Ethel was born in Ireland in 1870, and little is known about when and how she came to Victoria. Like her husband John, Ethel was a strong advocate of the arts in Victoria, where she was a founding member of The Island Arts Club. Ethel was a skilled artist who displayed her watercolours at several of the yearly IAC exhibitions. Perhaps Ethel called on Point Ellice House to discuss her artwork or the IAC with Kathleen O’Reilly, as Kathleen was also an accomplished painter. Ethel died in 1948. Her dedication and devotion to the arts were so strong that she stipulated that the proceeds from her estate were to be held in trust for “any art gallery in the city of Victoria that might come into existence.” She donated some of the Shallcross estate to the Provincial Library and Archives in the hopes that some sort of commemoration would be established to honour her late husband. The province did not accept this request, and no such memorial was established.
List of Calling Cards
The Point Ellice House collection contains hundreds of calling cards left for the O’Reilly family by visitors. This initial research was conducted by Public History students at the University of Victoria, and these biographies constitute only a portion of the individuals represented by the calling cards within the collection.