Part 4

=Cockshutt, William Foster, M.P.=, and Financial Agent (Brantford, Ont.), is the son of I. Cockshutt, merchant of Brantford, and E. Foster Cockshutt, was born in Brantford, October, 1855, and educated at the Brantford and Galt Collegiate Institutes. Mr. Cockshutt’s chief public efforts have been exercised in the direction of Imperial Unity and Empire Trade development. He has been associated largely with Boards of Trade and has attended several Congresses of the Associated Boards in London, England, Montreal and Sydney, Australia, and in this direction has been able to exercise considerable influence in Empire trade co-operation. In the year 1909 he visited in this connection the Commonwealth of Australia, making a very extensive tour of that great country, and delivering addresses at all the important centres on the theme of Empire Trade and Defence, and received much credit for the work accomplished there. He also made an extensive tour of India, visiting most of the cities of that great member of the Empire, and studying the conditions of the country as well as trade matters and has taken part in two extended campaigns in Great Britain, addressing many large meetings at the important centres, including London, Manchester, Newcastle, Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Torquay and many other towns and cities, for which he was honored by letter from the then leader of the opposition, the Honorable Arthur Balfour. Mr. Cockshutt was a member of the first Hydro-Electric Commission of Ontario, appointed by the Municipalities and labored in that work for nearly three years. The report of the Commission has been a standard reference for development in this line ever since, and was really the basis of the development that has taken place more recently at Niagara Falls. He has travelled in most of the great countries of Europe, made many tours in the United States and the West Indies and Mexico, as well as having visited all the principal cities of the Dominion and has addressed meetings in a great number of them. He was first elected to the House of Commons in 1904, where he served until 1908, being defeated in that year and re-elected in 1911, and is at present serving throughout the present long Parliament. He is ex-President of the Cockshutt Plow Co.; has been six times a delegate to Chambers of Commerce of the Empire and is connected with a large number of industrial enterprises, particularly in Brantford and also in other centres, and has served on many industrial boards. In 1891, married M. T. Ashton, daughter of Rev. Robert Ashton of Brantford, Principal of the Mohawk Institute and has six children, Ashton, George, Eric, Maude, Clarence and Phyllis. In politics he is an Independent Conservative and is a member of the Anglican Church; has been a representative of the Church of England at many important gatherings and a member of the Huron Synod for close on to twenty-five years, been elected and re-elected to the Provincial General Synod on many occasions and is still an active member of all these Church organizations; is also Chairman of the Orphanage situated on the outskirts of Brantford, known as the Jane Laycock School; has taken considerable interest in local hospital work. Mr. Cockshutt had the honor of being the official representative of Brantford at the funeral of King Edward the Seventh; is Hon. Colonel of the 125th Battalion, C.E.F., and is a remote relative of the late Florence Nightingale, the distinguished woman who did such great work for the British Army during the Crimean War and was one of the first women to relieve soldiers of their sufferings on the battlefield. Mr. Cockshutt took great interest in the recruiting of the 125th Battalion at present overseas and has the honor of being the father of three sons, all of whom are serving in the army at present and have all reached the front at least once. His son, Major Ashton Cockshutt, now of the 125th but formerly of the 10th Battalion, 1st Contingent, was a fully qualified Lieutenant in the 103rd Calgary Rifles when the war broke out and immediately enlisted and went overseas with the first Contingent, training during the winter at Salisbury Plain, crossing to France in the early spring, saw heavy fighting at St. Julien, Festubert, and Givenchy, was wounded on June 6, 1915, and after convalescing at various military hospitals was given furlough back to Canada and after a long hard struggle regained his health and immediately re-enlisted with the 125th Battalion and is now serving at Bramshott Camp. Another son, Lieut. George Cockshutt, also enlisted early in the war with the 19th Overseas Battalion, was a qualified Officer of the Dufferin Rifles, he served the 19th at the front for many months and was invalided home in September, 1916, owing to ear trouble and at the present time is serving with the 205th Machine Gun Section, and now overseas with 1st Tank Battalion. The third son, Lieut. Eric Cockshutt, was at one time Captain of the Cadet Corps of Upper Canada College, Toronto, and upon going to McGill University, Montreal, later joined the Officers Training Corps of that University, was accepted as a candidate at the Royal Artillery School at Kingston, March, 1915, and after duly qualifying, trained at Petawawa, going overseas from there with a draft, took further training at Ross Barracks and Woolwich and then crossed over to France and served with the First Divisional Artillery, First Canadian Brigade, and is at present serving with the 2nd Howitzers. Mr. Cockshutt is a member of the Brantford Golf and Country Club, the National Club, Toronto, and also connected with the Empire Club and Imperial Institute. His recreations include golf, tennis and skating, and he has spent many summers in the Highlands of Canada occupying an extensive tract of land on the shores of Lake of Bays.

