Reference.com

Vincent Massey

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

Charles Vincent Massey PC CH CC CD (February 20, 1887 – December 30, 1967) was the eighteenth Governor General of Canada and the first who was born in Canada.

Background

Vincent Massey was the son of Chester D. Massey who owned the Massey-Harris Co., predecessor to the Massey-Ferguson Tractor Company. The family was one of Toronto's wealthiest and Vincent grew up among Toronto's elites. When he was young, he attended St. Andrew's College. His family was strongly Methodist and played an important role in supporting local religious, cultural and educational institutions, including Victoria College at the University of Toronto where Massey was sent for his university education, Massey College, also at the University of Toronto where he joined the Kappa Alpha Society through which he met his long-time friend William Lyon Mackenzie King , Massey Hall, a concert hall in Toronto endowed by the Masseys and Metropolitan Methodist Church (now Metropolitan United Church).

Massey then continued his education at Balliol College, Oxford. After his father donated a new residence, Burwash Hall, constructed at Victoria College, he returned there to be appointed its first Dean of Men in 1914. On 4 June 1915, he married Alice Parkin, daughter of Sir George Parkin, a former principal of Upper Canada College and secretary of the Rhodes Trust. Mrs. Massey died in July 1950, just 18 months before her husband's appointment as Governor General. As a result, his daughter-in-law, Lilias, acted as Chatelaine of Rideau Hall while Massey was in office.

Before beginning his career in diplomacy, Vincent Massey spent four years as president of the business his father had founded. During this time, he pursued philanthropic interests – promoting the arts, education and letters. He also began compiling one of Canada's great art collections and through the Massey Foundation, was the principal influence on the construction of Massey College at the University of Toronto, to which his protegé Robertson Davies was appointed as first Master.

His younger brother was Canadian actor Raymond Massey and he is therefore the uncle of British actors Anna Massey and Daniel Massey.

Military career

Massey was a member of The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, enlisting in 1907.

Political career

Massey was appointed Minister without portfolio to the Cabinet of Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King in September 1925. He did not have a seat in the House of Commons and Massey needed to win a seat in the 1925 federal election held on October 29 in order to retain his posting; however, he was defeated and had to leave cabinet.

Diplomatic career

In 1926, King appointed Massey the first Canadian envoy to the United States of America with the rank of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Washington. As such, he was Canada's first envoy with full diplomatic credentials to a foreign capital (that is, a capital outside of the British Empire). Massey resigned his posting to Washington in 1930 to accept an appointment from King as High Commissioner to London, however, the Liberal government was defeated in the 1930 election before he could take up his posting and the new Prime Minister, Conservative R.B. Bennett objected to Massey on the grounds that as a former Liberal cabinet minister he did not enjoy the political confidence of the new government that was needed for the position of High Commissioner to the British government. When King returned to power in 1935, Massey was again named High Commissioner to London and was, this time, able to take up his position.

While in London, Massey travelled in the same circles as Lord Astor and his wife Nancy and their largely aristocratic anti-Semitic and pro-German Cliveden set. According to Irving Abella and Harold Troper's book None is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948, Massey was an enthusiastic supporter of the Munich Agreement and worked with Ernest Lapointe to put obstacles in the way of Jewish refugees attempting to immigrate to Canada. However, Canadian immigration policy at the time favoured trained farmers, which excluded most Jews, who were largely city dwellers. Seven decades later, his actions resulted in a campaign in Windsor, Ontario to rename a high school originally named in his honour.

Nevertheless, Massey was a Canadian and British patriot and worked to maximize Canada's war effort once World War II broke out. He made such a favourable impression in England that in 1946, King George VI invested him with the Companion of Honour.

Return to Canada

In 1949, Massey was appointed chairman of the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences. The ensuing report issued in 1951, known as the Massey Report, led to the creation of the National Library of Canada and the Canada Council.

Honours

Vincent Massey received another honour from the Queen when, on 11 December 1963, a Royal Warrant was signed assigning an Honourable Augmentation to his arms (he had already been granted armorial bearings in 1926 by the Kings of Arms at the College of Arms in London, England). It consisted of a blue square placed in the upper left bearing the crest from Her Majesty's Arms in right of Canada. Very few augmentations are granted, and even fewer to Canadians.

Legacy

Schools named after Vincent Massey

References

Adapted from http://www.gg.ca

Notes

External links

Schools



Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Tuesday February 26, 2008 at 08:18:50 PST (GMT -0800)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation