The Viscount Willingdon, who could be called a career governor for the many posts he held, served as Canada's governor general from 1926 to 1931.
His name was Freeman Freeman-Thomas and he was born in 1866 in Ratton, Sussex. After his education at Eton and then Trinity College Cambridge, Willingdon served the governor of Australia as an aide-de-camp in the mid 1890s.
Upon returning to the UK, he won a seat as a Liberal member of parliament, first for Hastings and then for Bodmin. In 1910 he was raised to a Baron and given a seat in the House of Lords.
From 1913 to the end of World War I, he served as governor of the Indian province of Bombay; following this, he was governor of Madras until 1924. He and Lady Willingdon lost their elder son to WWI.
When Willingdon was appointed, he was on a diplomatic mission in China. When he took up his post, a new era was beginning. Following the 1926 Imperial Conference, the Dominion of Canada was embarking on a more independent national life, and Willingdon was the first governor general to take advice from Canadian ministers, rather than seeing himself as an agent of the British crown.
Mackenzie King, also a Liberal, chose Willingdon for the role, and he was also the first to make an official visit to the United States. There he was greeted by Vincent Massey, who would later become the governor general himself.
Under the Willingdon aegis, new Art Competitions began. Added to the music and drama awards established by his predecessor Earl Grey, these were intended to encourage excellence in painting and sculpture.
July 1927 was Canada's sixtieth anniversary and a new carillon was added to the iconic Peace Tower at the Parliament buildings, then called the Victoria Tower.
An athletic type, this Head of State encouraged all kinds of sports at Rideau Hall; indeed, he had once been a regular tennis partner of King George V.
As Governor General, he expressed concern about American penetration of the American economy and media into Canadian life (Archontology).
When he left Canada, he went immediately to India to serve as Viceroy and Governor-General there and stayed till 1936. He died in London in 1941.
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