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=Jetté, The Hon. Sir Louis=, Chief Justice and late Lieutenant-Governor, was born at L’Assomption, P.Q., on January 15, 1836. He is the son of the late Amable Jetté, who married Miss Caroline Gauffreau, the daughter of a wealthy planter of Guadaloupe, in the West Indies. Finishing the full course of study at the College of L’Assomption, he became a member of the Provincial Bar, establishing himself as a legal practitioner in the city of Montreal, where in a few years he came to be recognized as an astute advocate as well as a prospective candidate for political honors. In 1870 his legal fame was enhanced by the part he took professionally in the famous Guibord Case, and by his service before the Privy Council in England in behalf of the Provincial Government of Quebec. At length, in 1872, he was elected member for Montreal East, defeating Sir George E. Cartier, the French-Canadian colleague of Sir John A. Macdonald. When the Liberal Leader, the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie was Prime Minister, Mr. Jetté was offered the position of Minister of Justice, but accepted in preference a place on the Bench. This he retained for twenty years up to 1898, when he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of his native province. While still practising his profession in Montreal, he became Professor of Civil Law in Laval University and a Dean of its Faculty, having been honored by the same with the degree of LL.D., as well as by Bishop’s College University with a D.C.L. and by Toronto University with an LL.D. In 1891 he was appointed Chairman of the Royal Commission charged with the investigation of affairs connected with the Baie-des-Chaleurs Railway, finally refusing to agree, however, to the decision of his two colleagues. The several other offices he has filled are many and important. After his term as Lieutenant-Governor had expired, he was given a second term. And at the end of his second term he was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench, retiring in 1911. Few Canadians have had so many honors conferred upon them as has Sir Louis Jetté. These include his university degrees; his knighthood from the King of England; his Legion of Honour from France, of which he is a Commander; the many addresses he has received from his fellow-members of the Bar, as well as from the people; not to speak of his receptions by King George and his late royal father, King Edward, and His Holiness the Pope. He has been associated with the Société de Legislation Comparée; with the Société d’Histoire Diplomatique of Paris (France); was a member of the Alaska Boundary Tribunal; a Director of the Montreal Polytechnic School; a member of the Council of Public Instruction, and an honorary member of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. In his earlier years he was a contributor to certain city journals, having been editor of one of them known as “L’Ordre.” His “Observations Relating to the Code of Civil Procedure” proves him to be possessed of a wide vision and keen insight, both as a lawyer and a literary expositor. The encomiums which have been passed upon his services as a public servant go to show Chief Justice Sir Melbourne Tait was in no way astray in his high estimate of Sir Louis Jetté’s mental culture and administrative astuteness, not only as a public speaker, but as a writer and overseer of what is in line with justice and dignity of rule. He was married in 1862, to Miss Bertha Laflamme, daughter of the late Touissant Laflamme, and sister of the Hon. R. Laflamme, the distinguished barrister and advocate of Montreal. Lady Jetté, who is an authoress in her own right, having written a Life of Madame d’Youville, won a further good name for herself and her distinguished husband for the hospitalities they were always pleased to extend to their guests at Spencer Wood during the two terms and more of Governor Jetté’s residence there as Governor.

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=Kennedy, William Costello=, Member for North Essex in the House of Commons of Canada, is a resident of Windsor, Ont., and a prominent figure in the oil and gas industry of the Essex Peninsula. He was born at Ottawa, Ont., August 27, 1868, the son of William and Julia (Costello) Kennedy. While he was yet a boy his parents moved to Toronto to reside and he was educated in the Separate Schools and De La Salle Institute, of that city. He began his business career in 1887 as a clerk in the offices of the London and Canadian Loan and Agency Company, Toronto, at that time one of the best known financial corporations of the province. With this company he remained until 1897 when he accepted an offer to go to Windsor, Ont., and engage in the oil and natural gas industry. In 1903 he became President of the Windsor Gas Company and continued in that office until 1917. At the present time he has many interests in the city of his adoption. He was President of the Board of Trade for the years 1909 and 1910, and a member of the Windsor Board of Education from 1913 to 1918; and also a councillor of the municipality of Ojibway during the same period. From early manhood Mr. Kennedy had been a Liberal in politics and in 1917 when Sir Robert Borden formed a Union Government and decided to carry out the policy of conscription without submitting the question to the Canadian people through the medium of a referendum, he was one of those Liberals who stood back of Sir Wilfrid Laurier in opposing such a course. Though at the time it was supposed that he was facing almost certain defeat he accepted the Liberal nomination for North Essex. He was opposed by Col. Wigle, who was generally regarded as a very strong candidate. In the two months’ campaign that ensued Mr. Kennedy made many friends by his sane and reasonable methods of electioneering and when the ballots were counted on December 17, 1917, it was found that he had been elected by a handsome majority, which was not annulled by the vote of the soldiers overseas, details of which were received later. During the parliamentary session Mr. Kennedy made his maiden speech as a legislator in the budget debate, and made a very fine impression on friends and political opponents alike by his brilliant handling of financial questions. Old parliamentarians were agreed that it was one of the most promising initial speeches ever made at Ottawa, and ever since the member for North Essex has been regarded as an important factor in the future of his party. His recreations are golf and motoring, and he is a member of the following clubs: Detroit, Detroit Athletic, Essex County Golf, Windsor and Ontario, Toronto. In religion he is a Roman Catholic and on May 8, 1907, married Glencora, daughter of George W. Bolton, Detroit, Michigan.

