Dobell, Sir Charles Macpherson, K.C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O. (Quebec City), Lieutenant-General of the British Army, is a son of the late Hon. R. R. Dobell, lumber merchant, of Quebec, and a grandson of Senator Sir David Macpherson, at one time Speaker of the Canadian Senate. He is a native of Quebec, having been born on June 22, 1869. Receiving his elementary education at the Rev. Canon Von Iffland’s Private School, he became a student at the Quebec High School and later at the Charterhouse School in England, previous to his entering the Royal Military College at Kingston, Ontario. From that institution he graduated in 1890. After serving as a Lieutenant in the Hazara Expedition, wherein his bravery was mentioned in dispatches and by the award of a medal and clasp, his advancement has proceeded steadily with his experience in active service. He took part with the International Forces in the occupation of the Island of Crete, and was there raised to the rank of Major. During the South African War, he joined the Canadian Contingent, and won his D.S.O. with other honors, during the several engagements of the campaign. In command of a regiment of mounted infantry he shared in conflict after conflict with the Boers, taking part in the relief of Kimberley, and in the engagements of Paardeberg, Poplar Grove, Prefontaine, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Diamond Hill, and many others. After serving in Nigeria, he was given the rank of Lieut.-Colonel, his name from time to time occurring in the dispatches to the War Office. As an interruption to his service in Nigeria, he was called to China during the Boxer uprising, and was present at the relief of Pekin by the International Forces. On his return from China, he was appointed by the War Office to the South African Intelligence Department, and became an A.D.C. to the King. Later on he was gazetted as Inspector-General of the West African Field Force, with the rank of Brigadier-General, a position he was holding when Germany declared war in 1914. Since then he has gained further distinction and promotion. With a combined force of French and English troops numbering nearly ten thousand, he shared in the conquest of the German Colony of the Cameroons, a territory covering an area in all of 300,000 square miles. On New Year’s Day, 1916, the order of C.M.G. was bestowed upon him by King George, and eventually, at the close of the Cameroon Expedition, he received the honor of K.C.B., as well as the Legion of Honor from the President of the French Republic, being at the same time gazetted as a Major-General of the British Army. A still later event in his career as a “soldier of the king” led to his being placed in command as Lieut.-General of the Coast Forces that were to advance from the Suez Canal into Palestine. Altogether Sir Charles Dobell’s career has been a splendid one. Hailing as he does from a district in Canada that has provided several military officers of high rank to the forces of the Motherland, his fellow-Canadians cannot but be proud of the record made by one of their own as a soldier and commander. He was married in 1908, to Mrs. (Elsye Bankes) Campbell, daughter of the late Lieut.-Colonel Meyrick Bankes, of London, and widow of Captain F. L. Campbell, R.N. His two brothers, Mr. William Molson Dobell, lumber merchant, and Mr. Alfred Dobell, advocate, as well as his uncle, Mr. William Molson Macpherson, banker, are prominent citizens of the city of Quebec.
Garneau, Sir George, formerly Mayor of Quebec City, and one of the prominent merchants and capitalists of that city, who has been for many years President of the National Battlefields Commission, is a son of the late Hon. Pierre Garneau, Member of the Legislative Council of the Province of Quebec, and several times member of the Provincial Cabinet. On the mother’s side he was a grandson of Mr. Edward Burroughs, the Prothonotary. Sir George is a native of Quebec, having been born on November 19, 1864. He received his earlier education at the Quebec Seminary, afterwards entering as a student the Montreal Polytechnic School, where he graduated as Civil Engineer, in 1884. Four years afterwards he took the degree of Bachelor of Applied Science in Laval University, where for a period he was Titular Professor of Analytical Chemistry. For a time he held the position of assistant engineer on the construction staff of the Quebec and Lake St. John Railway, previous to his being taken in as a partner in his father’s wholesale dry goods establishment. Aside from his business pursuits, he identified himself with civic affairs, and on being elected alderman, he was chosen as Mayor in 1906, and at the close of his term was unanimously re-elected for a second term of two years. It was while he was Mayor that he became Chairman of the National Battlefields Commission, in 1908. During that year there occurred the Tercentennial Celebration of the founding of Quebec. In association with Earl Grey, he was prominently identified with the supervision of the preliminaries to that Celebration, and has since deeply interested himself, with his associate Commissioners, in the laying out of the Battlefields Park, which is still in course of completion as one of the most striking of Canada’s historic landmarks. His zeal as an overseer of that enterprise and the interest he took in the events of the Celebration, graced, as it was, by the presence of the Prince of Wales, now King George V, and other notables of Canada and the Motherland, was signalized by the honor of knighthood at the hands of King Edward VII, an honor subsequently supplemented by the President of the French Republic, in the bestowal of the Legion of Honor. On the creation of the Quebec Public Utilities Commission, in 1910, he was appointed member of the same and acting President, the appointment being extended for a period of ten years. His career has been marked by the holding of many other high positions connected with the progress of his native city. For a time he was a Director of the Railway Company, under which he had been in his earlier years a civil engineer. He has been Director of the Prudential Trust Company, a Director of the Quebec Steamship Company, a member of the Advisory Board of the Richelieu and Ontario Navigation Company, a Director of the Quebec Land Company, and a Governor of Laval University. His brother, the Hon. E. B. Garneau, was appointed to the Legislative Council on the death of his father. Since the demise of both of them, Sir George has continued to be President of the firm of “Garneau Limited.” He was married in 1892, to Miss Alma Benoit, daughter of Alphonse Benoit, for many years Secretary of the Department of Militia and Defence of Canada. His family consists of five sons and three daughters. In these later years Sir George has taken a deep interest in the Entente Conferences for the promotion of unity between the two distinctive races of Canada; and during the Toronto Conference, he was received at a special Convocation of the University of Toronto, and had the honor of LL.D. conferred upon him. The ancestors of the Garneau family came originally from France in 1663; and the subject of this sketch as a French-Canadian, using the French and English languages with equal facility, has never failed to acknowledge himself as an all-Canadian, devoted to the cause of a common Canadianism, under the aegis of the British Empire. He also served in the Canadian Militia, from which he retired with the rank of Captain of Field Artillery in 1894.
Cox, Herbert Coplin (Toronto, Ont.), son of the late Hon. George A. Cox, Senator, and Margaret (Hopkins) Cox, was born at Peterborough, Ont., on June 29, 1873, and received his education at Jarvis Street Collegiate Institute and Victoria University, Toronto. Mr. Cox was trained to business life and in an extensive experience under his father early developed aptitude and ability as a financier. In July, 1895, he married Louise Bogart Brown, daughter of Charles Brown, Toronto. On completing his education Mr. Cox entered the service of the Canada Life Assurance Company and rapidly rose to the management of the company’s largest branch. He entered into partnership with his father under the firm name of George A. & H. C. Cox, in the management of the Eastern Ontario and Michigan branches of the company in July, 1899, and became sole manager of the business of that territory upon his father’s appointment to the presidency. In October, 1912, he was invited to accept the presidency of the Imperial Life Assurance Company, where he obtained an invaluable experience in executive work. He retired from this position in August, 1914, to become President of the Canada Life Assurance Company on the death of his brother, E. W. Cox. He also assumed the responsibility of various other offices and directorates held by his late brother. While, however, his career as an insurance man and financier has been such as very few men of his age have attained, that represents but one side of a character remarkable for activity and public spirit, as well as ability. In movements toward the betterment of conditions in the life insurance business Mr. Cox has naturally taken a keen interest, but his pursuits outside of business, especially in the field of social betterment, are varied and important. He took a deep and active interest in the erection of Toronto’s General Hospital, serving upon several committees in this connection. He is a director of the Toronto Conservatory of Music and is a member of the Music Committee of the Metropolitan Church, of which he is also a trustee. He is likewise chairman of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Honorary Colonel of the Mississauga Horse. Mr. Cox is President and General Manager of the Canada Life Assurance Company, President of the Imperial Guarantee and Accident Company, President of the Toronto Savings and Loan Company, President of the Provident Investment Company, Vice-President of the Central Canada Loan and Savings Company, Director of the Dominion Securities Corporation, Director of the National Trust Company, Director of the Canadian General Electric Company, Director of the British American Assurance Company, Director of the Western Assurance Company, Director of the Dunlop Tire and Rubber Company, and Director of the Robert Simpson Company. He is a member of the following clubs: Toronto, York, Toronto Hunt, Toronto Golf, Mississauga Golf, Royal Canadian Yacht, National, Ontario, Arts and Letters. In religion Mr. Cox is a Methodist.
