August 7th, 2024
Halifax’s Commander Isabel Macneill was a remarkable woman. Throughout her career Macneill paved the way for females, creating new paths of opportunity along the way.
As commanding officer of HMCS Conestoga, she was the first and only female commander of a ship in the British Commonwealth during the Second World War. From the Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) shore training establishment for women in Galt, ON, she was the only female outside the Royal Family entitled to be “piped aboard” any warship (piping someone aboard brought the crew on deck to attention, as a matter of respect for a person being honored). For her wartime service, Macneill was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1944.
After the war, Macneill worked at a training school for girls in Ontario before returning to the RCN briefly from 1954 to 1957. She helped establish the navy’s permanent female component. In 1960, she joined the correctional service and became the first female superintendent of a federal women’s prison.
In 1971, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada (OC) for her wartime and correctional system service. Macneill became the first female member of the Board of Governors at Commissionaires Nova Scotia (CNS) in 1982 after retiring to Mill Village near Truro. She served until her death in 1990.
On May 30, 2024, a footbridge named in her honour was dedicated at Camp Cassidy in New Brunswick. The camp is a privately-owned, 150-acre waterfront property that provides free three-season outdoor recreational and wellness facilities to current and former military and first responder personnel and their families. The bridge is one of three pedestrian bridges on the 3.2 km Three Bridges Hiking Trail named after Atlantic Canadian veterans.
Former CNS Governor and Board Chair Col John Boileau (Ret’d) helped facilitate the bridge’s naming. Read Boileau’s full biography of Isabel Macneill in The Canadian Encyclopedia.
Article submitted by Col John Boileau (Ret’)
