Career
Vincent Massey was a widower whose wife Alice died 18 months before his appointment as Governor General. Lilias, who was married to Vincent and Alice Massey"s son Lionel, is to date the only person to have served as the official host or hostess of Rideau Hall who was not the Governor General"s spouse. Due to the conventions of formal address that were used in the 1950s, she may also be referred to in some references as Mistress
Lionel Massey rather than by her own given name.
The daughter of businessman and politician T. Franklin Ahearn, she was raised in Ottawa just a few blocks from Rideau Hall at 7 Rideau Gate. She worked as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross during World World War II before marrying Lionel Massey in 1946.
They resided in Saskatoon, Toronto and Canton, and briefly in London, England, until Vincent Massey was appointed as Governor General in 1952. As the spouse of the Governor General is an important public role in its own right, Vincent Massey"s status as a widower necessitated the appointment of an acting châtelaine, and Lilias Massey was selected for the role.
Lionel Massey simultaneously served as Secretary to the Governor General of Canada.
As châtelaine, Massey"s duties included hosting visiting dignitaries at Rideau Hall, and accompanying the Governor General on his official state visits and public appearances. During her term as, Lionel and Lilias Massey maintained their primary residence at Rideau Cottage on the grounds of Rideau Hall, while also sometimes returning to Batterwood House, the Masseys" private family home in Canton, for weekends and vacations. In 1954, the Masseys in turn undertook a state visit to Washington, District of Columbia, and later hosted Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother at Rideau Hall.
In 1955, they hosted Princess Anne, Princess Royal at Rideau Hall.
In 1956, she accompanied Vincent Massey on a tour of the Canadian Arctic, during which she became the first woman ever to fly over the North Pole. Upon the end of the tour, she briefly fell ill and was taken to hospital in The Pas, Manitoba.
As of that trip, she had accompanied Vincent Massey on all but two of his 86 official trips across Canada. In 1957, she was the official presenter of the Lady Tweedsmuir Cup, a women"s curling championship trophy named for Susan Buchan, Baroness Tweedsmuir, to the winning Royal Montreal Curling Club.
Other dignitaries she hosted at Rideau Hall included Jawaharlal Nehru, Queen Juliana and Haile Selassie.
After Vincent Massey stepped down as Governor General, Lionel and Lilias returned to Batterwood House. Following Lionel"s death in 1965, Lilias returned to Ottawa, where she lived until her death in 1997.
