INDEX to BRITISH NOBILITY AND KNIGHTHOODS TO CANADIANS X-2016 UPDATED: 02 February 2016 PAGES: 30 Prepared by: Surgeon Captain(N) John Blatherwick, CM, OBC, CD, MD, FRCP(C), LLD ============================================================================ ============================================================================ 1 BRITISH NOBILITY AND KNIGHTHOODS TO CANADIANS The British Nobility is headed by the Queen (or King) and her children who are Princes and Princesses. The five grades of the British Nobility are Dukes, Marquis, Earls, Viscounts and Barons. A Baronet is one rank below the peerage granted by the Sovereign and confers upon the person the right to be called Sir and to use the post-nominal letters Bt. Unless previously knighted, a Baronet is not necessarily a Knight Bachelor. The title of Baronet is a hereditary title, the title being passed on to the oldest son. A Knight Bachelor ranks behind a Baronet and confers upon the person the right to be called 'Sir' and to use the post-nominal letters Kt. There are also six official British Orders of Chivalry: The Most Noble Order of the Garter; The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle; The Most Honourable Order of the Bath; The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George; The Royal Victorian Order, and; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Admission to the first two orders automatically confers Knighthood (although most appointments are to those already members of the peerage) and admission to the first two classes of the other four orders confers knighthood (Bath GCB & KCB; St Michael and St. George GCMG & KCMG; Royal Victorian Order GCVO & KCVO; and Order of the British Empire GBE & KBE). Thus, the peerage has five classes; a Baronet is between the peerage and knighthood; and, knighthood is granted to a Knight Bachelor and to those admitted to the top two grades of the six orders of chivalry. Before being admitted to a grade of a British Order of Chivalry, which confers knighthood, the person is first knighted as a knight bachelor and then receives the insignia of the order. No person born in Canada has ever been made a Duke but His Royal Highness, the Duke of Connaught (1911 - 1916), third son of Queen Victoria, and the Duke of Devonshire (1916 - 1921), were Governor Generals of Canada. Five Marquis have served as Governor General in Canada but no Canadians have been made a Marquis. Also, no Canadians have been made an Earl although several Earls have served as the Governor-General of Canada, the last one being Earl Alexander of Tunis (1946- 1952). Richard Bedford Bennett, Prime Minister of Canada from 1930 to 1935, and born in New Brunswick, was made a Viscount. His title, conferred after he moved to Britain in 1941 was Viscount Bennett of Mickleham, Calgary and Hopewell. As he had no heir, the title died with him. The British Commander of the Canadian Corps when they took Vimy Ridge was Lieutenant-General The Honourable Sir Julian Hedworth George Byng, later made a Field Marshal and who after serving as Canadian Governor-General (1921 - 1926) was made the Viscount Byng of Vimy, but of course was not a Canadian. The only other Canadian to be made a Viscount was Thomas Hamar Greenwood, born in Whitby, Ontario and who became Viscount Greenwood in 1937. Greenwood was also a Baronet and a Baron. 2 The first native-born Canadian to be knighted was Daniel Jones from Upper Canada who was made a Knight Bachelor in 1836. Prior to Confederation only a few knighthoods were granted to Canadians or to British subjects for services done mainly in Canada. None of the Fathers of Confederation held titles but Queen Victoria made the first Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald, a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on the day the Confederation of Canada was proclaimed, 1 July 1867. This caused Macdonald immediate problems because his French-Canadian lieutenant, George Etienne Cartier, and Alexander Galt, his first finance minister, both major architects of the British North American Act, had not received a comparable honour. The ensuing uproar over this omission led to a Baronetcy for Cartier in 1868 and a KCMG for Galt in 1869. George Etienne Cartier, Alexander Tilloch Galt, William Pearce Howland, William McDougall, Samuel Leonard Tilley, and Charles Tupper were all made Civil Commanders of the Order of the Bath (CB) on 1 July 1867. All but McDougall would receive a Baronetcy or be knighted later. Recommendations for knighthoods were the prerogative of the Governor-General. Macdonald was a strong supporter of titles and during his two terms in office pressed for more awards and for government input to awards. Macdonald's successor, Alexander Mackenzie (1873 - 1878), a Liberal, was hostile to honours and refused a knighthood. Mackenzie, furious over a proposed award to a government employee (Sandford Flemming) without the