Eric Nicol

Eric Patrick Nicol (December 28, 1919 – February 2, 2011)¹² was a Canadian writer, best known as a longtime humour columnist for the Vancouver, British Columbia newspaper The Province. He also published over 40 books, both original works and compilations of his humour columns, and won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour three times.³

Nicol was born on December 28, 1919, in Kingston, Ontario.³ In 1921, his family relocated to British Columbia. Nicol attended Lord Byng Secondary School and the University of British Columbia, where he studied French. At UBC, Nicol met future journalist and author Pierre Berton, then editor of the popular student paper The Ubyssey, who encouraged Nicol to write a humour column in the paper.⁴ The shy Nicol submitted his columns under the pseudonym Jabez. In 1941, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the university.

Following military service in the Second World War, Nicol returned to the University of British Columbia and earned a Master of Arts degree. He then studied at the Sorbonne in France, and lived in London, England for a few years writing comedy for the BBC.

In 1951, he returned to Vancouver, where for several decades he served as a regular columnist for city's newspaper The Province. He also wrote numerous radio comedy plays for CBC Radio.⁵

Nicol lived in Vancouver until his death on February 2, 2011. He was married to writer Mary Razzell, and had three children with his first wife, Myrl Nicol.

• 1951: winner, Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour The Roving I
• 1956: winner, Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour Shall We Join the Ladies?
• 1958: winner, Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour Girdle Me a Globe
• 1999: finalist, Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize, Anything for a Laugh: Memoirs
• 2000: appointed Member of the Order of Canada⁶