A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography. VariousЧитать онлайн книгу.
Commission. It was while he held the latter office that he took service as one of the organizers of the Valcartier Military Camp, earning high praise from the Governor-General and the Militia Department, and finally receiving his knighthood at the hands of King George. As Colonel in Command he raised the 171st Battalion, which he took over to England in 1916, continuing his services with the army as one of the officers of a Railway Construction Battalion in France, after the 171st had been absorbed in other battalions, in terms of what is known as the Territorial System. No citizen of Quebec has earned higher credit for patriotic effort than Sir William. Setting aside his many business duties and resigning a lucrative government position, he ably fulfilled the duties assigned to him as a soldier. The responsible positions he has held as a business man and a public-spirited citizen have been manifold. Besides being President of the Price Brothers & Company, he has been Director and Honorary Chairman of the Union Bank; a Director of the Quebec Railway, Light, Heat and Power Company; Vice-President of the Canadian Lumberman’s Association; as well as being President of the Metis Lumber Company, the Jonquiere Pulp and Paper Company, the Gravel Lumber Company, and President of the Canadian Export Co. Nor did his business engagements hinder him from taking an active part in civic and charitable enterprises to which he has given beneficently of his means. At one time he was a Governor of the Jeffrey Hale Hospital, President of the Board of Trade, Director of the Trans-Canadian Railway project, an energetic supporter of the movement in favor of the National Battlefields Park, and President of the Quebec Turf Club. As far back as 1887, he took a practical interest in local military affairs, having been a lieutenant in the Eighth Royal Rifles, and being raised to his captaincy before his withdrawal from that company in 1903. As a prelude to his activity as a military organizer at the Valcartier Camp, he raised two companies for service during the Boer War, and encouraged rifle practice by presenting the Price Cup for competition at the targets. As a parliamentarian he had a term of three years; but his earlier defeat in the Rimouski constituency was repeated by Quebec West in 1911. As has been well said of him, he has proved himself to be a citizen of whom any community might well be proud. He was married in 1894, to Miss Amelia Blanche Smith, daughter of Mr. R. H. Smith, another of Quebec’s most prominent and worthy lumber merchants. His family consists of four sons and two daughters. Sir William has since his early days been an enthusiast as a “portageur,” and a keen sportsman. He owns two salmon-breeding rivers and extensive hunting grounds. While soldiering abroad, he continued head of his firm, which has in its employment several thousands of employees.
Kemp, Hon. Sir Albert Edward (Toronto, Ont.), son of Robert Kemp, an Englishman, and Sarah A. Kemp, his wife, a Canadian; born at Clarenceville, Que., August 11, 1858, and educated at Clarenceville and Lacolle Academy. For many years the subject of this sketch has been one of the leading manufacturers of Canada, and a successful business man. Since 1895 he has devoted considerable time to questions of public interest. In 1879 he married a Miss Wilson, of Montreal. He was President of the Canadian Manufacturers Association in 1895 and was re-elected in 1896. He was elected President of the Toronto Board of Trade for the year 1899, and re-elected in 1900. In 1898 he was appointed a delegate by the Board to the British Association, at its annual meeting held in Bristol, also to the Fourth Congress of the Chambers of Commerce of the Empire, held in London, June, 1900. He is a member of the Board of Regents of Victoria University, Toronto; a member of several Orders, among which is included the Orange Order, and many National and Philanthropic Societies. Mr. Kemp was first elected to the House of Commons at the general elections in 1900, and again returned in 1904. In 1908 he was defeated, but was re-elected at the general elections in 1911 by a very large majority. Upon the resignation of Sir Wilfrid Laurier and his Cabinet on October 6, 1911, following the defeat of the Liberal Party at the polls the previous September, he joined the Borden Government as Minister without Portfolio, and was sworn in a member of the Privy Council for Canada on October 10, 1911. After the outbreak of the war he was called upon by his Government to assume many important positions, among which was included the Chairmanship of the War Supplies Purchasing Commission, a position that required the keenest foresight, courage and action, and which practically demanded all his time. It later developed that the Government made no mistake in placing him at the head of this Commission, and great credit is due him for the manner in which he conducted its affairs. Upon the resignation of Sir Sam Hughes, Minister of Militia in the Borden Government, in November, 1916, Mr. Kemp was asked by Sir Robert Borden to accept the position as Minister of Militia, and accepted, and on December 14, 1916, was re-elected by acclamation by his constituents in East Toronto. Subsequently he was asked to accept the post of Overseas Minister, resident in London, and in this capacity he served throughout the momentous period of 1918, when he was directly in touch with Canada’s Army in France. In social life he has many friends, and is always ready to receive them in a manner that draws them closer to him. As a public man there is a great future before him, and he has won praise for having accepted office at the most critical moment in the history of Canada. When the greatest war the world has known draws to a close, and the history of the noble sons who fought and worked with the Allies in their different nations is written, the name of Hon. Albert Edward Kemp will come in for a full share of credit for the able and systematic methods adopted in helping the Motherland to continue to wave the flag that stands for freedom and justice. In religion he is a Methodist.
