Pauline Vanier  (see also Elizabeth Smellie) Date of issue of stamp: January 17, 2000 Designed by: Margaret Susan Issenman The stamp features oval portraits of Pauline Vanier (top) and Elizabeth Smellie with a background activity vignette of a nurse caring for a patient. Series : Millennium Collection , Humanitarians and Peacekeepers. 1,000,000 copies of the stamp were printed by Ashton-Potter Ltd.

© Canada Post Corporation Reproduced with permission

Pauline Vanier (née Archer) Born Montreal, Quebec 1898. Died March 1991.Her training as wife and mother of 5 children was used outside of the home as a Red Cross volunteer in Paris during and after the Second World War. She is one of the few Canadians to have been honoured by France for her services with the Jacques Cartier Medal.  Her husband, Georges Vanier, was also honoured by France for his services during the war. Pauline would support her husband in all of his diplomatic postings abroad and as "First Lady" of Canada when Georges served as Governor General of Canada. A widow and in  her 70's, she moved to France where she worked with her famous son and institution he founded called L'Arche, a refuge for the mentally handicapped.