Georges Vanier

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George Philias Vanier
Vanier (in uniform) with Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and other members of a delegation to plan the war missions in World War II (Great Britain, 1941)

Georges Philias Vanier PC DSO MC (born April 23, 1888 in Montreal , † March 5, 1967 in Ottawa ) was a Canadian major general , diplomat and the first French-speaking Canadian in the office of Governor General of Canada .

biography

Major General and Diplomat

After attending school, he first studied at Loyola College in Montreal, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1906 . He completed a subsequent postgraduate study of law at the University of Montreal in 1911 with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) and then worked as a lawyer .

After the outbreak of the First World War , he joined the Royal Canadian Army and was initially appointed commander in 1915 . During this time he was appointed aide-de-camp of the new Governor General Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy in 1921 . In 1924, after being awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel, he was commander of the 22nd Royal Regiment stationed in the Citadel of Québec . After serving as a member of the delegation to the disarmament negotiations of the League of Nations from 1928 to 1930, he became Secretary of the Canadian High Commissioner in the United Kingdom , Howard Ferguson , and held this position under his successor Vincent Massey until 1938.

On December 12, 1938 he was appointed envoy in France . Vanier held this post until September 14, 1940, a few months after the occupation of France by the German Wehrmacht . After his promotion to major general in November 1942 he was both a representative to the government-in-exile of France in London and envoy to the governments-in-exile of Belgium , Czechoslovakia , Greece , the Netherlands , Norway , Poland and Yugoslavia .

General Vanier was there immediately after the Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated and, accompanied by 8 Americans, had seen the horrific conditions the Germans wanted. He reported about it by telegram on April 27th from Paris to Canada, which the CBC broadcast nationwide on May 1st, 1945 and which terrified the audience violently.

When the governments-in-exile ceased their activities after the end of the war, his task there was over. He then became ambassador to France from November 22, 1944 to December 31, 1953 .

He then resigned from the diplomatic service , returned to Canada and was also director of the Banque de Montreal , the Credit Foncier Franco-Canadien and the Standard Life Assurance Company and the Canadian Council for the Arts.

Governor General of Canada

On August 1, 1959, he was appointed Governor General of Canada by Queen Elizabeth II. He was the first French Canadian to take up this post on September 15, 1959, as successor to Vincent Massey and held it until his death on March 5, 1967.

As governor general, he not only represented the British monarch as head of state , but was also their representative as commander-in-chief . He was also responsible for the appointment of lieutenant governors in the provinces and territories of Canada . During his term of office, the appointments of lieutenant governors of British Columbia ( George Pearkes 1960), Manitoba ( Errick Willis 1960), Saskatchewan ( Robert Hanbidge 1963), Manitoba ( Richard Spink Bowles 1965) and Alberta ( Grant MacEwan 1966) fell.

After his death, the chairman of the Supreme Court , Robert Taschereau , took over the post of governor-general on a provisional basis , because the six-week period before his successor Roland Michener took office.

A street in Montreal and the Georges-Vanier subway station are named after Vanier .

Web links

notes

  1. ↑ LETTER WRITTEN BY GEORGES P. VANIER AFTER HIS VISIT TO THE BUCHENWALD CONCENTRATION CAMP , April 27, 1945, History of Vanier College. Exact description of his impressions.
  2. ↑ Jeremy Kinsman: "Georges Vanier" in Legacy. How french Canadians shaped North America. Edited by André Pratte et al. McClelland & Stewart, Toronto 2016; again 2019, ISBN 0771072392 , pp. 161-187, here p. 161; French edition: Bâtisseurs d'Amérique: Des Canadiens français qui ont faite de l'histoire. La Presse, Montréal 2016, pp. 275-312
personal data
SURNAME Vanier, Georges
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vanier, Georges Philias (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian lawyer, major general, ambassador and governor general
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Montreal , Quebec
DATE OF DEATH March 5th 1967
Place of death Ottawa , Ontario