Ivy Lawrence Maynier

Ivy Marjorie Lawrence Maynier (; 29 January 1921 – 31 May 1999) was a Canadian lawyer, educator, and diplomatic hostess. She was the first woman of colour to graduate from the University of Toronto Law School.

Early life and education Lawrence was born Ivy Marjorie Lawrence on 29 January 1921 in Montreal, the daughter of Alexander W. Lawrence and Bernice Herbert Lawrence. Her parents moved to Canada from Trinidad (then part of the British West Indies) in 1919. She graduated from McGill University in 1942, and received a scholarship to attend law school at the University of Toronto. In 1945 she was the first woman of colour to graduate from the University of Toronto's law school, and the first student there to earn an honours degree in international law. Career Lawrence was called to the bar in England in 1947; she was also a member of the bar in Trinidad and Tobago, and in Barbados. She worked for the United States Information Service in Paris. She later taught at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, where she was also the school's assistant registrar. She lived in Ottawa in the 1960s, and was a diplomatic hostess while her husband was Jamaica's High Commissioner to Canada. She married Pierre Gemma in 1955; they divorced within the year.