Background
Daughter of Emma and Silas Ebenezer Gregory, her maternal grandfather was Upper Canada barrister and judge Miles O"Reilly, noted for his successful defense of the group accused of participating in the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion.
Daughter of Emma and Silas Ebenezer Gregory, her maternal grandfather was Upper Canada barrister and judge Miles O"Reilly, noted for his successful defense of the group accused of participating in the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion.
University of Toronto. Trinity College.
Born in Hamilton, Ontario, she received a Bachelor of Arts and an Master of Arts degree in 1889 from Trinity College (now part of the University of Toronto), the only woman in her class and the first female graduate, and the first woman in the British Empire to receive a degree in music She then went into newspaper work, working as a journalist for Cosmopolitan. With MacGill, she gave birth to two daughters, Doctor Helen "Young Helen" MacGill Hughes (1903), and Elsie MacGill (1905), a pioneering female aeronautical engineer and aircraft designer.
In 1930, she was instrumental in creating the Canadian Federation fof Business and Professional Women Clubs.
She died on February 27, 1947, aged 83, after having served as a judge of the Juvenile Court of Vancouver, British Columbia for 23 years.
Always active in women"s rights, she became a member of the British Columbia Minimum Wage Board, periodically chairing meetings, and referring debates on sector-based minimum wages.