Rt Hon Georges Vanier

Image magazineprestige

Vanier was Canada's Head of State between 1959 and 1967, when he died in office. According to Susan Monroe, as Governor General, he devoted his efforts to young people, seniors and the disadvantaged, and tried to bring the English and French closer together.

When I was a volunteer Pathfinder leader with Girl Guides of Canada we held some of our meetings in a local elementary school called Georges Vanier. At the time, I didn't connect it in my mind with this interesting historical figure.

Among the many other institutions named after this versatile man are Georges Vanier Secondary School in Toronto, Georges Vanier Library in Montreal, and the Georges Vanier Cultural Centre, also in Montreal.

Georges Vanier was born in 1888. He was educated at Montreal's Loyola College (now Concordia University) and took his law degree at Universite Laval in Quebec City. He was called to the bar three years before the outbreak of World War I.

In 1915 he enlisted, won the Military Cross and DSO, and lost a leg in battle. He was a founding officer of the French Canadian "Van Doos," the Royal 22e Regiment (based at La Citadelle, Quebec) and later a commander of this regiment.

When the war was over, Vanier entered the diplomatic service, and served as Canada's representative at the League of Nations. Between the wars he was Aide de Camp to Governors General Byng and Willingdon.

He also participated in various international conferences, and in 1939 took up the post of Minister to France. By 1943 he was still posted in London, serving now as Canada's Minister to all allied governments in exile. In 1944, he returned to France, where he served as ambassador until he retired in 1953.

He became Governor General in 1959, just at the beginning of the decade of Quebec's Quiet Revolution began. The times were turbulent as the political force Quebec Separatism began to rise. He also had to preside over a series of minority governments during his tenure.

With his wife Pauline, George Vanier created then Vanier Institute of the Family in 1965. The first president was the famous neurologist Wilder Graves Penfield, who established the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University.