Tilly Rolston

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Tilly Jean Rolston (born Cameron; February 23, 1887 – October 12, 1953) was a Canadian politician in British Columbia. A teacher by training, she studied at the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Provincial Normal School and taught in Vancouver. She married Frederick James Rolston in 1909; they had three children.

Rolston helped shape public service before entering provincial politics. She served on the Vancouver Park Board (1938–1946) and was a director of the Pacific National Exhibition. She was elected as a Conservative MLA for Vancouver-Point Grey in 1941 and was re-elected in 1945 and 1949 as part of a Liberal-Conservative coalition. She chaired the Select Standing Committee on Social Welfare and supported policies such as allowing margarine to be colored yellow.

In 1951 she left the coalition over hospital insurance, sat as an independent, and joined the BC Social Credit Party in February 1952. After the 1952 election, which gave Socred a minority government, she became Minister of Education under Premier W. A. C. Bennett. She was the second woman to serve as a BC cabinet minister and the first woman in Canada to hold a portfolio. As education minister, she introduced a new school financing method known as the Rolston Formula and helped bring a sex-education program into schools.

Rolston ran for re-election in 1953 but was defeated by Liberal Arthur Laing. She died of cancer four months later in Vancouver and received the province’s first state funeral for a woman. Her legacy includes her grandson Peter Rolston, who later served as an MLA.