Vere Brabazon Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough

Family and Education

Bessborough was the eldest son of Edward Ponsonby, 8th Earl of Bessborough, an Anglo-Irish aristocrat, and Blanche Vere Guest, daughter of Sir Josiah John Guest, 1st Baronet, owner of the Dowlais Iron Company (the largest ironworks in the world in the mid-19th century), and Lady Charlotte Bertie, a translator and publisher of Welsh literature. Edward Ponsonby’s great-uncle Henry Frederick Ponsonby (1825–95), private secretary to Queen Victoria, commanded a battalion of the Grenadier Guards in Canada from 1862 to 1863 and was a frequent guest of Lord Monck, the governor general at the time of Confederation.

Bessborough received his secondary education at Harrow School and graduated from Trinity College Cambridge with a bachelor of arts degree in 1901. He was called to the Bar in 1903.

Political, Military and Business Career

Bessborough served on the London County Council from 1907 to 1910 and was a Member of Parliament for Dover in the British House of Commons from 1913 to 1920. He also served in the First World War at the Battle of Gallipoli. From 1906 to 1920, he was known as Viscount Duncannon, a courtesy title as his father’s heir.

Upon the death of his father in 1920, he became the 9th Earl of Bessborough and entered the House of Lords. In the 1920s, he pursued a business career, eventually sitting on the board of more than 20 companies, including serving as chairman of the São Paulo Railway and joint chairman of Unilever. As deputy chairman of De Beers, Bessborough received a 5.6-carat diamond that became the centrepiece of the Bessborough Tiara he commissioned as a wedding gift for his wife.

Marriage and Children

On 25 June 1912, Bessborough married Roberte Poupart de Neuflize (1892–1979), daughter of French banker and equestrian Jean Frédéric André Poupart de Neuflize, 4th Baron of Neuflize, and Madeleine Dollfus-Davillier, granddaughter of French textile industrialist Jean Dollfus.

They had three children prior to Bessborough’s appointment as governor general. Their eldest son, Frederick “Eric” Edward Neuflize Ponsonby, 10th Earl of Bessborough (1913–93), became a politician, a playwright and an amateur actor who performed at the Ottawa Little Theatre during his father’s term as governor general. He visited Canada on more than a dozen occasions, writing extensively about his Canadian travels in his 1962 autobiography, Return to the Forest. Their second son, the Honourable Desmond Neuflize Ponsonby (1915–25), died in a riding accident at the age of 10. Their daughter, Lady Moyra Blanche Madeleine Brown (1918–2016), was a nurse who served as vice-president of the Royal College of Nursing in the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1985 and superintendent-in-chief of St. John Ambulance from 1970 to 1983.

On 14 August 1931, Lady Bessborough gave birth to their youngest son at Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, less than five months after Bessborough was sworn in as governor general. The Honourable George St. Lawrence Neuflize Ponsonby was the first child born to a viceregal consort in Canada. He was named for his godfather, King George V, and the St. Lawrence River. “Baby Bessborough,” as he was nicknamed by the press, made public appearances in Canada with his parents, including attending military reviews. He died in a car accident in 1951.

Governor General of Canada

Lord and Lady Bessborough arrived in Halifax on 4 April 1931. The installation of the new governor general took place at Province House in Halifax and was broadcast on the radio for the first time. Armenian Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh took official photographs of the Bessboroughs that were widely published, helping to launch his career. Reflecting the independent Canadian Crown established by the Statute of Westminster, Bessborough flew a uniquely Canadian viceregal standard depicting a heraldic lion above the word “Canada,” setting a precedent that continues to the present day.

On 27 August 1931, Bessborough hosted King Prajadipok (Rama VII) and Queen Rambhai of Siam [now Thailand], the first reigning foreign monarch and consort to visit Canada. The King of Siam and the governor general travelled by carriage together to the Houses of Parliament. Bessborough hosted a dinner party at Rideau Hall in honour of the King and Queen of Siam that was attended by Prime Minister R.B. Bennett and William Lyon Mackenzie King, leader of the official opposition at that time. Other prominent political figures entertained by Bessborough included future British prime minister Winston Churchill, Prince and Princess Takamatsu of Japan and Australian polar explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins.

