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V Ti V * •» » % /•»** s.Woman with a mission was ‘strong characterA memorial ceremony was held Friday for Dr. Marian Sherman, the long-time Ten Mile Point resident recently named Canadian Humanist of the Year.Dr. Sherman. 83. of .2901 Seaview, who died Mondaywas a former gynecologistand medical missionary.Since espousing atheistic humanism in 1946, she had been a pioneer in humanism in western Canada.Described by Metchcsin humanist Geoff Mitchell (who chaired the half-hour ceremony Friday) as having been a“woman with a mission,” Dr.Sherman was born Marian Noel Bostock in England but came to Victoria as a very young child.At 35, she went back to schooling in England and later was a medical student at St. George's Hospital inLondon.During the First World War she became a qualified doctor, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and was appointed house surgeon at St George’s — a.distinction for a woman at that time. ,In 19222 she went to India as a medical missionary and met her future husband, the lateVictor Sherman, then a bank manager. \The couple were married Ln„ Ottawa in 1928 and returned to India where they lived in Agra and Lucknow.Sherman retired in 1934, and they spent two years in England.In 1836 they came to Vio*• toria and took up residence at Ten Mile Point.' , . . .During her 40 years in the area Dr. Sherman “devoted herself freely to many human-i t a r i a n and progressive causes,” said Mitchell.It was 29 years ago that Dr. Sherman — to use her own words — woke up.” vDeeply affected by twoworld wars and her work in India as a missionary she threw over her religious beliefs'.“You realize there can’t be an all-knowing, all-loving power, that a Christian God issupposed to be, behind suchevents and conditions,” she once told the Colonist.• -* ' - ji, _ ,“How people hate the word atheist. They think there is something evil about it. It only means a person who doesn’t believe in a supernatural being over us ... .“If you say you believe in God. people accept you. But belief is a prejudice instilledin youth. A believer is not a thinker and a thinker is not a believer.”As recently as last month Dr. Sherman was commenting on the treatment meted out a previous recipient of theHumanist of thfe Year award,Dr.- Henry Morgentaler, the convicted Montreal abortionist.She deplored the over-ruling by judges of a jury* decision in Morgentaler’s trial, noting there w'as a great deal of harmful “emotionalism” over the abortion issue.On a more personal note, Mitchell said Dr. Sherman vuas “one of Victoria’s characters — and a very strong character.”Other speakers at Friday’s memorial ceremony wrere Derek Pethick, a family friend; James Gorst, Esqui-malt MLA; Bill Scott, lofcal philosopher; Charles Barber, former Cool-Aid hostel organizer,* Charles Burchill, former Royal Roads professor. and Kay Dixon, a close friend.Dr. Sherman was the eldest of eight children of the late Hewitt Bostock, pioneer of Monte Creek, B.C. Bostock ran in the election of 1896 and w-on the federal seat of Yale-Carlboo in the government of Wilfrid Laurier.After getting into financial difficulties the energetic, progressive; Bostock resigned his seat and went to Monte Creek, near Kamloops, where he and his wife ran a cattle .ranch. His family grew up on the ranch. .In 1904 he was made a senator and for the last seven years of his life was Speaker.Dr. Sherman is survived by her daughter Ruth (Mrs. James Lindsay) of Armstrong, B.C.; a sister, Ruth (Mi's. Murray Fallis) of Toronto; a brother, Hugh Bostock of Ontario and two granddaughters, Janet Marian and Lucinda Maude Lindsay.Dr. Sherman. . . memorial service
Newspaper Details
Victoria Daily Colonist
Victoria, British Columbia, CA
Sat, Aug 23, 1975
Page 9
Full Page
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USA 14 May 2020
Other Publications Near Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria General Conference Daily Bulletin
Victoria Evening Telegraph
Victoria New Westminster Times and Vancouver Island Guardian
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Victoria Vancouver Daily Standard
