Gryphon Gallery: Our First National Champion and International Athlete

January 20, 2022

Alumni

Stuart Brambley, Archivist Stuart Brambley, Archivist photo

Margaret Sutcliffe was a student at GNS (Norfolk House School) from 1928 to 1932. Born in 1918, she became interested in golf at an early age and started playing at 14 years old as a junior at Uplands Golf Club. Margaret joined the Victoria Golf Club at age 21, where she won her first club championship that very first year—the first of fourteen triumphs.

A year later she won her first of 10 Victoria and District titles. Margaret married in 1942 and after WWII she won three consecutive BC titles, qualifying in 1950 for both the United States and Canadian Amateur Championships.

Margaret Sutcliffe Todd represented Canada in 1951 in matches against the British Curtis Cup Team, the Commonwealth Championships, and was three time captain of the Canadian national team. In 1973, Todd became the first female golfer inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame.

During the mid-seventies she twice won the BC Seniors and Canadian Seniors Championships. She was inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and the Victoria Sports Hall of Fame in 1997 and the BC Golf Hall of Fame in 2001.

Her contributions to the sport extended well beyond playing. She sat on numerous boards, including National Rating Director, National Team Director, National Rules Director, BC Rules Director, and President of the Vancouver Island Ladies Golf Association. Her most significant contributions have perhaps been in enhancing player development opportunities whenever she could, by creating a scholarship for the UVic’s Women’s Golf program, as well as donating one of her many trophies for the Pacific Northwest Senior Women’s Amateur Championship.

Margaret Sutcliffe Todd was Honorary Chair for GNS’s Centennial Golf Tournament and passed away in July, 2019

This is the sixth instalment of a series of articles entitled “Gryphon Gallery” created by our School Archivist that will provide snapshots that celebrate the achievements of a variety of alumni and staff from throughout the history of GNS.