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    On Her Majesty's Service: Royal Honours and Recognition in Canada
    On Her Majesty's Service: Royal Honours and Recognition in Canada
    On Her Majesty's Service: Royal Honours and Recognition in Canada
    Ebook224 pages1 hour

    On Her Majesty's Service: Royal Honours and Recognition in Canada

    By Christopher McCreery

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    Royal recognition in Canada is accorded through a variety of honours and awards, including the Royal Victorian Order, Medal, and Chain; Vice-Regal and Commissioners’ Commendations; and Vice-Regal and Commissioners’ Recognition Badges. On Her Majesty’s Service examines the history and development of these marks of honour from the Crown in detail and also provides complete lists of Canadian recipients and a section on heraldry.

    The Royal Victorian Order and Medal have been used since 1896 to honour Canadians who have rendered extraordinary or personal services to the Sovereign, while the Royal Victorian Chain was instituted in 1902. The Vice-Regal and Commissioners’ Commendations are valuable awards presented by lieutenant-governors and territorial commissioners for important services to a viceregal or territorial commissioner; lieutenant-governors, territorial commissioners, and their spouses are accorded royal recognition through the Vice-Regal and Commissioners’ Recognition Badges.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDundurn
    Release dateAug 18, 2008
    ISBN9781459712249
    On Her Majesty's Service: Royal Honours and Recognition in Canada
    Author

    Christopher McCreery

    Christopher McCreery is a founding member of the Institute for the Study of the Crown in Canada and is the author of more than a dozen books. He is private secretary to the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia and is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. In 2010, he was appointed a member of the Royal Victorian Order by the Queen. He lives in Halifax.

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      Book preview

      On Her Majesty's Service - Christopher McCreery

      ON HER MAJESTY’S SERVICE

      ON HER MAJESTY’S SERVICE

      ROYAL HONOURS AND RECOGNITION IN CANADA

      Christopher McCreery, PhD, FRCGS

      Foreword by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal

      Copyright © Christopher McCreery, 2008

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

      Copy-editor: Jennifer Gallant

      Designer: Jennifer Scott

      Printer: Marquis

      Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

      McCreery, Christopher

      On Her Majesty’s service : royal honours and recognition in Canada / Christopher McCreery.

      Includes index.

      ISBN 978-1-55002-742-6

      1. Decorations of honor--Canada--History.  2. Monarchy--Great Britain.  I. Title.

      1   2   3   4   5      12   11   10   09   08

      We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

      Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

      J. Kirk Howard, President

      Printed and bound in Canada

      www.dundurn.com

      Dundurn Press

      3 Church Street, Suite 500

      Toronto, Ontario, Canada

      M5E 1M2

      Gazelle Book Services Limited

      White Cross Mills

      High Town, Lancaster, England

      LA1 4XS

      Dundurn Press

      2250 Military Road

      Tonawanda, NY U.S.A.

      14150

      To the memory of two loyal servants of the Crown:

      Mary de Bellefeuille-Percy, LVO

      Director of Honours, 1998–2006

      Major General Gaston Cloutier, CMM, CVO, CD

      Canadian Secretary to the Queen, 1993–2005

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      List of Plates

      Foreword by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Grand Master of the Royal Victorian Order

      Preface by John C. Perlin, CM, CVO

      Acknowledgements

      Introduction

      Chapter One

      The Royal Victorian Order in Canada, 1896–1971:

      Recognizing Royal Service

      Chapter Two

      The Creation of the Canadian Honours System:

      The Return of the Royal Victorian Order

      Chapter Three

      The Royal Victorian Chain:

      Vice-Regal Recognition

      Chapter Four

      The Royal Victorian Medal

      Chapter Five

      The Vice-Regal and Commissioners’ Recognition Badge

      Chapter Six

      The Vice-Regal and Commissioners’ Commendation

      Chapter Seven

      Insignia and Heraldry

      Conclusion

      The Future of the Royal Victorian Order in Canada

      Appendices

      Appendix One

      Officials of the Royal Victorian Order and Canadian Recipients of the Royal Victorian Chain

      Appendix Two

      Canadian Members of the Royal Victorian Order since 1972

      Appendix Three

      Canadian Recipients of the Royal Victorian Medal since 1972

      Appendix Four

      Canadian Members of the Royal Victorian Order and Recipients of the Medal prior to 1972

      Appendix Five

      Holders of the Royal Victorian Chain and Members of the Royal Victorian Order Associated with Canada

      Appendix Six

      Regulations of the Royal Victorian Chain

      Appendix Seven

      Statutes of the Royal Victorian Order

      Appendix Eight

      Statistical Analysis of Appointments to the Royal Victorian Order

      Appendix Nine

      Recipients of the Vice-Regal and Commissioners’ Recognition Badge

      Appendix Ten

      Recipients of the Vice-Regal and Commissioners’ Commendation

      Endnotes

      Bibliography

      Index

      PLATES

      Following Page 64

      FOREWORD

      BUCKINGHAM PALACE

      Since 1896 the Royal Victorian Order has been used to recognize a wide variety of services rendered to the Sovereign and Members of the Royal Family. Throughout the Order’s history, the diversity of its recipients and their contributions to the Crown in Canada have represented a great sense of service; one that continues to this day.

