Adelaide Hoodless

Who was Adelaide Hoodless?

Adelaide Hoodless née Addie Hunter was a Canadian educational reformer who founded the international women’s organization known as the Women's Institute.

She was born on a farm in St George, Canada West, the youngest of 13 children. Her father died a few months after her birth. Her mother, Jane Hamilton Hunter was left to manage the farm and a large household. Perhaps the hard work and isolation of her youth inspired Adelaide to take up the cause of domestic reform years later.

After her years in a one-room schoolhouse, she stayed with her sister Lizzie while attending 'Ladies College'. While there, she met John Hoodless. He was the only surviving son of a successful Hamilton furniture manufacturer. She married John Hoodless and moved to Hamilton, Ontario.

When they married, she exchanged the name ‘Addie’ for ‘Adelaide’. She also exchanged her life as a hard-working girl in a full and busy rural farmhouse for the life of a Victorian lady. Supported by servants in the upkeep of a fine home, Adelaide and John had four children.

Then personal tragedy struck: in 1889, her infant son John Harold died at age 14 months – from what was called “summer complaint”. He probably drank contaminated milk. Adelaide was devastated.