page_title: Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
section_title: Governor General of Canada
hierarchical_section_title: Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn / Governor General of Canada
caption_attribution_description: English: Postcard of the visit of the Governor General of Canada - Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn - to the Valcartier military base near Quebec City.
context_page_description: Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, was the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He served as the Governor General of Canada, the tenth since Canadian Confederation and the only British prince to do so. In 1910 he was appointed Grand Prior of the Order of St John and held this position until 1939.
  Arthur was educated by private tutors before entering the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich at 16 years old. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the British Army, where he served for some 40 years, seeing service in various parts of the British Empire. During this time he was also created a royal duke, becoming the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, as well as the Earl of Sussex. In 1900 he was appointed as Commander in Chief of the British Army in Ireland, which he regretted his preference being to join the campaign against the Boers in South Africa. In 1911, he was appointed as Governor General of Canada, replacing the Earl Grey as viceroy. He occupied this post until he was succeeded by the Duke of Devonshire in 1916.
context_section_description: It was announced on 6 March 1911 that King George V had, by commission under the royal sign-manual, approved the recommendation of his British prime minister, H.H. Asquith, to appoint Arthur as his representative. His brother-in-law, the Duke of Argyll, had previously served as the country's governor general, but when Arthur was sworn in on 13 October 1911 in the salon rouge of the parliament buildings of Quebec, he became the first Governor General of Canada who was a member of the British royal family.
  To Canada, Arthur brought with him his wife and his youngest daughter, the latter of whom would become an extremely popular figure with Canadians. The Governor General and his viceregal family travelled throughout the country, performing such constitutional and ceremonial tasks as opening parliament in 1911 (to which Arthur wore his field marshal's uniform and the Duchess of Connaught wore the gown she had worn at the King's coronation the previous year) and, in 1917, laying at the newly rebuilt Centre Block on Parliament Hill the same cornerstone his older brother, the late King Edward VII, had set on 1 September 1860, when the original building was under construction. The family crossed the country a number of times and the Governor General made another trip to the United States in 1912, when he met with President William Howard Taft.
  When in Ottawa, Connaught maintained a routine of four days each week at his office on Parliament Hill and held small, private receptions for members of all political parties and dignitaries. The Duke learned to ice skate and hosted skating parties at the royal and viceroyal residence— Rideau Hall— to which the Connaughts made many physical improvements during Arthur's term as governor general. The royal family also took to camping and other outdoor sports, such as hunting and fishing.
  In 1914, the First World War broke out, with Canadians called to arms against Germany and Austria-Hungary. Arthur maintained a wider role in the empire— for instance, from 1912 until his death, serving as Colonel-in-Chief of the Cape Town Highlanders Regiment— but the Connaughts remained in Canada after the beginning of the global conflict, with Arthur emphasising the need for military training and readiness for Canadian troops departing for war, and giving his name to Connaught Cup for the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, to encourage pistol marksmanship for recruits. He was also active in auxiliary war services and charities and conducted hospital visits. Though well intended, upon the outbreak of the war, Arthur immediately donned his field marshal's uniform and went, without advice or guidance from his ministers, to training grounds and barracks to address the troops and to see them off before their voyage to Europe. This was much to the chagrin of Prime Minister Robert Borden, who saw the Prince as overstepping constitutional conventions. Borden placed blame on the military secretary, Edward Stanton (whom Borden considered to be "mediocre"), but also opined that Arthur "laboured under the handicap of his position as a member of the royal family and never realised his limitations as Governor General." At the same time, the Duchess of Connaught worked for the Red Cross and other organisations to support the war cause. She was also Colonel-in-Chief of the Duchess of Connaught's Own Irish Canadian Rangers battalion, one of the regiments in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and Princess Patricia also lent her name and support to the raising of a new Canadian army regiment— Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
  His term as Canada's Governor General ended in 1916.
  Following the war, Arthur commissioned in memory of Canada's fallen a stained glass window which is located in St. Bartholomew's Church, Ottawa, next to Rideau Hall, and which the family attended regularly.
caption: Prince Arthur and his viceregal party visit the Valcartier military base in 1914.
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