Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Riley, Maude
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Maude Keen, [ca. 1882]-1962, was born in Perth County, Ontario. She was educated as a teacher at the Ontario Normal School, and came to Alberta in 1904 to teach at Nose Creek School. In 1907 she married Harold Riley of Calgary, Alberta, and they had three children, Harriet Maude (Sproule), Harold William Jr., and George Albert.
Mrs. Riley took up welfare work seriously in 1908 when she was a member of a committee that interviewed the government on child protection laws.
She held organize the Alberta Council on Child and Family Welfare in 1918. She became president of the organization in 1922. Mrs. Riley also worked at various times with the Women's Canada Club, the Calgary and Alberta Tuberculosis Associations, the Local Council of Women, the Children's Aid Society, the Young Women's Christian Association and the Canadian Welfare Council.
A reformer and women's rights activist, Maude convinced the Calgary police force to hire women matrons in 1913. She received an award from the Belgian government for her work with the Belgian Relief Fund during the First World War. In 1918 she helped found the Calgary Child Welfare Society, which became the Alberta Council on Child and Family Welfare in 1923. She served as president of the Council from 1923 until 1962. She was the law convener for the Calgary Local Council of Women for many years, and also served on the Provincial Executive of the National Council of Women, working closely with Henrietta Muir Edwards. She sat on the executive of many other organizations, including the Alberta Federation of Women, Calgary Playground Association, Canadian Council on Child Welfare, and Foothills Provincial General Hospital Board. She was instrumental in the creation of family courts in Alberta.
For further information see Elise Corbet's article, "Always a Do-Gooder, Never a Suffragette", in Citymakers : Calgarians after the Frontier / Max Foran and Sheilagh S. Jameson, eds. - Calgary : Historical Society of Alberta, Chinook Country Chapter, 1987; and Nancy Millar's article, "Maude Riley : Never a Trailer", in Alberta History, vol. 54, no. 3 (Summer 2006).