Edith Williams | |
|---|---|
 1941 graduation photograph | |
| Born | Edith Bickerton Williams 24 June 1899 York, Toronto Ontario, Canada |
| Died | 24 November 1979 (aged 80) Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Other names | Bud Williams |
| Occupation(s) | farmer, veterinarian |
| Years active | 1927-1976 |
| Known for | archive of letters with her partner Frieda Fraser |
Edith Williams (24 June 1899 – 24 November 1979) was a Canadian veterinarian, the second woman from the country to complete her training at the Ontario Veterinary College and life partner of Dr Frieda Fraser. Initially entering university in 1916, Williams dropped out after one year. After a three-year trip abroad while she worked as a clerk in a bank and the Canadian immigration office, she returned to Toronto and took up farming on a farm she had inherited. After ten years of raising livestock, Williams was accepted into veterinary school and graduated in 1941. For the next twenty-five years, she had a private small-animal veterinary practice in Toronto. During the periods when Fraser and Williams were separated, they wrote letters daily. Their correspondence was preserved and donated after Fraser's death to the University of Toronto libraries. It is a unique portrait of lesbian life in the early twentieth century, as few such records have survived.