Wilfrid Eggleston
Wilfrid Eggleston was a notable figure in Canadian journalism and education, born in England in 1901 before immigrating to the Canadian prairie. He graduated from Queen's University in 1926 and began his career as a reporter for the Toronto Star and Star Weekly, eventually becoming the Ottawa bureau chief. In 1934, he transitioned to the Reuters news service and later served as press secretary for the Royal Commission on Federalism in 1937. During World War II, Eggleston held significant responsibilities as a press censor, ultimately becoming the director of press censorship. After the war, he shifted back to journalism and, in 1947, founded the first journalism program at Carleton University, where he taught for two decades. Eggleston received the Order of the British Empire in 1943 for his wartime censorship work and was honored with several awards and honorary degrees throughout his career. He authored both poetry and nonfiction, with his early work, "Prairie Moonlight, and Other Lyrics," reflecting his prairie roots, and his 1957 book, "The Frontier and Canadian Letters," gaining particular acclaim.
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Wilfrid Eggleston
Writer
- Born: March 25, 1901
- Birthplace: Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England
- Died: June 15, 1986
Biography
Wilfrid Eggleston was born in England in 1901 but immigrated with his family to the Canadian prairie. After earning a degree at Queen’s University at Kingston in1926, Eggleston was hired as a reporter by the Toronto Star and the Star Weekly. Eggleston earned his editors’ trust and became Ottawa bureau chief. He left the Toronto papers in 1934 to work for the Reuters news service. He became press secretary to the Royal Commission on Federalism in 1937. With World War II brewing, Eggleston became a press censor; eventually he became director of press censorship.
After the war, Eggleston resumed reporting. In 1947, he began a twenty-year tenure with Carleton University, where he founded the school of journalism, which was the first journalism program at a Canadian school. Eggleston was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1943. Ironically, he received the award not for his journalism but for censorship during the War. Both Carleton University and the University of Western Ontario awarded Eggleston honorary degrees. In 1968, Eggleston won a National Press Club Award; in 1975 he won an Alex Award; and in 1982 The Writers Guild Of Alberta named an award for nonfiction after him.
Eggleston’s first book, Prairie Moonlight, and Other Lyrics published in 1927, was a book of poetry inspired by the unrelenting prairie that dominated his youth. Of his several nonfiction works, The Frontier and Canadian Letters (1957) was especially well received.