Henrietta Muir Edwards was born in Montreal in 1849. After an excellent education and European travel, she established the Working Girls' Association in downtown Montreal in a house purchased by Muir's father for the purpose. A forerunner of the YWCA, the WGA provided accommodation, advice and job training.
Edwards married a doctor, studied law, edited a journal and cared for their three children. She followed her husband to the Northwest Territories and wherever else his work took him. In 1890 Edwards found herself in Ottawa, where she joined with Lady Aberdeen to establish the National Council of Women.
In 1893 she convened the Standing Committee on Laws, and in 1897 she helped Lady Aberdeen establish the Victorian Order of Nurses to provide health care in frontier areas. She did masses of research and committee work, and wrote handbooks on the legal status of women in Canada and in Alberta. This remarkable woman was 78 years old when she joined the other four in the Persons Case.
Recently, a mural of the Famous Five was unveiled in Edmonton. Like her sister feminists, Henrietta Muir Edwards has had one of the Famous Five parks in Edmonton named in her honour.
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