A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography. Various
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of France with the Star of a Grand Officer of the legion of Honour, at Havre, July 29, 1897, being the highest but one of that order; was received in audience by His Holiness the Pope, August 12, 1897. While in England he succeeded in securing Her Majesty’s Government’s assent to the denunciation of the commercial treaties with Germany and Belgium, which stood in the way of Canada’s new tariff, extending a preference to the United Kingdom. On his return to Canada he was accorded public receptions at Quebec, Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa, and received from Toronto and Queen’s Universities the honorary degrees of LL.D. In November, 1897, he went to Washington in the interest of better relations between the two countries, and was a member of the Joint Commission which met at Quebec, August 23, 1898, to discuss questions affecting jointly Great Britain, Canada and the United States. He welcomed the present King, then Duke of Cornwall and York, to Canada in September, 1901, and accompanied the Royal Party through the Dominion; was invited, and attended, the Coronation of King Edward VII, in 1902, sailing June 14, arriving in Liverpool June 21, and in London, June 22. The Coronation, fixed for June 26, was postponed on June 24, but took place on August 9. On June 30 he attended a Colonial Conference at London, and on July 26 received the freedom of the City of Edinburgh, and was honored with the degree of LL.D. by the Edinburgh University. He was entertained by the City of Glasgow, July 28, visited the continent, and sailed for Canada on October 7, arriving at Quebec, October 17, and at Ottawa, October 18, receiving a great civic welcome at the City Hall. On New Year’s Day, 1904, he was presented by His Excellency the Governor-General, with the Fenian Raid medal for services as a volunteer in 1866. In 1907 he attended the Imperial Conference at London, Eng., as a representative of Canada, and was accorded the freedom of London, Bristol, Liverpool and other cities; and in 1911 he attended the Imperial Conference in England and represented Canada at the coronation of King George and Queen Mary. Following the defeat of his Party at the polls on September 21, 1911, on October 6 he tendered the resignation of himself and Cabinet to Earl Grey, and advised His Excellency to call upon Mr. R. L. Borden, to form a Cabinet. From that date until his death on Feb. 17, 1919, he continued to lead the Liberal Party, and in 1917 celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday. He again led his party in the general election of December, 1917, but was defeated owing to the fact that many followers had parted company with him on the issue of Conscription. Sir Wilfrid’s end came suddenly as a result of an effusion of blood to the brain. He was stricken while preparing to go to church on Sunday, Feb. 16, and passed away the following afternoon. The death of no Canadian had previously evoked such tributes as were printed and uttered, not only in Canada, but throughout the British Empire and the United States. His remains were accorded the honor of a State funeral in Ottawa on Saturday, Feb. 22, 1919, which was the most impressive function of its kind known on any continent since the death of Lincoln.
Ames, Sir Herbert B., K.B., LL.D., M.P. (Montreal, Que.), born June 27, 1863, at Montreal, of which city he has been a life-long resident. He is the only son of the late Evan Fisher Ames (who founded the shoe manufacturing concern of Ames, Holden & Company in 1856), and of Caroline Matilda Brown, his wife, who was a native of New York City. Mr. E. F. Ames came to Canada from Conway, Mass., which district he represented in the Massachusetts Legislature in 1852. He established himself in Montreal, and became one of the leading Canadian manufacturers. Sir Herbert Ames was educated in the schools of Montreal, subsequently entering Amherst College at Amherst, Mass., graduating from there with the degree of B.A. in 1885, and having had conferred on him the further title of LL.D. in 1915. When in college he was a member of the Alpha Phi Fraternity. In August, 1885, after leaving Amherst, he entered the firm of Ames, Holden & Company, at Montreal, remaining in that business until 1893. He next interested himself in municipal reform and became President of an organization of young men known as the Volunteer Electoral League, which body was largely instrumental in bringing about the reformation of the City Council. In 1898 Mr. Ames was elected a member of the Montreal City Council for St. Antoine Ward, and served his constituency for eight years. During that period he was a member of the Police Commission, of the Road Commission and for four years served as Chairman of the Board of Health. In 1895 Mr. Ames was named a member of the Council of Public Instruction of the Province