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=Mitchell, Robert Menzies, Hon.= (Weyburn, Sask.), is a native of Port Union, Ont., where he was born October 28, 1865, the son of James Mitchell, a farmer, and Elizabeth Rodger, his wife. His father came of Scottish ancestry, some of whose descendants settled in Canada and some in Australia. Madame Melba, the great Australian prima donna, whose maiden name was Nellie Mitchell, is a cousin of the subject of this sketch. The latter was educated at Orangeville High School and Trinity Medical School, Toronto, graduating M.D., C.M. in April, 1892. He at once commenced the practice of medicine at Dundalk, Dufferin County, Ont., and remained there until 1899, when he settled at Weyburn, Sask., and continued in active practice there until 1907. He was Chairman of the Weyburn Public School Board for ten years, and of the High School Board for five years. In August, 1908, he was elected to the Saskatchewan Legislature as a Liberal for the constituency of Weyburn, and has been re-elected at each ensuing election. He was Chairman of the Private Bills and Railways Committee of the Legislature for six years, and was chosen as Deputy Speaker in 1916. Shortly afterward he was made Speaker, and on his return to the House after the general elections of 1917 was re-elected to that office. Though a Liberal his fairness and impartiality in the conduct of debate has made him universally popular among politicians of all shades of opinion. He is a member of the following fraternal orders: A.F. & A.M., I.O.O.F., and C.O.F.; of the Weyburn Club, and the Assiniboia Club, Regina. His recreations are football and curling, and in religion he is a Presbyterian. On August 17, 1892, he married Margaret, daughter of Donald and Flora McKinnon, Badjeros, Ont., and his two sons have both served their country with honor in the great war. R. C. Mitchell, born July 11, 1893, went overseas with the First Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1914, and D. J. Mitchell, born February 15, 1895, became a member of the Royal Air Force a year or so later.

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=Lemieux, the Honorable Sir François-Xavier=, Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Quebec, was born at Levis on the 9th of April, 1851, the son of Antoine and Henriette (Lagueux) Lemieux. From the Levis College he entered the Quebec Seminary and afterwards graduated from Laval University, in 1872, taking the degree of LL.B. In the same year he started on his career as a lawyer in the city of Quebec, taking rank almost immediately as an efficient pleader in the criminal courts of the Lower St. Lawrence districts. His eloquent fluency and finesse as a defender brought him into a lucrative practice; and there were in time few prominent cases of criminality brought into court in which his services were not sought after. Nor did his legal acumen in winning cases arouse any envious feeling against him among his legal brethren, since in 1896 he was elected Batonnier of the Quebec Bar, and in the following year Batonnier-General of the Provincial Bar. Turning his attention to politics, he sat as member of Levis in the Legislative Assembly for nine years, and afterwards as member for Bonaventure, for three years. As an orator, he has a marvellous faculty on the hustings of carrying any large audience with him in his argument. At length the widest fame came to him when he was called upon to defend Louis Riel, the rebel leader of the half-breeds and Indians in the North-West, in 1885. The charge of high treason against the culprit was sustained, but his legal defender was nevertheless acclaimed as one of the shrewdest lawyers that could have been engaged to defend him. Subsequently, in 1892, he was chosen to defend the Honorable Honore Mercier, Premier of Quebec, before the criminal court, under charges of maladministration. Mr. Mercier was honorably acquitted. Five years after the subject of this biography was appointed Puisne Judge in the district of Arthabaska and afterwards in Sherbrooke. From Sherbrooke, he was finally removed to Quebec where he holds the office of Chief Justice for the Province of Quebec. The literary talents of Sir François have been proven by his lectures and essays. His acumen as a judge has been openly acknowledged by his professional associates. He is a citizen well worthy the honor conferred upon him by King George and by Laval University, in the one case of Knighthood and in the other an LL.D. His father-in-law, the late Justice Plamondon, was a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec, Miss Diana Plamondon becoming his wife in 1874.

