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Kingston Whig-Standard (07/Mar/1990) - Tribute to Lord Tweedsmuir

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Tribute to Lord Tweedsmuir

FIFTY YEARS AGO, sorrow swept across Canada, the British Commonwealth of Nations and beyond. One of Canada's most popular Governors General, Lord Tweedsmuir, had died while in office. Much of the rest of the world mourned not only a great governor and administrator but one of the most prolific and popular English writers in the first half of the 20th century, John Buchan.

At 10 o'clock on Sunday evening, Feb. 11, 1940, Prime Minister Mackenzie King announced the sad news to the country over CBC radio. Barely three hours before, Lord Tweedsmuir had succumbed following a concussion suffered when a blocking of an artery in his brain had caused him to fall. His Excellency was transported from Rideau Hall by special train to Montreal where three cranial operations were performed, in vain, to try to save his life.

A half century later, it is fitting to recall Lord Tweedsmuir's significant contribution to Canada, to Canadian unity and nationhood.

In March 1935 John Buchan became the first non-peer to be appointed Governor General. Subsequently, however, he was granted a peerage by King George V, taking the title 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, after the area in Scotland where he grew up.

A prolific writer, Buchan published about 70 books in his 64 years, in addition to the many articles and commentaries he wrote for English and Scottish newspapers and journals. His literary interests combined with his interest in Canada, leading him to establish the Governor General's Award for Literature, still one of the highest awards for Canadian writers.

The author was first known to Canadians, though, as the creator of sturdy, patriotic characters such as Richard Hannay and Sandy Arbuthnot in the adventure novels The Thirty-nine Steps (made into a now-classic film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1935), Greenmantle, Mr. Standfast and others. He gained renown as well for his poetry and historical biographies, completing Augustus while Governor General and dedicating it to Mackenzie King, who had become a personal friend.

The Governor General's contribution to the development of Canadian nationhood was an expression of his view of the British Empire — a free partnership of equal, sovereign states — a commonwealth of nations. Already possessed of a strong Christian view of humanity from his Presbyterian minister father, Tweedsmuir's opinion of empire was, to a certain degree, developed under the influence of Lord Milner. He served as Milner's private secretary in South Africa in 1901 and 1902 during the reconstruction at the end of the Boer War. Milner in turn had been influenced by a Canadian fellow student at Oxford, George Parkin. All three shared a view of the empire as an imperial federation. It was, eventually, this view that prevailed over those whose vision was of a centralized empire. The Imperial Conference of 1926 and the Statute of Westminster of 1931 devolved powers to Dominion parliaments to the extent they desired it; Britain and the Dominions were equals.

When Lord Tweedsmuir arrived in Canada in November 1935, that view confronted the imperialist perspective that pervaded much of Canadian thinking at the time — that the empire came first and Canada was subordinate to the empire. Tweedsmuir expounded his views clearly in a speech to the Canadian Institute of International Affairs in Montreal in October 1937. Canada, he stated, "is a sovereign nation and cannot take her attitude to the world docilely from Britain or from the United States or from anyone else. A Canadian's first loyalty," he continued, "is not to the British Commonwealth of Nations, but to Canada and to Canada's King, and those who deny this are doing, to my mind, a great disservice to the Commonwealth. If the Commonwealth, in a crisis, is to speak with one voice, it will be only because the component parts have thought for themselves their own special problems and made their contribution to the discussion so that a true common factor of policy can be reached."

Lord Tweedsmuir found an opportunity to express this concept more vividly through the occasion of a visit to Canada by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (now the Queen Mother). It would be the first-ever visit of a reigning monarch to a Dominion. The idea originated with Tweedsmuir, according to his friends in a book published after his death, and became memorable reality in the spring of 1939.

The title "King of Canada" was one that George VI would assume when he acceded to the throne in 1937. This reflected Canada's sovereign status within the empire and derived from the 1926 Imperial Conference and the 1931 Statute of Westminster. It was Tweedsmuir's desire to put the Statute of Westminister into practice, through the Royal visit, allowing Canadians to see "their King performing royal functions supported by his Canadian ministers."

According to one of Tweedsmuir's friends, "no one realized more profoundly than he did the real meaning of the Statute of Westminster." Within the first few days of that precedent-setting visit, it was evident that Tweedsmuir's objectives were being met.

In Ottawa, the King personally granted Royal Assent to several bills. "No ceremony could more completely symbolize the free and equal association of the nations of the Commonwealth," stated His Majesty in a speech following the granting of assent.

Lady Tweedsmuir was in attendance at that historic ceremony but the Governor-General was not. The official history of the tour makes a special point of noting his absence. He waited at Government House, determined that the visit should be "Canada's show" and that he should remain in the background during the trip. His expressed view was that while the King of Canada was present, "I cease to exist as Viceroy, and retain only a shadowy legal existence as Governor General in Council." There was obviously no need for him to be represent the King while the King was present. The "niceties of the situation . . . suggested Lord Tweedsmuir's absence," according to the Ottawa Evening Citizen. Lord Tweedsmuir thus did not witness one of the most significant events in Canadian constitutional history, which he had helped plan — but demonstrated clearly his dedicated service to this country.

By the time Their Majesties left the shores of Canada on June 15, there was no doubt that Canadian sovereignty and national feeling had been given a great boost. It was also a timely gift for a country that would be at war only three months later.

In order to promote a sense of national unity, a Governor General must travel extensively throughout the country. Lord Tweedsmuir was the most widely travelled Governor General up to his time and the first to travel to Canada's north, in which he saw tremendous potential for stirring the vision and challenge of the country's youth. The Ottawa Journal noted that "he tried to merge his life with that of all of us . . . meeting the Western farmer in his prairie home, the miner in his camp, the trapper in his northern hut." This allowed him, the article noted, to understand Canada. His travels exemplified his sense of duty and brought him unparalleled popularity.

The eulogies that filled the newspapers and airwaves following Lord Tweedsmuir's death are testimony to the high esteem in which he was held.

Prime Minister Mackenzie King, in a public address, lamented that "in the passing of His Excellency, the people of Canada have lost one of the greatest and most revered of their Governors General, and a friend who, from the day of his arrival in this country, dedicated his life to their service. . . . All his great arts and talents . . . were devoted to an understanding of the people and to the interpretation of all that was best in French and English, East and West, new Canada and old Canada." King added a personal note, that "Canada was proud to have in her midst a great scholar, who touched life at so many places and touched nothing which he did not adorn."

Justice Minister Lapointe, Mackenzie King's senior Quebec minister, rejoined that Canadians would remember Tweedsmuir "as the most Canadian of their Governors," while the Archbishop of Quebec added the praise that "he contributed greatly toward the cementing of the ties of all the national elements in Canada."

Fifty years after his death, amidst intense debate about national unity and just after the installation of Ray Hnatyshyn as Governor General, we recall Lord Tweedsmuir's legacy and can still look to him as a model for all Canadians, from Governor General on down, of dedication to the service of one's country and of humanity in a humble and dignified, intelligent and civil manner.

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