Barbara Ann Scott: Queen of the Ice

Barbara Ann Scott: Queen Of The Ice

Ryan Stevens

Copyright © 2025 Ryan Stevens

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Title: Barbara Ann Scott: Queen of the Ice

Author: Stevens, Ryan, 1982-

ISBN: 9781069170521

Independently published

All rights reserved

Every reasonable effort has been made to credit all source material included used in this book.

If errors or omissions have occurred, they will be corrected in future editions provided written notification and supporting documentation has been received by the author.

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

APPENDIX A - FIRSTS

APPENDIX B - COMPETITIVE RECORD

APPENDIX C – ITINERARY OF SKATING SENSATIONS OF 1950 TOUR

APPENDIX D - GENEALOGY

SOURCES

APPRECIATION

AUTHOR'S NOTE

BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR

Barbara Ann Scott. Photo courtesy BAnQ: Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. Rights: Public domain.

Barbara Ann Scott. Photo courtesy BAnQ: Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. Rights: Public domain.

Barbara Ann Scott. Photo courtesy BAnQ: Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. Rights: Public domain.

Introduction

Writing a memorable biography is like choreographing a winning figure skating program. Both writers and choreographers need grace, fluidity and creativity. There's a lot of trial and error. Before anyone sees the finished work, authors and choreographers cut, change around and rework elements to improve the pace and flow. They must also pay close attention to the technical aspects. In skating, these are jumps, spins and lifts; in nonfiction writing, it means getting every fact and figure right.

If somebody else adapted Barbara Ann Scott's story to a film, her saccharine-sweet personality would all be a facade. Her mother would be portrayed as a controlling Mommie Dearest figure or a caricature of LaVona Harding. The plot would feature a bitter rivalry between Barbara Ann and Sonja Henie, climaxing in a scene where one of them throws a drink in the other’s face. A jealous rival might even resort to sabotaging Barbara Ann’s skates or scratching her record right before the Olympics. This is the sort of juicy story that fiction lovers go bonkers over, but none of this is true and that's not the kind of book I would ever want to write.

As you’ll come to learn in the chapters that follow, Barbara Ann's life was marked by both challenges and triumphs, ultimately illustrating the timeless truth that sometimes nice people finish first.

Before diving in, I want to share the same disclaimer that I have with my previous books:

This is a figure skating book written for figure skating people. 

Not every book should cater to a general audience, and this one was written for the thousands of dedicated and knowledgeable figure skating fans around the world that give a flutz about the sport's history.

If that's you, you're going to find this book interesting. If facts and figures about figure skating bore you to tears, you're in the wrong place.

My dear skating lovers, I hope you enjoy reading about a Canadian skating legend. Most importantly, I hope you learn something new.

1

In a slightly scary way, I sometimes feel as though I, Barbara Ann, didn't exist at all. I often seem to be something people have conjured up in their minds, something they want to believe I am, something a little bit better than perfect - which no one can be. - Barbara Ann Scott

Barbara Ann Scott was born May 9, 1928, on an unseasonably warm day in Canada's capital. She grew up in an ordinary Ottawa home, with an ordinary name, yet her family was far from ordinary.

Barbara Ann's father Clyde Rutherford Scott abandoned his studies in Mining Engineering at Queen's University to join the 42nd Lanark and Renfrew Regiment of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during The Great War.

Serving on the front lines during the Battle of Langemarck, Clyde faced a sudden ambush at a farmhouse. He sustained multiple injuries: rifle and machine gun fire wounds in both hips and one knee and shrapnel in his left eye. The severity of his injuries led the Germans to mistakenly believe that he had perished. They left him among a pile of dead bodies until a dog alerted them to his survival.

Major William Beattie, the Chaplain to the 1st Infantry Brigade, sent a telegram to the Mayor of Perth. The telegram falsely stated that Clyde had passed away. Consequently, his parents held a memorial service in his honour.

Clyde spent over two years in German and Swiss Prisoner of War camps before being repatriated to England in 1917. His parents were shocked and delighted when he eventually made his way back to Canada on a hospital ship, but his injuries were so severe that he had to have nine surgeries upon his return to Ontario. Though permanently disabled, he earned the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. When Barbara Ann was born, he was serving as the military's Assistant Director of Records. He was later appointed Military Secretary of National Defence.