Bessborough travelled extensively in Canada, meeting Canadians from all walks of life and promoting Scouts Canada. In 1932, he opened the Imperial Economic Conference in the House of Commons, one of the first large-scale international gatherings in Ottawa. That same year, he opened the new Welland Canal and received honorary doctor of laws degrees from the University of Toronto, the University of Ottawa, McGill University and the University of Alberta. On 30 May 1931, Bessborough granted permission for the Canadian Pacific Railway hotel in Saskatoon to be named after him (now the Delta Bessborough). The hotel’s opening was delayed until 1935 because of financial difficulties caused by the Great Depression.

The Great Depression

Bessborough admired the resourcefulness and fortitude of Canadians during the Great Depression, stating in a speech delivered in Shawbridge (now Prévost), Quebec, “Having seen the Dominion during this period, I think I have learned to appreciate Canadians far more than I would have been able to do in times of general prosperity. There is nothing more encouraging and cheering than the calm, steady way Canadians have pursued their daily tasks during the difficult period with a supreme faith in the destiny of their country.” Bessborough met with workers on strike and listened to their concerns and inspected hostels and soup kitchens for the unemployed. He insisted on receiving a 10 per cent reduction in his salary as governor general in keeping with wider federal civil-service budget reductions.

Communications

Bessborough’s term as governor general saw increased use of the radio and telephone, including a direct telephone link between Rideau Hall and the Prime Minister’s Office. Bessborough gave Royal Assent to the act that created the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and inaugurated the first trans-Canadian telephone system in 1932 by calling each of the provincial lieutenant governors from his study at Rideau Hall.

Personality and Public Image

British diarist and Member of Parliament Henry “Chips” Channon described Bessborough as “correct, warm, fashionable and courteous,” but future Canadian governor general Vincent Massey described Bessborough as “buttoned up.” While previous governors general accepted and even embraced the comparative informality of public life in Canada compared to the United Kingdom, Bessborough and his private secretary, Sir Alan “Tommy” Lascelles, expected formalities to be observed. Lascelles wrote an etiquette guide for Bessborough’s staff.

When Bessborough attended the centennial of the City of Toronto over Victoria Day weekend in 1934, he reputedly chastised Mayor William J. Stewart for not providing an official welcome outside City Hall, which contrasted with the rapturous welcome provided for Toronto-born actress Mary Pickford. Reports that Bessborough had told Stewart to “go back to your Mary Pickford show” were widely circulated in the press. The “Mary Pickford incident,” as it was described in the Toronto Daily Star, caused controversy. Luke Teskey, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation candidate for York South, declared, “The position of governor general should not be allocated to a man who has some preconceived idea of his superiority over his fellow men.”

In contrast to his predecessors as governor general, Bessborough was not interested in either winter or summer sports. A former aide-de-camp recalled, “He didn’t go in for playing games, either indoors or out. He didn’t even care about watching others play them. Bridge was the exception.” The toboggan slide that been commissioned by Lord Dufferin was removed from the Rideau Hall grounds and skating parties were reduced to two per year. Instead, the Bessboroughs hosted frequent bridge parties, dinners and dances. The Bessborough family’s love of amateur theatricals inspired Bessborough’s patronage of the Dominion Drama Festival.

The Dominion Drama Festival

In 1933, Bessborough presided over the first Dominion Drama Festival in Ottawa, which he devised to promote amateur theatre in Canada and provide support and recognition for Canadian actors, directors, producers, set designers and playwrights. The best play, as judged by English and French Canadian adjudicators, received the Bessborough Trophy. The Dominion Drama Festival brought Canadians involved in amateur theatre together and fostered interprovincial collaboration in the arts. The festival, later renamed Theatre Canada, continued until 1978.

Later Life

After his return to the United Kingdom in 1935, Bessborough resumed his business activities, becoming president of the Corporation of Foreign Bondholders and chairman of Rio Tinto. He also published letters from his great-great-grandmother Henrietta in Lady Bessborough and Her Family Circle (1940) and edited two volumes of journals by his grandmother Lady Charlotte Schreiber (1950–1952).

During the Second World War, the Bessborough family visited wounded Canadian soldiers in British military hospitals and entertained Canadian troops in their home. Bessborough helped establish a department of the British Foreign Office to assist French refugees during the Second World War and became chairman of the Franco-British society, receiving the Grand Cross of the Légion d’Honneur in 1950.