Carew, John, M.L.A. (Lindsay, Ont.), born Jan. 5, 1862, at Emily Township, County of Victoria, son of John Carew and Jane Wilson, both Irish. He was educated at Lindsay Public School. Married, Feb. 11, 1885, to Margaret, daughter of Francis and Margaret Kelly, of Red Rock, Verulam Township, County of Victoria, and is father of the following children: Hazel May, Lieut.-Col. Francis John Carew, Annie, Ethel, Gertrude J., Charles Lawrence, Arthur W. and Roberta Grace. Mr. Carew has been successfully engaged in the lumber business at Lindsay for about thirty years and is a large employer of labor. He is President and General Manager of The John Carew Lumber Company, Limited; Vice-President of Horn Bros. Woollen Mills; Vice-President Hodgson Bros. Chemical Co.; Vice-President The Halton Brick Co.; Vice-President The Canada Sand Lime Brick Co. Was elected a member of the Ontario Legislature at the general elections in 1914 as the Conservative representative for South Victoria. Mr. Carew is a Presbyterian in religion, a member of the Masonic Order, and of the Independent Order of Oddfellows. He is a Governor of the Ross Memorial Hospital at Lindsay, a member of the Board of Education of the town, and President of the Lindsay Central Exhibition. Mr. Carew is an enthusiastic member of the Lindsay Curling Club. He is recognized as one of the country’s most public spirited and progressive citizens.
Casgrain, Philippe Baby (Quebec City), lawyer, parliamentarian and author, is of an old and distinguished family, which includes in its record besides himself, the late Abbé P. H. Casgrain, of literary fame; the Hon. Senator Charles E. C. Casgrain, M.D.; the Hon. Thomas Chase Casgrain, the distinguished lawyer and Minister of the Crown, and the Hon. Senator J. P. B. Casgrain. The subject of this sketch was born in the city of Quebec, on the 30th December, 1826. He is the son of Mr. C. E. C. Casgrain, who was at one time the Deputy Commissioner of Public Works. His mother’s maiden name was Miss Anne Baby, a daughter of the Hon. James Baby, Cabinet Minister. He had his earlier education at St. Anne’s College. In 1850 he was called to the Bar, and was given his K.C. in his thirty-third year, after being associated as a law-partner with the Hon. Mr. Cauveau, the Solicitor-General of his time. After this he was given a position as assistant in the Prothonotary’s Office, and was later on chosen Clerk of the Circuit Court. Subsequently he was elected a member of the House of Commons for the constituency of L’Islet, which he continued to represent from term to term for nearly twenty years. It was not until 1891 he was defeated by Mr. Georges Desjardins. During his parliamentary days he was ever diligent in assuming his share of committee work, having taken a prominent part in the Royal Commission appointed to investigate the administration of public affairs in the constituency of Rimouski. Two years after his defeat in L’Islet, he was given the presidency of a second Royal Commission to enquire into the affairs of the Montreal and Sorel Railway. During his long term of office in the Court House, he gained a prominence as a writer and investigator of the traditions that fringed the historical atmosphere of his native city. He was elected for a term of two years President of the Literary and Historical Society in 1898, and seven years afterwards he was chosen for the same position a second time. He also was a member of the Navy League, and took an active part in securing the Plains of Abraham as a federal asset, thus preparing the way for its becoming a permanent acquisition of the National Battlefields Parks Commission. In 1907 he was elected Vice-President of the Canadian Landmarks Association, and was later awarded a diploma from the Royal Society of Canada for his zeal in archæological research. The Transactions of the Royal Society and of the Literary and Historical Society bear testimony to his industry in preparing historical and antiquarian matter for publication, which otherwise might have been lost. For instance, he successfully located the site of the fountain from which the founder of the colony, Samuel de Champlain, had water drawn to supply his habitation, as well as the site of the house in which General Montcalm lived during his sojourn in Quebec, and the house in which he died; the site of the place of abode of Abraham Martin, whose name is perpetuated in the name of the historic battlefield; the site of Dumont’s Mill, near the baylet curvature of the St. Lawrence known as Wolfe’s Cove; the location of Claire Fontaine, that gave its name to the street which, as an elevated pathway on the brow of Perrault’s Hill, saw the marshalling of Montcalm’s troops in three divisions; besides the locations of many other historical landmarks in the Ancient Capital. Learned in the law, he was held in high respect as an official of the Palais de Justice. His long tenure of office in Parliament and out of it has always been characterized by integrity of purpose in dealing with public matters.