      The name of Sister Vivien Tremaine will not be familiar to many, however it was certainly known to my great-grandfather King George V. During the early days of the First World War, Sister Tremaine of the Canadian Expeditionary Force nursed The King back to health when he fell ill while visiting the battlefields of France. Her service and devotion was rewarded with the Royal Victorian Medal (Silver).

      The image of my grandfather, King George VI, investing the Governor General, Lord Tweedsmuir, as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order on a moving train during the famed 1939 Royal Tour of Canada is also particularly memorable.

      Holders of the Royal Victorian Chain, members of the Royal Victorian Order and recipients of the Royal Victorian Medal embody a unique group who have served The Monarch, Her family and Her representatives, the Governor General and Lieutenant Governors, in a distinguished and exemplary manner.

      As Grand Master of the Royal Victorian Order, I am delighted that Dr McCreery’s book examines the history of the Order in Canada, and includes a complete roll of all those associated with the Country who are part of this important element of the national honours system. I am confident that the reader will find the new information and historical detail contained in this work to be of great interest, and that it will serve as an important resource for future historians.

      PREFACE

      IN THE LATE YEARS of her reign, Queen Victoria found herself in a quandary when it came to the bestowal of honours. Unlike her European counterparts who had Household Orders to bestow upon visiting heads of state and their retinues for personal services, the Queen was without such a mechanism. During her long reign, Queen Victoria had witnessed the control over honours pass to her prime ministers as the honours system expanded and the Royal Prerogative eroded. Because of this situation she was able to persuade one of her prime ministers, Lord Salisbury, of the need for an order that would be entirely at the discretion of the Sovereign.

      Thus in 1896, much to Her Majesty’s pleasure, the Royal Victorian Order was established in five classes, accompanied by the Royal Victorian Medal in gold, silver, and bronze. It remains the only order that Victoria’s successor Sovereigns have been able to bestow upon those who provide services either directly to members of the House of Windsor or indirectly through the various viceregal households throughout the Commonwealth. All of these appointments must receive the Sovereign’s approbation. While the Royal Victorian Chain, Royal Victorian Order, and Royal Victorian Medal are United Kingdom honours they are also, in the case of Canada, Canadian honours presented to Canadians by the Queen of Canada in right of Canada. However, it is worth noting that the two knighthood levels, GCVO and KCVO, are not given to Canadians because of the titles they carry.

      The Royal Victorian Order has been awarded to Canadians sporadically since its inception until 1971. At that time Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau agreed that the Order could be incorporated into the rapidly burgeoning Canadian honours system. This official recognition has allowed Queen Elizabeth II to acknowledge the services of Canadians to herself, the Royal Family, and her viceregal representatives throughout Canada. Since 1972, the majority of appointments to the Order in Canada have been associated with the Queen’s tours in Canada. A few awards have been made on the recommendation of governors general and lieutenant-governors. Sadly these latter awards have essentially disappeared and been replaced with the Vice-Regal and Commissioners’ Commendations, which although sparingly given are considered awards and not honours of the Crown.

      Christopher McCreery has chosen to use On Her Majesty’s Service, his latest book on honours, to document the history of what, in reality, is the most senior order in Canada’s honours system, since precedence is normally accorded on the date an order was established. Hence, for what it’s worth, the Royal Victoria Order in the United Kingdom has precedence over the Order of the British Empire, which was established in 1917 during the First World War, but in Canada precedence is accorded to the Royal Victorian Order only after all three levels of the Order of Canada — a somewhat surprising change given the Royal Victorian Order’s age and the prestige associated with it.

      Dr. McCreery has also included a history of the development of the Vice-Regal and Commissioners’ Recognition Badges, which have largely replaced the use of civil uniforms in Canada.

      On Her Majesty’s Service is a welcome addition to this author’s two earlier books on Canada’s rapidly expanding honours system. It is amazing to see that a country that, in light of the Nickle Resolution of 1918, felt itself so egalitarian that it refused to allow its citizens to accept any honour for most of the twentieth century has now developed so many that it rivals those European countries that took nearly a millennium to develop theirs. This is a very readable book that may help shed some light on the history of an order that is awarded by the Queen to Canadians for their services to the Canadian Crown.

      JOHN C. PERLIN, CM, CVO

      Former Canadian Secretary to the Queen

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      THIS WORK WOULD NOT have come about without the encouragement of a number of members of the Royal Victorian Order, namely Dr. Michael Jackson, CVO, SOM, CD, former Chief of Protocol for the Province of Saskatchewan; Mr. Kevin MacLeod, CVO, CD, Usher of the Black Rod for the Senate of Canada; and Lieutenant Commander Terrance Christopher, OMM, LVO, CD, former Usher of the Black Rod. Their periodic inquiries about the history of the Order developed into a desire to see published a useful and accessible book about the Royal Victorian Order in Canada.

      I am indebted to Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal, Grand Master of the Royal Victorian Order, for providing the foreword for this book. Her keen sense of history and dedication to the Order is most laudable.

      Thanks

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