of Quebec, which body supervises the entire school system of the province. Mr. Ames was first elected a member of the House of Commons, Canada, in 1904, having a majority of 650. In 1908 he was again elected by 850 of a majority, and in 1911 elected for the third time by a majority of over 2,000; again re-elected in December, 1917. On the formation of the Borden Government, in 1911, Mr. Ames was appointed to the important position of chairman of the Select Standing Committee on Banking and Commerce, to which all bills pertaining to Banks, Trust and Loan and Insurance Companies are referred for examination and report. In 1903 he was a member of the National Committee to entertain the Chambers of Commerce of the Empire, and with them travelled throughout the Dominion. In 1909, as representative of the Montreal Board of Trade, Mr. Ames attended the meeting of the Chambers of Commerce at Sydney, Australia. He has travelled extensively throughout Australia, Japan, Egypt, India, Europe, the United States and West Indies, and has given much time and attention to the discussion of trade questions, tariff and treaties with other countries. In 1896 he wrote and published a monograph entitled “The City Below the Hill,” being a sociological study of the District of the City of Montreal, in which such questions as wages, rents, health conditions, etc., were carefully received. At the request of the Department of Commerce and Labor of the United States Government, Mr. Ames prepared an article on the same subject which appeared in the journals of this department. At the present time Sir Herbert Ames is a Director and Vice-President of the Ames, Holden, McCready Company. He is also one of the three gentlemen composing the Canadian Board of the Gresham Life Insurance Company, and also a Director of the Dominion Guarantee Company. He is a member of the Mount Royal Club, the Montreal Club, the Montreal Curling Club, the University Club of Montreal, the Rideau Club, Ottawa. On May 19, 1890, Mr. Ames was married to Louise Marion Kennedy, daughter of Sir John Kennedy, C.E., of Montreal, and they occupy a residence on the slopes of Mount Royal. He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church, a Director in the Y.M.C.A., a governor in several benevolent institutions. At the outbreak of the great War, Mr. Ames was asked by His Royal Highness, the Governor-General of Canada, to assume the position of Honorary Secretary of the National Canadian Patriotic Fund, which provides for the wives and dependent relatives of soldiers serving in the armies of the Allies. On behalf of the Fund he has visited all parts of Canada, speaking and organizing, and the marked success to his initiative and effort. Through this great national benefaction there will have been raised and expended during the war period no less a sum than $45,000,000. On June 3, 1915, Mr. Ames had conferred upon him the Honor of Knighthood by His Majesty the King, and in 1916 was made a Knight of Grace of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in England. On December 1, 1918, the Government of Canada created by Order-in-Council a National War Savings Committee for the encouragement of thrift and the promotion of investment of small savings in government securities. Of this Committee Sir Herbert Ames has been appointed Chairman.
Robertson, John Ross, journalist. The direct descendant of Duncan R., chief of the clan of Robertson of Strowan, 1347; eldest son of the late John Robertson, wholesale dry goods merchant, Toronto, and Margaret R., daughter of Hector Sinclair, Stornoway, Island of Lewis, Scotland. He was born in Toronto, Dec. 28, 1841, and educated at Upper Canada College; married, 1st, in 1871, Maria Louisa (d. Aug., 1886), daughter of Edward Earle Matthew Gillbee, Northamptonshire, Eng., grandson of the late Rev. Dr. Edward Gillbee, Vicar of Barby, near Rugby, descendant of the noted Anthony Gilby, one of the translators of the first edition of the Geneva or “Breeches” Bible, 1560; 2ndly, 1888, Jessie Elizabeth, daughter of George B. Holland, a prominent insurance man of Toronto. While still at college he occupied his spare hours in acquiring a knowledge of the printer’s craft, and was a fairly rapid compositor; commenced a small office which he established in his father’s residence, John St., Toronto, and with a few fonts of type he issued to the boys at Upper Canada College a paper under the name of the “College Times,” which later took the name of the “Boys’ Times,” a monthly publication that existed 1857–60. He also published in succession to the “Boys’ Times,” during a year at the Model Grammar School, a newsy paper for boys called “Young Canada.” Picking up a general knowledge of setting type and small job work in city offices, his face was a familiar one in the old “Christian Guardian” office, where occasionally he used to work off odd jobs, the composition of which he did in his own office; in the “Globe” Office, where