Life and Laughter and Hope
A St. Christopher House Century
Chapter 7 - Life and Laughter and Hope
The Story of Head Worker Lally Fleming
On the occasion of the Music School’s fiftieth anniversary in September 1980, a tribute was given honouring the late Lally Fleming Thomson. Lally Fleming had been head worker, a title later changed to executivedirector,at St. Christopher House between 1928 and 1933. Among other things, Fleming was instrumental in the creation of the Music School. With the Depression looming, Fleming came to the head worker position at a time when St. Christopher House faced unique challenges. Fortunately for St. Chris, and the community at large, they had at the helm a steadfast, competent and practical individual capable of seeing the organization through the difficult times which lay ahead.
Posthumously lauded for her great works at the 1980 tribute, one presenter recalled, “Wherever Lally Fleming was, there also seemed to be life and laughter and hope.”
Lally Fleming was born in Owen Sound, Ontario in the waning decade of the nineteenth century. Christened Catherine Alexandria, early on she was bestowed with the sobriquet, Lally, after a favoured uncle. One of eight children, her father founded the Northern Business College in 1881. Initially, home for Lally and her family was in the rear premises of the business college. Eventually, the Flemings moved to a larger home. As a child, family stories reveal Lally as a spirited youngster. Niece Margaret Fleming McKay wrote in a 1994 family memoir many stories regaling her Aunt Lally’s childhood antics. One had Lally, “Swinging a pail of water around her head and not spilling a drop,” while another recalled her performing an, “Enthusiastic sword dance [wherein] she cut her big toe.”
Sometime during Lally’s youth, her mother took permanently to bed with an undisclosed illness. Breaking with late Victorian traditions that required unwed daughters to remain in the family home and care for an ailing parent, Lally instead concluded the family matriarch was receiving more than adequate care from other offspring. Lally broke rank and left town. Her niece wrote, “From her teens [Lally] had a daring and a flare for making her restricting…childhood more exciting.” Leaving Owen Sound behind, Lally Fleming headed for Toronto and eventual employment (and residence) at St. Christopher House.
A sign of Lally’s social consciousness was displayed during the First World War. While the Great War raged in Europe, Lally rolled up her sleeves and signed on to become a farmerette. With domestic food supplies scarce, leagues of young women organized by agencies such as the YWCA supplemental food supplies by voluntarily performing farm chores. The majority of farmerettes were urbanites possessing little or no former knowledge of husbandry. Responsibilities ranged from sowing seeds to harvesting crops; picking fruit and cleaning stables. Considering Lally’s practical, can-do attitude, she rose to the challenge. In fact, Lally took to her farmerette duties with such gusto, daughter Ellen Spears recalls her mother telling a story about her cherry picking exploits. While she did harvest a goodly amount of the fruit, she also consumed just as much, resulting in a very upset stomach. Henceforth, Lally swore off the fruit.
Initially, the efforts of the farmerettes were dismissed as inconsequential. Soon however, the nation at war came to depend on their invaluable contribution. Today, social historians link the suffragette movement to the farmerette initiative.
Upon completing her social work studies sometime after the conclusion of the war, Lally began working at St. Christopher House. Residing at the Wales Avenue location, she thrived in this demanding environment. According to her niece’s memoir, by this time, Lally had developed a reputation in the family as a rebel of sorts. Not only had she found work outside the family home, but the job was, “In the wicked city of Toronto.” Returning to Owen Sound periodically, Lally often brought along fellow St. Chris workers. While on these visits, it was not unusual for Lally to attempt to coax her sisters to break out of the, “good daughter syndrome” and accompany her back to Toronto. (Eventually, a younger sister, Helen, accepted, moving to Wales Avenue and instructing piano at the Music School.)
In 1928 Lally assumed the position of head worker. Lally’s tenure was notable for several reasons. At the time, St. Chris was facing severe financial restrictions. For Kensington Market residents, life was already a challenge before the onset of the Depression. Now conditions had worsened. Programs at the settlement house desperately needed to expand. At the same time the United Church was being forced to reduce its funding to St. Chris.
Head worker Lally Fleming faced daunting challenges, but none she couldn’t overcome. Admired and respected by her peers for her indefatigable energy and enthusiasm, nothing appeared to faze her. Ellen Spears said her mother lived by the watchword: Anticipate. Examples of Lally doing just that are plentiful. So that St. Chris workers might continue their important work with the community, the ever practical Lally oversaw a plan wherein staff salaries were supplemented through fundraising efforts.
When St. Christopher House celebrated its silver jubilee in 1937, that year’s annual report noted the significant impact Lally Fleming had made a few years earlier. With so many men out of work, she had opened St. Chris’s Men’s Club to the unemployed, bringing, as the annual report stated, “Comfort and good cheer to many an aching heart.” In 1929 she oversaw the formation of parent education classes. Besides being the catalyst behind the Music School, she also saw to the formation of a drama program which, in the years to come, would stage spring performances and minstrel shows.
Even as St. Chris’s director, Lally Fleming remained connected to programming. She worked with staff overseeing clubs like Happy Hearts and Merry Maidens; organized hose parties to minimize the effect of summer heat; pitched in summers at the camp on Lake Scugog. In her final year as head worker in 1933, St. Christopher House changed its policy that had previously prevented women from sitting on its board.
Lally Fleming married late in life. In 1933, she and Andrew Thomson, a respected meteorologist, were wed. An entry in the family memoir said, “Aunt Lal vetoed all efforts to romanticize the event… she did not like the limelight.” Returning to Owen Sound, the couple exchanged nuptials in the wide hallway outside her mother’s bedroom.
Upon marriage, Lally’s focus changed. She ceased work at St. Christopher House. Within a year of marriage, daughter Ellen had arrived. Caring for her daughter, travelling and entertaining guests, Lally maintained the family household while pursuing volunteer commitments which included sitting on the board of Visiting Homemakers Association. During the Second World War, the Fleming-Thomson household expanded as warguests, three girls from England, temporarily resided in the home.
When asked what she believed the motivating force was behind her mother’s social consciousness, Ellen Spears was unable to provide a definitive answer. She did, however, speculate that perhaps the origin was in the temperance movement. Living in Owen Sound at a time when the city played a prominent role in Great Lakes shipping, Lally would have witnessed many a sailor squandering family income at local taverns. “Mostly”, Mrs. Spears concluded, “She was a caring person.”
Indeed, she was and St. Christopher House benefited immensely by Lally Fleming’s commitment to both St. Chris and the community at large.
The author would like to acknowledge the assistance of Ellen Spears, daughter of Lally Fleming Thomson in the writing of this article. Source material includes Many Identities by Margaret Fleming McKay and The Story of St Christopher House by Patricia J. O’Connor. An organizing committee consisting of volunteers, staff and board members has been formed to plan St Chris’s centenary. The Century Committee meets monthly. Those interested in participating, passing along ideas or sharing a memory, may contact Lidia Monaco at 416 504-3535 (Ext. 232) or lidiamo@stchrishouse.org.
St. Christopher House would like to thank the author, Edward Brown, who is a Toronto-based writer and a volunteer member on St. Christopher House's Century Committee. He is also the author of Playing Basra.
