Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto

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Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto : biography

9 July 1845 – 1 March 1914

In September 1901, after Queen Victoria’s death in January, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later to become King George V and Queen Mary) visited Canada, and travelled with Lady Minto to western Canada and the Klondike. Following the tour, Minto recommended Thomas Shaughnessy, President of the Canadian Pacific Railway, to the government at Westminster, via the Secretary of State for the Colonies, for a knighthood, as recognition for his service to the Duke and Duchess of York. Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, to whom Shaughnessy was no friend, opposed the idea; but, Minto made the recommendation anyway, invoking the ire of Laurier and prompting the Prime Minister to draft a policy dictating that all Canadian nominees for honours must be approved by the prime minister before the list was sent to London.

On 6 December 1901, Lord Minto held a skating party on the Ottawa River, when Andrew George Blair’s daughter Bessie, and potential rescuer Henry Albert Harper both drowned.

Lord Minto, like his predecessors, travelled throughout the young country – he crossed Quebec, Ontario and western Canada, visiting former battlegrounds where he had served during the North-West Rebellion. He rode throughout western Canada with the North-West Mounted Police, and enjoyed the Quebec countryside on horseback.

Lord Minto’s convictions about the importance of preserving Canadian heritage led to the creation of the National Archives of Canada. The Earl of Minto as Governor General of Canada. Lord and Lady Minto were sports enthusiasts and the Minto Skating Club, which they founded in 1903, has produced many famous ice skaters. They both excelled at the sport and hosted many lively skating parties during their time at Rideau Hall. In the summer, the Minto family loved to bicycle and play lacrosse. In 1901, Lord Minto donated the Minto Cup and appointed trustees to oversee its annual awarding to the champion senior men’s lacrosse team of Canada (since 1937 the Cup has been awarded to the junior men’s champions). He loved the outdoors, championed the conservation of natural resources and promoted the creation of national parks.

In education and health, Lord Minto encouraged a forward-looking approach. He believed that Canada’s progress depended on the cultivation of patriotism and unity, and this conviction was reflected in his desire to see a wider history curriculum developed in Canadian schools. In response to the health crisis posed by tuberculosis, he helped establish the first anti-tuberculosis foundation in Canada.

Lord Minto also took great interest in the development of the Canadian military and emphasized the need for training and professional development. He was appointed honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of the Governor General’s Foot Guards Regiment on 1 December 1898 and was subsequently appointed Honorary Colonel, a tradition that has continued with the post of Governors General to this day.

On his trip back to Britain in 1904, having finished his term as Canada’s Governor General, Lord Minto wrote in his journal "… so our life in Canada is over and it has been a great wrench parting from so many friends and leaving a country which I love, and which has been very full of interest to me".

Viceroy of India

In 1905, on the resignation of Lord Curzon of Kedleston, Lord Minto was appointed Viceroy and Governor-General of India, retiring in 1910. In this, he followed in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, the first Lord Minto. When John Morley as Secretary of State for India wrote to Minto arguing that "Reforms may not save the Raj, but if they don’t, nothing else will", Minto replied:

…when you say that "if reforms do not save the Raj nothing else will" I am afraid I must utterly disagree. The Raj will not disappear in India as long as the British race remains what it is, because we shall fight for the Raj as hard as we have ever fought, if it comes to fighting, and we shall win as we have always won.Nicholas Mansergh, The Commonwealth Experience (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969), p. 13.

For his lifetime of service, was made a Knight of the Garter.