The Canadian Honours System. Christopher McCreery
who received imperial honours during the past century, many of whom are still alive, it would be recklessly revisionist to pretend that such honours were foreign.
The term imperial honours is used throughout this book, not out of some antediluvian attachment to the words but because the British honours system in Canada and the Commonwealth was until relatively recently an imperial honours system, one tacitly administered by the various government departments responsible for honours in the United Kingdom, but one in which there was a high degree of local control over the type of awards and who was honoured. It is misleading to consider them to be only “British” when they were, in fact, a system shared, shaped, and used by the whole of the Commonwealth at one time or another.
The administration of each order, decoration, and medal covered in this section is discussed in the following six chapters. Canadian officials had a significant amount of control over who would be nominated for or receive a specific award. From an accountant’s point of view it was an ideal situation, since the British defrayed most of the costs for insignia and certificates while Canadian officials merely had to cover the postage charge for the shipping of insignia.
For senior honours, administration was left to the prime minister, who was allotted a certain number of knighthoods for which he could recommend eminent Canadians. While the Sovereign was — and remains — the “fountain of all honours,” the prime minister once had a great degree of personal control over who received honours, whereas today he or she has no formal influence over who is recognized by the Crown in Canada. Gallantry awards were non-political and thus there was no interference by political officials, though they were occasionally involved in the broader process of sitting on committees and sending along recommendations for bravery awards to the Department of the Secretary of State, which was, until 1972, charged with the administration of honours in Canada.
As we will see, aside from a few very high-profile cases, the Canadian government once had an immense degree of control over the flow of honours. Nevertheless, the perception remained that imperial honours were tightly controlled by the British government. This may have had some truth to it in connection to peerages and certain knighthoods conferred upon Canadians, but in terms of those honours Canadians became most familiar with, such as the Order of the British Empire, war service medals, long service medals, and the Imperial Service Medal, Canada had near-complete autonomy.
Canada continues to differentiate between Commonwealth and foreign honours. Because members of the Commonwealth recognize the Queen as head of the Commonwealth, honours emanating from a Commonwealth country are given precedence over those from non-Commonwealth countries. This is closely connected with the legal reality that Commonwealth countries are not considered to be foreign, because of the fact that we share a common link through our history and the Sovereign.
The section on imperial honours does not cover medals such as the Naval General Service Medal, 1915–62, and the Military General Service Medal, 1918–62, despite the fact that a small number of Canadians received these while on exchange with the British Armed Forces. Similarly, the Falkland Islands War Medal, the Campaign Service Medal, and most recently the British Operational Service Medal (for Sierra Leone) have been awarded to Canadians; however, their numbers remain so low that inclusion is not warranted here. Today the last three medals are considered “Commonwealth” and not Canadian.
The Imperial Honours System in Canada
In Canada the Crown has always been the “fountain of all honours.” As such all officially recognized national and provincial honours must be created by the Sovereign and either awarded in the name of the Queen or sanctioned by the Crown. The bestowal of honours in Canada was articulated through the honours list, originally published in the London Gazette and later the Canada Gazette. During peacetime, the list was published twice yearly, once on the Sovereign’s birthday and once around Christmas or New Year’s Day. For Canadian civilians these lists were compiled by the governor general and prime minister — though the level of their co-operation varied — and then submitted to the Sovereign for approval. For members of the Canadian military, honours lists were drawn up by senior military officers and the minister of national defence, then approved or augmented by the governor general. Until 1918 the British government had the power to nominate Canadians for honours, though this prerogative effectively came to an end with the Nickle Resolution.
Prior to Confederation the British government did not feel obligated to consult the colonial governments of British North America before conferring an honour upon a resident of what would later become the Dominion of Canada. The system was quite simple: the governor or governor general would suggest to the colonial secretary that a particular person be recognized; if the colonial secretary approved the nomination, it would be put forward for the approval of the British prime minister and ultimately the Sovereign. Recommendations did not have to originate with the governor or governor general; in theory they could originate from any member of the general public, though in practice it was unlikely that the colonial secretary would act upon the recommendation of, say, a Mr. Shanks of Bytown, Canada West. Similarly, the colonial secretary could suggest that a particular person in a colony be recognized, and of course the governor of the colony in question, as the local authority, would normally be consulted.
Residents of Canada were eligible for most British honours, save those that did not apply to Canada, such as the Order of the Star of India or the Order of the Indian Empire. In the pre-Confederation period relatively few honours were bestowed upon Canadians. Those awarded were usually knighthoods conferred on judges and senior politicians. There were no junior civil service honours or long service medals for the local constable.
An Emerging Policy, 1867–1917
Cartoon of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, PC, GCMG, shortly after his dubbing in 1897.
After Confederation a convention emerged whereby the prime minister of Canada submitted his honours lists to the governor general, who vetted them and submitted them to the colonial secretary and then onto the Sovereign. The governor general — who was then a British official — also nominated Canadians for honours, usually without the knowledge of the Canadian prime minister. Awards for members of the military were submitted by the general officer in command of the Canadian Militia to the governor general for transmission to London, though there were some instances when the prime minister nominated senior Canadian officers for honours.
This system of informal consultation functioned fairly well until 1901 when controversy arose over the knighting of Thomas Shaughnessy, president of Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Governor General Lord Minto suggested to Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier that Shaughnessy be knighted on account of his services during the 1901 Royal Tour of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (the future King George V and Queen Mary). Laurier opposed the idea on the grounds that Shaughnessy was unpopular with Canadians and certainly no friend of the prime minister. Minto, however, disregarded Laurier’s advice and advanced the nomination.
Laurier was furious when Shaughnessy was knighted, and it did not help that he learned of the appointment from a newspaper and not the governor general. By 1902, Laurier had drafted an official policy on honours in Canada. It set out that all honours, save the Royal Victorian Order, had to be approved by the prime minister before any list could be sent from the governor general to the King. The governor general and the British government took their time in replying to Laurier’s policy, and while they agreed that the prime minister should be involved in reviewing the honours lists and submitting names, they maintained that the governor general would retain the right to nominate Canadians.
Discontent and Discord: The Nickle Debates, 1917–19
The First World War brought much social and constitutional change to Canada, which included the nation’s policy toward honours. Prior to the war there had been only muted opposition to titular honours such as peerages and knighthoods. Honours were viewed as necessary, even if they were used as tools of patronage from time to time. This prevailing attitude changed during the Great War as a result of several high-profile controversies. In 1914 a private member’s bill was introduced in the House of Commons that sought to abolish peerages and knighthoods in Canada, but not other