lawn Cemetery, Oakville.