From Huntingdon to High Commissioner: The Upward Path of Sir John Rose

The author points out that the Scottish-born John Rose (1820-1888) immigrated to Huntingdon, Quebec, in 1836, and from that time to his death 50 years later he played important roles in virtually every major political event and economic development pertaining to Canada. Among his accomplishments were: he took part in the suppression of the 1837 rebellion; he was admitted to the bar in 1842; he was a member of the Legislative Assembly for Canada East from 1857 to 1867, and a member of the Executive Council from 1858 to 1861; he was a director of the Bank of Montreal; a legal counsel in the 1855 founding of the Molson Bank; president of the St. Andrew's Society (1852-1855); integral in the selling of the Hudson's Bay Company (and Deputy Governor of the HBC from 1880 to 1883); served as the Member of Parliament for Huntingdon from 1867 to 1869, where he was appointed as Minister of Finance; and from 1869 to his death in 1888 he served as the de facto High Commissioner for Canada in London. The author points out that a plaque on the Bank of Montreal headquarters in Montreal's Place d'Armes "is just about the only physical trace you will find on this side of the Atlantic of a man whose story is little-known but highly consequential."

Quebec Heritage News

Vol. 17

no. 3

Summer 2023

11-14

en