Constructing a “Better Britain” in British Columbia: the travelogues, poetry and literature of Hilda Glynn-Ward, 1886–1966

ABSTRACT This article examines the writings of Hilda Glynn-Ward, a white British colonial woman who held a strong attachment for her adopted home of British Columbia, Canada in the early twentieth century. Her attachment to Canada’s Pacific province was so strong that she felt she had to defend it against the threat of non-Anglo immigrants, particularly Asians. Glynn-Ward’s travelogues, poetry, and literature were an overt racist political statement on how she wished to shape the future of British Columbia as a part of “Greater Britain.” Despite publishing success with her travel writing about British Columbia, her political agenda failed. After four decades of extreme racist political activism and marginal economic success she returned to the United Kingdom in 1958 and died in 1966. The article suggests that her desire to construct a “Better Britain” in British Columbia motivated her prolific but prejudiced writing career.