Georges Vanier Major - General Georges - Philéas Vanier ( April 23 , 1888 – March 5 , 1967 ) was a Canadian soldier and diplomat who served as Governor General of Canada , the 19th since Canadian Confederation . Vanier was born and educated in Quebec and , after earning a university degree in law , served in the Canadian army during the First World War ; on the European battlefields he lost a limb , but was commended for his actions with a number of decorations from the King . Subsequently , Vanier returned to Canada and remained in the military until the early 1930s , when he was posted to diplomatic missions in Europe . With the outbreak of the Second World War , Vanier once again became active in the military , commanding troops on the home front , until the cessation of hostilities in 1945 , whereupon he returned to diplomatic circles . He was in 1959 appointed as governor general by Queen Elizabeth II , on the recommendation of Prime Minister of Canada John Diefenbaker , to replace Vincent Massey as viceroy , and he occupied the post until his death in 1967 . Vanier proved to be a popular governor general , with his war record earning respect from the majority of Canadians ; though , as a Quebecer , he was met with hostility by Quebec separatists . Early life and youth . Vanier was born in the Little Burgundy neighbourhood of Montreal to an Irish mother and a French - Norman father , who raised Vanier to be bilingual . After graduating from high school , he attended Loyola College , receiving in 1906 a Bachelor of Arts degree in church devotional fellowship , and then went on to earn in 1911 his Bachelor of Laws degree from the Montreal campus of the Université Laval . Vanier was called to the Quebec bar that year and , though he took up the practice of law , he considered entering the Catholic priesthood . But , with the outbreak of the First World War , he decided that offering his service to king and country should take priority and thereafter enlisted in the Canadian army . Vanier took on a prominent role in recruiting others , eventually helping to organise in 1915 the French Canadian 22nd Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force , of which he was commissioned as an officer , and which later , in 1920 , became the " Royal 22 Régiment " . After Vanier , for his efforts , received the Military Cross in 1916 , he continued fighting in the trenches . In late 1918 , he led an attack at Chérisy and was shot in the chest and both legs , resulting in the loss of his right leg . His recovery was lengthy , though he spent it in France , refusing to be evacuated while his fellow soldiers remained fighting . With the cessations of hostilities , however , Vanier , for his bravery , was again awarded the Military Cross and given the 1914 - 15 Star , along with being appointed to the Distinguished Service Order . He thereafter returned to Montreal and once more found employment practicing law . On September 29 , 1921 , he married Pauline Archer and the couple had five children , one of whom was Jean Vanier . Diplomatic career . For four years beginning in 1921 , Vanier acted as aide - de - camp to Governor General the Viscount Byng of Vimy , leaving this post when he was promoted to the rank of lieutant colonel and took command of the Royal 22 Régiment at La Citadelle . Vanier occupied that position for only one year before again becoming aide - de - camp for Byng ' s viceregal successor , the Marquess of Willingdon . In 1928 , Vanier was appointed to Canada ' s military delegation for disarmament to the League of Nations and , in 1930 , was named secretary to the High Commission of Canada in London , remaining at that post for nearly a decade — approximately half of which he spent serving the man who would eventually immediately precede him as governor general of Canada , Vincent Massey . It was also during that period , in the tumultuous year of 1936 , that King George V died and his son , Prince Edward , Prince of Wales , acceded and then abdicated in favour of his younger brother , Prince Albert , Duke of York . On May 12 , 1937 , Vanier , along with his son , Jean , watched from the roof of Canada House the coronation parade of their new king , George VI . In the procession below , Vanier would have seen one of the future governors general of Canada , Harold Alexander , who was then the personal aide - de - camp to the King . In 1939 , Vanier was elevated to the position of the King ' s Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to France . However , with the outbreak of Second World War and the Nazi occupation of France in 1940 , Vanier and his wife fled to the United Kingdom and then back to Canada in 1941 , where he was commissioned as commander of the military district of Quebec and began an early policy of bilingualism in the army . The next year Vanier was promoted to the rank of major general and then made the Canadian Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the governments of Belgium , Czechoslovakia , Greece , the Netherlands , Norway , Poland , and Yugoslavia , as well as the representative of the Canadian government to the Free French and later the Conseil National de la Résistance , all of which were governments in exile . Throughout this time , Vanier attempted to convey to officials in Canada the seriousness of the situation in Europe , especially regarding refugees from the Nazi regime . To the frustration of the Vaniers , these efforts were met predominantly with indifference and even anger , and Vanier ' s letters to the prime minister at the time , William Lyon Mackenzie King , failed to induce a change in Canada ' s immigration policies . Following the fall of Vichy France in 1944 to the Allied Forces , Vanier was posted as Canada ' s first ambassador to France . While serving in that role , as well as acting as Canada ' s representative to the United Nations , he toured in 1945 the just liberated Buchenwald concentration camp and , on a return trip to Canada , delivered via the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation a speech expressing his shame over Canada ' s inaction , saying : " How deaf we were then , to cruelty and the cries of pain which came to our ears , grim forerunners of the mass torture and murders which were to follow . " Back in Paris , he and his wife continued to help the refugees who arrived at the embassy , arranging for them food and temporary shelter . The couple , with the assistance of numerous others , eventually pushed the government of Canada to revise the regulations of immigration and more than 186 , 000 European refugees settled in Canada between 1947 and 1953 . It was in 1953 that Vanier retired from diplomatic service and returned to Montreal , though he and his wife continued social work there . Vanier simultaneously sat as a director of the Bank of Montreal , the Credit Foncier Franco - Canadien , and the Standard Life Assurance Company , and served on the Canada Council for the Arts . Governor General of Canada . Vanier was the first French Canadian governor general of Canada , his bilingualism proving to be an asset to his mandate of fostering Canadian unity . Following on that of Vincent Massey , an Anglophone , the appointment of Vanier established the tradition of rotating between French and English speaking persons . Vanier ' s tenure was marked by economic problems plaguing the country and a succession of minority governments , but the greatest threats to Confederation came from the rise of the Quiet Revolution , Quebec nationalism , and the Quebec sovereignty movement , including the terrorist actions of the Front de libération du Québec ; indeed , as a Québécois representing the Canadian monarch and someone who promoted federalism , he was perceived by many Quebec separatists to be a traitor to his people . Amongst most other circles in the country , however , he was lauded as a distinguished viceroy . As governor general - designate . The appointment of Vanier as governor general was announced on August 1 , 1959 , at Halifax , Nova Scotia , during a meeting of the Queen ' s Privy Council for Canada at which Queen Elizabeth II was present and , by commission under the royal sign - manual and Great Seal of Canada , approved of Vanier as her representative . In spite of the challenges of poor health and political unrest in Canada , the Major - General said of his commission to represent the Queen : " If God wants me to do this job , He will give me the strength to do it . " As Vanier was a staunch Liberal Party supporter and the ministers of the Crown were at that time Progressive Conservatives , the announcement of the Major - General ' s appointment received surprised reaction from Ottawa insiders and the media . The Prime Minister , John Diefenbaker , however , felt that more Francophone representation was needed in Canada ' s government ; in his memoirs , Diefenbaker said he had considered a non - Canadian for the post and attributed his decision to put forward Vanier for appointment to a chance meeting with the Major - General . In office . Upon taking up residence at Rideau Hall , Vanier asked that a bilingual sign be placed at the main gates to the royal and viceroyal residence and that a chapel for offering Mass be constructed somewhere on the property , two requests that reflected two dominant forces in Vanier ' s life : religion and Canadian unity . When he was in residence , Vanier would pray twice daily in the chapel that was eventually fit into the palace ' s second floor and , at a time when the Canadian federation was under threat from separatists factions in Quebec , Vanier delivered numerous speeches , in both French and English , and infused with words praising the co - habitation of Anglophone and Francophone Canadians ; in one of the last orations he gave , he said : " The road of unity is the road of love : love of one ' s country and faith in its future will give new direction and purpose to our lives , lift us above our domestic quarrels , and unite us in dedication to the common good . . . I pray God that we may all go forward hand in hand . We can ' t run the risk of this great country falling into pieces . " Words like these , though , earned Vanier the ire of Quebec nationalists , as demonstrated when , on Saint - Jean - Baptiste Day in 1964 , he found himself the target of such people in Montreal , who held placards reading " " Vanier vendu " " ( " Vanier traitor " ) and " " Vanier fou de la Reine " " ( " Vanier Queen ' s jester " ) . Despite his poor health , and his doctor ' s warnings about strain , Vanier travelled across Canada , gaining the affection of Canadians . As part of his official duties , Vanier , along with the Queen , attended the inauguration of the Saint Lawrence Seaway on June 26 , 1959 , and in June 1965 was made Chief Big Eagle of the Blackfoot tribe in Calgary . He was also active in encouraging children to achieve , using his role as Chief Scout of Canada to this end . His and his wife ' s concern for family life drew them to founding in 1964 the Canadian Conference of the Family , which eventually became the Vanier Institute of the Family . As the representative of the head of state , Vanier hosted a list of official guests , including United States president John Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy ; the Emperor of Ethiopia , Haile Selassie ; David Ben - Gurion , Prime Minister of Israel ; the Shah of Iran ; and General Charles de Gaulle , President of France . Death . By 1966 , though his itinerary remained unreduced , Vanier ' s strength was failing . On March 4 , 1967 , before watching a Montreal Canadiens game on television at Rideau Hall , Vanier had conversed with his prime minister at the time , Lester B . Pearson , and had expressed to him that he was willing to continue on as governor general until the end of the centennial year . Given Vanier ' s physical state , Pearson was hesitant to advise the Queen to act along those lines , but his worry was short lived , as the following day , after hearing the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and receiving Holy Communion in the chapel , the Governor General died . With Robert Taschereau , Chief Justice of Canada , acting as Administrator of the Government , more than 15 , 000 messages of sympathy were received at Rideau Hall . Following a state funeral at the Notre - Dame Cathedral Basilica on March 8 , 1967 , the Major - General was buried at La Citadelle ' s commemorative chapel on May 5 of the same year . Though Vanier had earlier hosted the French president at Government House , neither de Gaulle nor any representative was sent to attend the funeral , which was read by Canadian diplomatic officials as a hint that there had been a change in Canada – France relations and instigated the chain of events that would culminate in de Gaulle ' s " " Vive le Québec libre " " speech in Montreal later that year . Legacy . When , in 1999 , " Maclean ' s " compiled a list of the 100 most influential Canadians of all time , Vanier was placed by the editors at position number one . His time in the Office of the Governor General saw the creation of a number of awards that reflected the Major - General ' s interests . He was an avid fan of sport and , though his favourite was hockey and specifically the Montreal Canadiens , Vanier instigated in 1965 the Governor General ' s Fencing Award and the Vanier Cup for the university football championship in the Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union . To recognise excellence in more bureaucratic endeavours , Vanier initiated in 1962 the Vanier Medal of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada and , in 1967 , the Vanier Awards for Outstanding Young Canadians , awarded to deserving individuals in the Canadian Junior Chamber of Commerce . Vanier and his wife , Pauline were both nominated to be beatified in the Catholic Church because of their piety and love for humanity .