government's approval, put his case strongly to the Home Secretary in 1877. The Home Secretary was reluctant to agree to government input and the hostility continued resulting in few awards during this period. Mackenzie was the only Canadian Prime Minister not knighted until Arthur Meighen became Prime Minister in 1920. There were few honours awarded during Mackenzie's term as Prime Minister (1873 - 1878) but he did try to have George Brown, who played a prominent part in the Quebec Conference of 1864 and was regarded as the power behind the Mackenzie administration, awarded a knighthood. Brown, true to his Liberal principals, refused the honour. In Macdonald's first list on his return to power in 1878, two Liberals (Cartwright and Howland) plus three Conservatives (Tilley, Tupper and Campbell) were included. The country was clearly becoming polarized on the honours question with Conservatives approving of them and Liberals not. Mackenzie's successor as Liberal leader, Edward Blake, also refused a knighthood. With Conservatives once again in power, it became the practice in 1879 to knight the Chief Justices of the four provinces on appointment to office. Other recipients were usually engaged in public affairs, members of the cabinet (especially finance and militia), senior persons in banking and railway development and Provincial Lieutenant-Governors. 3 Sir John A. Macdonald died in office in 1891 and three of his four Conservative successors were knighted once in office (Abbott, Thompson, and Bowell) while Tupper had been knighted prior to taking office. When Wilfrid Laurier, a Liberal, became Prime Minister in 1896, he declined a knighthood. However, when he arrived in England for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria, he learned that his name was on the Queen's Honour List for 1897. Although strongly opposed to accepting the award of a GCMG, he was persuaded by his advisors to accept the award so as not to disrupt the Jubilee ceremonies. Laurier resisted attempts to have his ministers knighted and while public reaction to his award was favourable, he always considered the title a political liability. In 1902, Laurier had Parliament petition the King to consult his Canadian Ministers in matters relating to honours to Canadians. The Colonial Office was told "it is not in harmony with the principles of our constitutional system that the Governor-General make recommendations without the advice of Canadian Ministers". The Colonial Office again refused Canadian Government input and a major controversy arose in 1911 when Bonar Law, the only Canadian to become a British Prime Minister, secured a Knight Bachelor for an expatriate Canadian, Max Aitken. Aitken went on to receive a Baronetcy and later was made a Baron, Lord Beaverbrook, further awards that angered Canadian Liberals. Sir Robert Borden, Canadian Prime Minister (1911 - 1920) was originally elected as a Conservative and continued the Conservative tradition of encouraging Knighthoods. However, a Knighthood to Sam Hughes, a Baronetcy for Joseph Flavelle and a peerage for Hugh Graham, were all pointed out as examples of the British continuing to prevent Canadian input into the awarding of these honours. Borden himself was made a GCMG in 1914. During the First World War, several honours were made to individuals involved in the war effort and to serving Canadian officers, such as General, Sir Arthur Currie, first Canadian to command the Canadian Corps. As the head of the Unionist Government elected in 1917, Borden was under considerable pressure to do away with British Honours. On 22 May 1919, the so-called Nickel Resolution was adopted by the House of Commons asking the British Government to exclude Canadians from receiving honours of any kind, titular or non-titular. It is important to point out that this was not passed as a law but only as a resolution. Thus, Canadians living in Britain were not excluded from knighthoods (such as George Parkin, KCMG 1920) but the Governor-General of Canada no longer recommended awards. 4 When Richard Bennett, a Conservative, became Prime Minister (1930 - 1935), he lifted the ban on British honours. In the New Years Honour List of 1933 (Canada Gazette, 4 February 1933), he had Sir George Perley, Minister without Portfolio and frequent acting-Prime Minister, elevated from a KCMG to a GCMG. The reaction of the Canadian public was mixed so he delayed any further honours until the New Years Honour List of 1934 although the Imperial Service Medal was awarded generously in 1933. The 1934 New Years Honour List saw the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Right Honourable Lyman Poore Duff made a GCMG and the Chief Justice of the Province of Quebec, The Honourable Joseph Mathias Tellier made a Knight Bachelor. In addition, four CMGs, seven CBEs (including Miss Charlotte Whitton, later Mayor of Ottawa), eleven OBEs and sixteen MBEs were announced.