In particular, two very public scandals over honours induced Parliament to examine the issue. The first involved the 1915 appointment of the Canadian minister of militia and defence, Sam Hughes, as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. Hughes had been pilloried in the press because of his overall administration of the department of militia and defence and the Canadian Expeditionary Force. His bombastic approach, cronyism, and procurement of the Ross Rifle were widely reported. The more serious outrage occurred in 1917 when Sir Hugh Graham, owner of the Montreal Star and a staunch imperialist, was elevated to the peerage as Lord Atholstan — against the advice of the Canadian prime minister and governor general. Graham’s peerage was so controversial in part because of his highly unpopular right-wing views and because of an increasing suspicion among Canadians of peerages and knighthoods. Although an unpopular figure, Graham had built up a major newspaper and founded a number of other publications.
This was the only time in Canadian history that the British government ignored advice from both a governor general and a prime minister. The disregard of Ottawa’s wishes was related to the fact that British Prime Minister David Lloyd George was selling peerages and knighthoods to raise funds for his party. While the use of honours to reward political contributions was hardly new, under Lloyd George such transactions had become particularly blatant, as is noted below.
In addition to these events, there was an underlying naïveté about honours in Canada. Peerages and knighthoods were thought to be the same thing — both hereditary — and there was similar confusion regarding the imperial orders of chivalry. For instance, when the creation of the Order of the British Empire was announced in 1917, Canadian newspapers announced that three hundred Canadians were going to be knighted with the new order. This was certainly not the case.
Sir Robert Borden, PC, GCMG, KC.
In March 1917, following Graham’s elevation to the peerage as Lord Atholstan, Sir Robert Borden drafted a new government policy setting out that all honours must be approved by the Canadian prime minister and that no further hereditary honours (peerages or baronetcies) were to be conferred on Canadians. Only a week after this policy was drafted, William Folger Nickle, the Conservative-Unionist Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston, introduced a resolution in the House of Commons requesting that the King cease awarding peerages to Canadians. Nickle had no trouble with knighthoods or other honours, only those that had a hereditary quality. Nickle’s resolution was, in fact, very similar to Borden’s new policy. After a lengthy debate, the House of Commons adopted a resolution placing power over recommendations for all honours in the hands of the Canadian prime minister, while at the same time asking the King to cease awarding hereditary titles to Canadians. This is what came to be known as the Nickle Resolution, even though Nickle himself voted against the version eventually adopted.
Although the Nickle Resolution was adopted, the debate was far from over. While military honours continued to be conferred, Borden did not send forward any further recommendations for honours. He thought the issue was still too contentious to test the new protocol.
Throughout late 1918 and most of 1919, the British press was littered with reports about people purchasing honours. Although this was a problem confined to Britain, many people in Canada assumed that the same practice was followed on this side of the Atlantic as well. Fearing that an avalanche of knighthoods was to accompany the newly created Order of the British Empire, Nickle introduced another motion in April 1919. This one called for the King to “hereafter be graciously pleased to refrain from conferring any titles upon your subjects domiciled or living in Canada.”
William Folger Nickle, KC, MP.
Nickle was now pursuing a prohibition on all titular honours, a departure from his original opposition to only hereditary honours. Following another lengthy debate that in many ways mirrored the one in 1918, the House of Commons voted to create a Special Committee on Honours and Titles, which held several meetings and eventually submitted a report to Parliament that called for the King to cease conferring all honours and titular distinctions, save military ranks and vocational and professional titles, upon residents of Canada. It also recommended that action be taken to extinguish the heritable quality of peerages and baronetcies held by Canadians, something that would be impossible to do. The committee approved of the continuance of naval and military decorations for valour and gallantry. The final part of the report affirmed the committee’s desire to see that no resident of Canada be permitted to accept a title of honour or titular distinction from a foreign (non-British) government. The Commons passed a motion of concurrence with the report and it was adopted.
There has, invariably, been confusion about the Nickle Resolution and the Report of the Special Committee on Honours and Titles. Neither was a statute, and neither had any standing as anything more than a recommendation or guideline, as Prime Minister R.B. Bennett demonstrated in 1933. The Nickle Resolution served as a policy document on how a prime minister could submit honours lists, and while it requested that no further hereditary honours be bestowed, it did not prevent Canadians from accepting other honours, whether a knighthood or Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Prohibition, 1919–1932
The prohibition on Canadians accepting imperial honours commenced in 1918 and lasted until 1933. Neither Prime Minister Arthur Meighen nor his successor William Lyon Mackenzie King submitted honours lists, though it was well within their power to do so. Both leaders hesitated on account of the issue’s contentiousness. The prohibition was not complete, however, as Canadians living in other parts of the British Empire were still eligible to be awarded honours. In 1925 Canadian-born Emma Albani, the world-renowned soprano and the first Canadian to attain international stardom as a result of artistic abilities, was honoured with a damehood. Albani was made a Dame of the Order of the British Empire in 1925, the first Canadian woman to be so honoured, but since she resided in the United Kingdom, the Canadian government did not become involved in protesting her appointment.
Another prominent example was that of Dr. Sir George Washington Badgerow, a famous ear, nose, and throat doctor. Badgerow was born and trained in Canada, though he made his home in Britain. In 1926 the British government requested permission from the Canadian government to allow Badgerow to be knighted. Two years later the Canadian government responded that the award could go forward because Badgerow, though born in Canada, was a resident of Britain and was being rewarded for services he performed in Britain. Thus the prohibition was incidental, and Bennett would prove that there was, in fact, no legislative prohibition at all, but rather a series of prime ministers who had no interest in honours lists.
Bennett’s Honours Lists, 1932–1935
Prime Minister R.B. Bennett broke the moratorium on honours that had existed in Canada between 1919 and 1933. In fact, Bennett adhered perfectly to the Nickle Resolution and had eighteen Canadians awarded knighthoods and 189 appointed to the various non-titular levels of the imperial orders of chivalry. Bennett solicited nominations from the various lieutenant governors and other officials and then personally selected each candidate.
Richard Bedford Bennett, PC, ED, KC.
Unlike previous lists, Bennett’s were largely non-partisan and well distributed among the provinces and between both sexes — quite a novelty for the period.
Among others, Bennett’s lists recognized Sir Frederick Banting, the co-discoverer of insulin; Sir Ernest Macmillan, the noted composer and conductor; Sir Thomas Chapais, the esteemed historian; and Sir Arthur Doughty, the dominion archivist. At the non-titular level, Lucy Maud Montgomery was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and Lester Pearson was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). For the first time women represented nearly half of those being recognized with honours. Public reaction to these awards was ambivalent.
Bennett