His Childhood

Wilfrid Laurier was born on November 20, 1841, in Saint-Lin in the Laurentians. He was the son of Carolus Laurier and Marcelle Martineau. She had lost three-year-old daughter Marie-Honorine two years earlier and she would lose yet another child just before dying of tuberculosis in 1848. She was survived by Wilfrid, then seven years of age, and Malvina, born in 1844, who would also die of tuberculosis in 1855. Wilfrid’s father remarried quickly and Adéline Ethier and he would have six children. As a child, Wilfrid was an affectionate, sweet youngster.

Although he lived only a few years in Saint-Lin, Wilfrid Laurier would make a strong impression on his home village.