Meighen, Hon. Arthur, K.C. (Portage la Prairie, Man.), was born June 16, 1874, at Anderson, Blanchard Township, Perth County, Ont., and is the son of Joseph and Mary Meighen, of St. Mary’s, Ont. He was educated at St. Mary’s Collegiate Institute and Toronto University; received degree B.A. (Tor.), 1896; graduated with honors in mathematics. Taught High School, Caledonia, Ont., 1897-98. After graduating as a Barrister, he entered business for himself, 1902, and built up a large practice at Portage la Prairie. Bencher Manitoba Law Society since 1908; Bencher of Upper Canada Law Society since 1914. Having a capacity for public life, at the solicitation of his friends, he accepted the nomination as Conservative candidate for the Constituency of Portage la Prairie, Man., and was elected by a majority of 250. In 1904 Mr. Crawford, Liberal, had been elected by a majority of 358. In the general elections, September 21, 1911, when the Laurier Administration was defeated at the polls on the question of Reciprocity with the United States, Mr. Meighen was again elected by a majority of 675 over his opponent R. Patterson. When the position of Solicitor-General became vacant, June 26, 1913, Sir Robert Borden invited Mr. Meighen to accept that office, and at a bye-election held July 19, 1913, he was returned by acclamation. In August, 1917, he became Secretary of State for Canada and Minister of Mines, and as such devised and installed the organizations in Canada and overseas for the holding of the war election of that year. On the formation of the Union Government in the autumn of 1917 he accepted the portfolio of Minister of the Interior, and was re-elected by a handsome majority at the general elections which ensued. As a parliamentarian he has been a success, and is held in high esteem by members on both sides of the House. As a debater he is considered one of the ablest, and always commands the respect of his colleagues when he rises to speak on any important subject. Mr. Meighen was married June 1, 1904, to Jessie Isabel Cox, to whom were born three children, Theodore Roosvelt Meighen (1905), Maxwell Charles Gordon Meighen (1908), and Lillian Meighen (1910). In religion he is a Presbyterian; in politics, a Conservative. Clubs, Portage la Prairie, Rideau, Ottawa. Address, 21 Cooper St., Ottawa.
MAJOR-GEN. SIR. ARTHUR WILLIAM CURRIE
Victoria, B.C.
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.
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.