Clyde and Barbara Ann's mother, Mary Purvis Derbyshire, had not yet crossed paths. However, Mary faced tough times of her own while Clyde was interned in a series of POW Camps in Europe.

Soon after marrying William Chalmers MacLaren, Mary moved to the U.S. with her husband, daughter Mary, and son William to live the California dream. Mary's husband William was a Director of the Ottawa, Rideau Valley and Brockville Railway Company and a manufacturer of gloves and suspenders.

The marriage ended when Mary divorced her husband on the grounds of neglect and non-support. She supported herself by working as a real estate agent in San Francisco. Through her family's high-society connections, Mary was introduced to Clyde. They continued to correspond over time after their first introduction, and over time a relationship blossomed.

They planned a quiet wedding in Boston. However, their wedding was delayed because Mary couldn't produce a divorce certificate from her first marriage. It was over a week before the necessary paperwork materialized. The couple married in 1927. They settled into a modest brick house at 648 Rideau Street in the Ottawa neighbourhood of Sandy Hill.

Mary's family was extremely prominent in her hometown of Brockville. Her great-grandfather was a Senator and Member of Parliament, Hon. Daniel Derbyshire. A popular dairy supplier, he was known as The Eastern Ontario Cheese King. Her great uncle Hon. Robert Alfred Ernest Greenshields was Chief Justice of the Superior Court of the Province of Quebec. Justice Greenshields served as a defence lawyer in the trial of Louis Riel when he was arrested for his role in the Northwest Rebellion. Her godfather was Viscount Richard Bedford Bennett, who served as Canada's 11th Prime Minister from 1930 to 1935.

Barbara Ann was raised in a church-going Anglican family with conservative values. She was essentially an only child, as her half-siblings were considerably older than her. As divorce was a taboo subject at the time, Barbara Ann's half-sister Mary lived with the family briefly, but she was passed off as a servant. She married a hockey player in 1934 and moved to Brockville. Barbara Ann's half-brother William was sent off to be raised by his grandparents in Brockville when he was ten and was not really a presence in the household.

Barbara Ann's father Clyde gave her the childhood nickname Tinker - after Tinker Bell - the fairy from the book Peter Pan. He called her this because she was so small and dainty. He insisted Barbara Ann wear her hair quite short when she was young. Her mother put a ribbon on it so the neighbours would know she was a girl.

Barbara Ann regarded her father as a wonderful man. He was kind but he was strict. Though fiercely independent, Clyde was unable to bend over and was plagued by the injuries he had suffered during The Great War.

His body was full of shrapnel, Barbara Ann remembered. He'd get a little red spot on his arm and it would fester and finally out would come a little piece of metal. This happened for years. Determined to be independent, he designed a pair of three-foot-long pincers, so he could pull on his socks and tie his shoelaces. He would limp his way through basketball games and rounds of golf at the Kingsmere Golf Club near the family's summer cottage. Clyde and Mary both valued modesty, kindness and hard work and tried to instill these values in Barbara Ann. They also both loved animals. The family home was overrun with a menagerie of pets, including two dogs, two rabbits, a cat, a canary, a family of mud turtles and a white rat. Visiting The Scotts was like visiting a miniature petting zoo. 

When she was only three years old, Barbara Ann first expressed an interest in skating. She wrote a letter to Santa Claus, care of a local radio station, asking for a pair of one-runner skates and a horse. When Santa brought her a pair of black skates with double runners, she was none too pleased. She thumped her bum down on frozen Dow's Lake to watch a man who was ice fishing while her mother skated nearby. She hated the double runners and never used them again, but her interest in skating never waned.

When Barbara Ann was five, and taking music lessons from former Olympic figure skater Fran Claudet, she said, If I do my music well, will you ask my mother to let me skate? Fran encouraged her to take up the sport and spoke to her parents about it. Santa finally brought her a 'real' pair of skates when she was six. Barbara Ann was taken over to skate on the crowded Junior sessions at the Minto Skating Club's rink on Waller Street, just east of where the Rideau Centre is today.

Melville Rogers, the first man to represent Canada at the Winter Olympic Games in 1924, was the biggest mover and shaker at