Elizabeth Pauline MacCallum

MacCallum, Elizabeth Pauline

Elizabeth Pauline MacCallum, diplomat, scholar (b at Murash in the Ottoman Empire [Turkey] 20 June 1895; d at Ottawa 12 June 1985). The daughter of missionaries, MacCallum graduated from Queen's and Columbia and taught in the Yukon. After working for the Foreign Policy Association in New York City and the League of Nations Society in Ottawa, she joined the Department of External Affairs (now FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE) in 1942, serving as adviser to the delegation to the 1945 San Francisco Conference, which established the UN, and as Middle Eastern specialist at many general assemblies. Chargé d'affaires in Beirut in 1954, she was the first woman head of mission. After retiring, she spent 4 years in Turkey before returning to Ottawa. She wrote extensively on Middle East and Balkan subjects.