Fonds F1656 - Joseph Lacey Willis fonds

Joseph Lacey Willis, the secretary of the Reconstruction Party, was born in London, England in 1903. He was a student at Queen's University but upon his marriage to Helen Marie Perry of London, Ontario, he moved to London where he graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 1930, with a degree in English and History. He was a Grand Master in the Masonic Lodge, a public school teacher and principal for a span of forty-six years, broken only by service during World War II. He commanded the First Signals Squadron of London, Ontario and came to Kingston to be chief instructor at the Signals School at Vimy Barracks until 1944. He and his wife were deeply involved in the attempt to launch the Reconstruction Party into a new national political alternative. He remained interested in politics, despite the disappointing fall of the Reconstruction Party, until his death in 1979.