It was on this date in 1960 that the sister of Russia’s last Tsar died in relative obscurity in Toronto.
Grand Duchess Olga (born 1882) had fled Russia and made her way to Denmark following the Russian Revolution. After living in exile in Denmark for almost 30 years, she and her family made their way to Toronto in the late 1930s, living on a large farm outside the city.
Few in Canada were aware of the fact that this link to Russian and world history lived in Toronto. This changed when her relative, Queen Elizabeth, while visiting Toronto in June of 1959, invited the Grand Duchess for tea aboard the Royal Yacht. Just over a year later, in poor health, Olga moved into a small apartment on Gerrard Street East in Toronto where she died.
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Grand Duchess Olga/caption
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.
Grand Duchess Olga/caption
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.