Family of late Guelph woman ‘very proud’ to feature her on new Remembrance Day stamp

A deceased Guelph woman is one of four women featured on a new Canadian postage stamp released for Remembrance Day.

Mary Barnaby Fountain was a 16-year-old high school student at Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute (GCVI) in 1944 when she filled out an application form to work with the Ontario Farm Service to join a group called the Farmerettes.

Barnaby Fountain wrote about his farm work in Thedford, Ont., in a memoir reprinted in the book Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz: Memories of Ontario Farmerettes.

“Most of the work was shredding celery, pulling onions and thrashing them on a big screen,” wrote Barnaby Fountain.

“In this way, the outer skins were removed before the boxes of onions were stacked to dry.”

The book was written in 2019 by Shirleyan English and Bonnie Sitter. Both began their research individually and joined forces later.

Since its publication, Farmerette’s story has been turned into a stage play that premiered at the Blyth Festival in Blyth, Ont., and a soon-to-be-released documentary.

Farmerettes were young women aged 16 and older who worked in the farm fields of southwestern Ontario and the Niagara region. The program started during World War I and continued into World War II.

The family of Mary Barnaby Fountain provided the archive image of four young women, including their relative, who appear on the stamp.

Canada Post pays tribute to the men and women who worked in agricultural fields to feed Canadians during the First and Second World Wars.

The Remembrance Day stamps also give a nod to the Soldiers of the Earth, the 22,000 men who enlisted during World War I tending and harvesting fruits and vegetables and helping with hay and tending livestock.

Letter writing campaign

The push to get the Farmerettes on a stamp started with a letter-writing campaign by a group that included author Bonnie Sitter of Exeter, Ont.

“One group composed a letter with pictures and sent it to all of our MPs across Canada,” Sitter said.

“And the only person who responded to us was Senator Rob Black, and he was right on board. He was very encouraged. And I think it must have been the day he received our request that he actually reached out to Canada Post and supported our application for a stamp.”

Senator Black is from Wellington County and worked in the agricultural industry for most of his career.

Georgina Fountain-Taylor is the daughter of Mary Barnaby Fountain. She says that when she was growing up, her mother told her about the work she did on the farms and had seen the photo that is now on the stamp.

“We were very proud and excited and a little bit stunned,” Fountain-Taylor said of the news that her mother would be featured on the stamp.

“We were very happy for my mother. This was our family’s war effort during (World War II) and we were very proud of it.”

Mary Barnaby Fountain died in April 2021 at the age of 93. Her daughter says the family plans to buy up stamp books for Christmas cards this year, and they also plan to get one framed.

‘Women could take on the toughest challenges’

Senator Rob Black stood in the Senate chambers last month to honor the Ontario women.

“The Farmerettes embodied resilience, commitment and the ability to rise to the occasion. They demonstrated that women could take on the toughest challenges and make significant contributions to both agriculture and the war effort,” said Senator Black.

“Their work was critical not only to keeping Canadian farms running, but also to showing the world that women had a rightful place in industries traditionally dominated by men.”