Insurance underwriter.
Born at Carberry on 11 July 1888, second daughter of Margaret Farewell (1849-1932) and Samuel Jacob Thompson, she moved with her family to St. James in in 1899. In September 1915, she married Gordon Kirby Hignell (1894-1918, son of Albert Renfrew Hignell). They had two sons, Edward Thompson “Ted” Hignell (1916-1998) and Gordon Kirby Hignell (1918-1943), the second shortly after her husband died of influenza soon after returning from a trip to eastern Canada. In 1926, she was the first woman in Manitoba to receive the degree of chartered life underwriter, and she became a well-known member of the life insurance business in Winnipeg. She died at Clarkson, Ontario on 26 September 1966 and was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery.
Birth registrations [Margaret May Thompson, Edward Thompson Hignell, Gordon Kirby Hignell], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
[engagement notice], Winnipeg Tribune, 7 August 1915, page 43.
“Gordon K. Hignell dies of influenza,” Winnipeg Tribune, 21 October 1918, page 12.
“Is first woman to get charter,” Winnipeg Tribune, 1 October 1926, page 2.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 27 September 1966, page 25.
Margaret May Thompson, FamilySearch.
This page was prepared by Wendy Prystenski and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 1 October 2026
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