Salvation Army Brigadier Frances Evangeline WAGNER 1905-1998 (SI WCR Gov 1958-1962)
Born Frances Evangeline BURROWS in York, Toronto, Ontario on 4 July 1905, third of twelve children of William Herbert BURROWS and Frances Jane BOWERS, Frances spent her childhood in Toronto. In 1925 she became an Officer in the Salvation Army in St. John, New Brunswick, and on 6 August 1936 married Salvation Army Captain Gerald Kenneth Raymond WAGNER in Ontario. They served in many provinces.
By 1940, Frances was Nursing Superintendent at the Salvation Army’s Grace Hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her husband Gerald left for the Salvation Army Auxiliary War Services overseas that year. Frances joined him in London in 1942 and for three years organized clubs for the wives of Canadian service men throughout Great Britain. Prior to being in Winnipeg, the couple served together as field officers in The Pas and Dolphin, Manitoba and separately for short assignments in Saskatchewan in early wartime.
Ater WWII, the WAGNERs served at the Salvation Army Booth Memorial Children’s Home in Calgary, Alberta for four years before moving to Vancouver, British Columbia. There they did prison and court work. According to a report of her visit to SI Winnipeg in October 1958 as WCR Governor (and then referred to as ‘Mrs. Senior Major Wagner’), she had joined Soroptimists in Vancouver seven years prior. Frances confided that she had found the problem of drug – addiction among women prisoners and ex-prisoners at times so depressing that she sought the brighter side of service work in the Soroptimist Club. “It gave me what I was looking for – cheerful association with other service-minded women”, she said.
In 1953 Frances and Gerald WAGNER were posted back to Calgary where they were happy to again work with children, as Superintendents of the Booth Memorial Children’s Home. Frances served two terms as Western Canada Region Governor, 1958-1962, while being a member of SI Calgary. They were beloved by the 72 children in their care, calling Gerald ‘Pop WAGNER’. The Salvation Army’s emergency shelter in Calgary, Wagner Cottage or House is named after them.
Brigadier Gerald WAGNER was appointed Chaplain of the Grace Hospital in Winnipeg on 1 July 1966, a position he held until they retired on 1 August 1974. Frances wrote the book “Eighty Years of Grace”, the history of the Grace Hospital in Winnipeg 1890-1970, published in 1970. After retirement they returned to their home province of Ontario, and Frances transferred from SI Winnipeg to SI North York North Toronto. When it folded, about 1995, she attended occasional meetings of SI Toronto.
Gerald died in Toronto in 1983. Frances died on 10 September 1998. They are buried together in the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto.
WCR’s annual “Frances Wagner Woman of Achievement Award” is named in her honour.
* Credit: Heartfelt thanks to Soroptimist member Margaret Wootton for dedicating her time and contributing to this article.