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=Turgeon, The Hon. Adelard, LL.D., C.M.G., C.V.O., Knight of the Legion of Honour of France= (Quebec City), President of the Legislative Council of the Province of Quebec, and a Governor of Laval University, was born at Beaumont in the Province of Quebec, on December 19, 1863. He is the son of Mr. Damase Turgeon, and was educated at Levis College and at Laval University. Called to the Bar in 1887, he opened a law office in Levis, but afterwards entered into partnership in Quebec with the prominent legal firm of Roy, Langlais & Godbout. His career as a parliamentarian was inaugurated by his election as member for Bellechasse in 1890, a constituency which he continued to represent up to 1909, when he retired from the Legislative Assembly to take his seat in the Legislative Council and assume the high office of Speaker or President of that body. While a member of the Assembly his eloquence became an attractive feature in the many important debates in which he took part, alike as Member and Minister. As an administrator and public-spirited citizen, he has taken high rank as a publicist, having retained the favor of Bellechasse from term to term for over a decade. During the Tercentennial Celebration at Quebec in 1908, he was honored by the Prince of Wales, now King George V, and was shortly afterwards chosen as one of the members of the National Battlefields Commission, which has ever since been engaged in laying out and beautifying one of the most spacious public parks in Canada. In 1897 he was called to join the Marchand Government as Minister of Colonization, holding the same office in the Parent Cabinet, until he was chosen to act as Minister of Agriculture and Provincial Secretary. In 1905, the Parent Administration was transformed into the Gouin Administration, and in the latter Mr. Turgeon accepted the portfolio of Lands and Forests, holding the same up to 1909. On resigning his seat in the Assembly as a challenge to some of his detractors, he was re-elected against Henri Bourassa by the electors of Bellechasse as an acknowledgement of his mature administrative abilities, and a warrant to his resuming his place in the Gouin Cabinet, as well as preparing the way for his being called to the high office of President of the Legislative Council. During his public career, he has held many important positions outside of his parliamentary functions, among these being President of the Quebec Land Company, Vice-President of the Provincial Securities Company, Director of the Quebec Transfer and Cartage Company, and member of the Comptoir Mobilier-Franco-Canadien Company. He was one of the founders of the Society of L’Union Liberale, and prominently connected with various political clubs. In July, 1887, he married Miss Eugenie Samson, the daughter of Mr. Etienne Samson, of Levis. As President of the Upper Chamber of the Provincial Parliament, Mr. Turgeon has his residence within the precincts of the Parliament Buildings, wherein his hospitalities form a prominent feature in the social life of the community when parliament is in session, as well as at other times.

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=Rhodes, Hon. Edgar Nelson, K.C., B.A., LL.B.= (Amherst, N.S.), son of Nelson A. Rhodes and Sara D. C. Curry. Born at Amherst, N.S., on January 5, 1877. Educated at Amherst Academy, Horton Collegiate Academy, Acadia University and Dalhousie University. Degrees: B.A., Acadia; LL.B., Dalhousie. Member of the Board of Governors of Acadia University. Married, July 12, 1905, to M. Grace, second daughter of Hon. W. T. Pipes, K.C., Attorney-General of Nova Scotia. He is the father of the following children: Edgar N. Rhodes, Jr., born on April 19, 1906, and Helen S. Rhodes, born on October 18, 1907. Appointed a King’s Counsel in May, 1916, by the Provincial Government of Nova Scotia. President Brooklyn Lumber Company, Ltd.; director Nova Scotia Trust Co., Ltd.; British America Nickel Corporation, Ltd.; Amherst Boot & Shoe Company, Ltd., and Amherst Pianos, Ltd. Has been, since its inception, a member of the Dominion Executive and of the Nova Scotia Executive of the Canadian Patriotic Fund; also an Honorary Vice-President and member of the Dominion Council of the St. John’s Ambulance Association. First elected to House of Commons at General Elections, 1908; re-elected, 1911 and 1917. Elected Deputy-Speaker at the opening of the 6th session of the 12th Parliament, January, 1916. Was one of the Canadian representatives at the Imperial Parliamentary Conference in London, 1916, and accompanied the members of that body on their visit to the Munitions plants, The Fleet, and to the front. Elected Speaker of the House of Commons, January 18, 1917. Re-elected Speaker at the opening of the first session of the 13th Parliament, 1918. Member Rideau Club and Country Club, Ottawa. A Unionist. Amherst, N.S.

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