Vincent Massey Charles Vincent Massey ( February 20 , 1887December 30 , 1967 ) was a Canadian lawyer and diplomat who served as Governor General of Canada , the 18th since Canadian Confederation . Massey was born into an influential Toronto family and was educated in Ontario and England , obtaining a degree in law and befriending future prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King while studying at the University of Oxford . He was commissioned into the military in 1917 for the remainder of the First World War and , after a brief stint in the , began his diplomatic career , serving in envoys to the United States and United Kingdom . Upon his return to Canada in 1946 , Massey headed a royal commission on the arts between 1949 and 1951 , which resulted in the Massey Report and subsequently the establishment of the National Library of Canada and the Canada Council of the Arts , amongst other grant - giving agencies . He was in 1952 appointed as governor general by King George VI , on the recommendation of Canadian Prime Minister Louis St . Laurent , to replace the Viscount Alexander of Tunis as viceroy , and he occupied the post until succeeded by Georges Vanier in 1959 . Massey was the first Canadian - born individual to serve as Canada ' s governor general and he proved to be a successful transition for the office away from occupants who had consistently been both members of the peerage and born overseas . On September 16 , 1925 , Massey was sworn into the Queen ' s Privy Council for Canada , giving him the accordant style of " The Honourable " . However , Massey was later , as a former Governor General of Canada , entitled to be styled for life with the superior form of " The Right Honourable " . He subsequently continued his philanthropic work and founded Massey College at the University of Toronto and the Massey Lectures before he died on December 30 , 1967 . Early life , education , and career . Massey was born in Toronto , Ontario , as the son of Anna ( née Vincent ) and Chester Daniel Massey , the owner of the Massey - Harris Co . ( predecessor company to the Massey - Ferguson Tractor Company ) and the patriarch of one of the city ' s wealthiest families . The clan was strongly Methodist and played an important role in supporting local religious , cultural , and educational organisations , including Victoria University , Massey Hall , and the Metropolitan Methodist Church ( now the Metropolitan United Church ) . Massey was thus raised amongst Toronto ' s elite , which would give him a number of social and familial connections throughout his life , as occurred with his younger brother , Raymond Massey , and his children , Anna Massey and Daniel Massey . Massey was raised in the family ' s mansion at 519 Jarvis Street and educated at St . Andrew ' s College , in Aurora , Ontario , before enrolling in University College at the University of Toronto ( UofT ) , despite his family ' s close ties to Victoria College . There , he in 1907 enlisted in The Queen ' s Own Rifles of Canada and joined the Kappa Alpha Society , through which he met his long - time friend and future prime minister of Canada , William Lyon Mackenzie King . After passing matriculation three years later with his Bachelor of Arts degree in history and English , Massey then went on to continue his education at Balliol College at the University of Oxford , earning his Master of Arts in history . Feeling since his time as an undergraduate at UofT that the institution lacked a facility where its 4 , 000 students could engage in extracurricular activities , in 1911 Massey donated $ 16 , 290 to augment the money students had already raised for building a student centre and thereafter led the endowment and construction efforts . In 1913 , he returned to Toronto and became the first Dean of Men at the Victoria University residence his father had recently donated , Burwash Hall , as well as a lecturer on modern history at the college . Then , on June 4 , 1915 , Massey married Alice Parkin , the daughter of Sir George Robert Parkin , who was a former principal of Upper Canada College ( UCC ) and secretary of the Rhodes Trust ; through the marriage , Massey later became the uncle of George Grant and the great - uncle to Michael Ignatieff . But , he was not with his new bride long before , at the end of 1914 , the United Kingdom , and thus Canada along with it , had declared war on Germany . Massey was commissioned as an officer for Military District No . 2 and was called to work for the war committee before being discharged at the cessation of hostilities in 1918 . Once again a civilian , Massey started in 1921 as president of his father ' s business , while simultaneously pursuing philanthropic interests , mostly in arts and education , such as his collecting paintings and sculpture through his Massey Foundation , which he established in 1918 . By the next year , UofT ' s social and athletic facility was complete and dedicated in memory of Massey ' s grandfather , Hart Massey , as Hart House ; there , while he headed Massey - Harris Co . , Massey participated as an amateur actor and director in the building ' s theatre . But , in 1925 he resigned from the corporate life he was unsuited for and , as a friend of Mackenzie King , by then the Prime Minister of Canada , Massey was appointed on September 16 , by Governor General the Viscount Byng of Vimy , to the King ' s Privy Council and was subsequently made a