Cross.
With the fall of New France in 1759, one would expect the flow of honours from France to come to a halt. However, this was not the case, since up until the French Revolution the Crown continued to bestow the Order of St. Louis upon residents of the old colony in recognition of military services rendered prior to 1759. These awards were usually given to veterans whose families had petitioned for belated recognition.
3
IMPERIAL HONOURS IN CANADA FROM CONFEDERATION TO THE CENTENNIAL
To an outside observer it might be strange to include what some would consider a foreign honours system in a book that examines Canadian honours. This would be true if not for the fact that until recently most orders, decorations, and medals awarded to Canadians were borrowed from the British. While Canadians administered these honours and Canadian governments had control over who received them, they were for the most part common throughout the British Empire/Commonwealth. Indeed, while Canada ceased using British honours in 1967 with the creation of the Order of Canada, some Commonwealth countries such as Australia and New Zealand have only followed the Canadian lead within the past forty years. There remain a number of the Queen’s smaller realms such as Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Belize, Tuvalu, Grenada, and St. Lucia that continue to use imperial honours or what they now call “the Queen’s honours.” In some cases these are used alone or in tandem with local national honours.
The evolution of honours systems in the Commonwealth is a fascinating subject, one that relates closely to the development of Canada’s modern honours system. Countries such as Australia, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands have adopted national orders in part based on the Order of Canada. The Canadian experience with developing a national honours system has been closely followed by many countries keen on creating an indigenous honours system while continuing to respect that which came before.
Given the large number of Canadians 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