E.J. Beaumont, KITCHENER
M.G. Bristow, OTTAWA
Cameron, Lieut.-Colonel Sir Douglas, K.C.M.G., ex-Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba (Winnipeg, Man.), was born in Prescott County, Ont., June 18, 1854, the son of Colin and Annie Cameron, and was educated at the High School, Vankleek Hill, Ont. He was engaged in farming in the Province of Ontario from 1871 to 1880, afterwards moving to Winnipeg, in 1880. He engaged in various occupations until the fall of 1883, when he entered the lumber business under the firm name of Cameron & Company; later, Cameron & Kennedy. The business was incorporated as the Ontario & Western Lumber Company in 1892, and was later changed to the Rat Portage Lumber Company, and he has acted as General Manager since 1892, and President since 1894. He is also President of the Maple Leaf Flour Mills, a Director of the Northern Crown Bank, and a Director of the Manitoba Bridge and Iron Company. In 1902 he was elected to the Ontario Legislature for Fort William and Lake-of-the-Woods, and was defeated in the general elections of 1905 and 1908; was also an unsuccessful candidate for the House of Commons for Winnipeg in the Federal general elections in 1908. On August 1, 1911, he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Manitoba, which office he filled with the greatest satisfaction until succeeded by the present incumbent, Sir James Albert Manning Aikins, K.B. He was a Councillor for Rat Portage in 1891, and Mayor from 1891 to 1894; was appointed a K.C.M.G., December 31, 1913. In 1910 he was appointed Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of the 79th Highlanders, and has been very active in connection with the Militia since the outbreak of the war, as well as in Patriotic work. He married Margaret Cameron Ferguson, of Vankleek Hill, in 1880, to whom were born two sons and one daughter; is a member of the Manitoba Club and the St. Charles Country Club, and as a recreation is an admirer of horses. Sir Douglas is a staunch Liberal in politics, and is considered, by the leaders of his party, as one of the ablest statesmen in Canada. In religion he is a Presbyterian and an active worker in Church and Social Reform movements.
Bégin, Louis Nazaire, Cardinal Archbishop of Quebec, was born on January 10, 1840. He is the son of Charles Bégin, of Levis, his mother’s maiden name having been Miss Luce Paradis. His earlier education was had in the schools and colleges of the Quebec district, up to the time of his leaving for Europe, to prepare himself as a priest and professor. Ordained in Rome in 1865, he returned to Quebec to assume the duties of Professor of Theology and Church History in Laval University, with collateral duties for a time as Prefect of Studies in what is known as Le Petit Séminaire. It was in 1885 he was appointed Principal of Laval Normal School at the time that institution occupied the premises of the old Chateau Haldimand, over the site of which the spacious Chateau Frontenac now extends its massive wings. Three years after, he was named Bishop of Chicoutimi, eventually returning to Quebec to take up his residence in the Archbishop’s Palace as Coadjutor of Cardinal Taschereau, under the title of Archbishop of Cyrene. From 1894 to 1898, he continued to be