minister without portfolio in the Cabinet . It was desired that Massey , as a minister , hold a seat in the , yet he failed to win his riding of Durham in the 1925 federal election , held on October 29 . Though he thereafter resigned his cabinet post , Massey was still included in the Canadian delegation to the 1926 Imperial Conference , where was drafted the Balfour Declaration that would ultimately lead to vast constitutional changes in the role of the monarch and his viceroys throughout the former empire . Diplomatic career . Later in 1926 , on November 25 , Governor General the Marquess of Willingdon acted on Mackenzie King ' s advice to appoint Massey as the first Canadian Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States for His Majesty ' s Government in Canada , making Massey Canada ' s first ever envoy with full diplomatic credentials to a foreign capital . Despite this first in international relations , Massey ' s time in Washington , D . C . , was free of notable events and he returned to Canada in mid - 1930 , as Mackenzie King had put his name forward for appointment as high commissioner to the United Kingdom . But , merely five days after Massey relinquished his posting to Washington , Mackenzie King ' s Liberal Party was defeated in the federal election , seeing Richard Bennett appointed as prime minister . The new premier objected to Massey as the government ' s representative to the UK , on the grounds that , as a former Liberal Cabinet member , Massey did not enjoy the political confidence of the new Conservative government that was needed by the individual occupying the position . Starting in 1932 , Massey became the first president of the newly formed National Liberal Federation of Canada , before which the Liberal Party was a loose and informal association of national , provincial , and regional entities without a permanent central organization . Three years later , the Liberals were again returned to a majority in the commons and Mackenzie King was once more installed as prime minister . Within a month , on November 8 , 1935 , Massey was appointed as the High Commissioner to the United Kingdom for His Majesty ' s Government in Canada and arrived at Canada House to find as his secretary the man who would be his future successor as governor general of Canada , Georges Vanier . The two men set about regular diplomatic business , but , throughout 1936 , Massey had to contend with the death of King George V and the accession and then — before the proposed Canadian postage stamps even arrived for Massey to pass on for the King ' s approval — abdication of Edward VIII in favour of his younger brother , Prince Albert , Duke of York . Throughout his time as high commissioner , Massey used his connections to bring to Canada House a litany of personalities from " the highest quarters . " Two such persons were the Viscount and Viscountess Astor , who were both the nucleus of the Cliveden set , which itself was a group of aristocratic individuals rumoured to be Germanophile s not only in favour of the appeasement of Adolf Hitler , but also supporters of friendly relations with Nazi Germany . Though these allegations were historically challenged as exaggerations , Irving Abella and Harold Troper claimed in their book " " that Massey was an enthusiastic supporter of the Munich Agreement and worked in concert with various elected and non - elected people in government , including Mackenzie King and Ernest Lapointe , to put obstacles in the way of Jewish refugees fleeing Europe for Canada , or even using Canada as a stopover en route to some other country . However , Canadian immigration policy at the time favoured trained farmers , which excluded most Jews , who were largely city dwellers , and the Cabinet of Mackenzie King was already resistant to changes in the law . Seven decades later , these accusations against Massey resulted in a campaign in Windsor , Ontario , to rename a high school that had originally been named in his honour . Nevertheless , Massey was a Canadian and British patriot and worked not only to maximize Canada ' s war effort once World War II broke out , but also concurrently served through 1936 as the Canadian delegate to the League of Nations , between 1941 and 1945 as a trustee of the National and Tate Galleries , and additionally as chair of the Tate ' s board of governors from 1943 to 1945 . Though , Massey was honoured for all this work by being inducted in 1946 by King George VI into the Order of the Companions of Honour , upon his return to Canada Massey continued in the same fields . He sat as chair of the National Gallery of Canada from 1948 to 1952 and was selected as Chancellor of the University of Toronto between 1948 and 1953 . In 1949 , Massey ' s artistic expertise was of benefit when he was appointed as the head of the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts , Letters and Sciences , which ultimately resulted in the Massey Report of 1951 and from there to the establishment of the National Library of Canada and the Canada Council of the Arts . All this Massey continued despite the death of his wife in July 1950 . Governor General of Canada . Massey ' s tenure as the Governor General of Canada was notable in that he was the first Canadian - born individual to be appointed to the post ; previously , all the viceroys since had been born in another overseas region of the British Empire and later British Commonwealth . As a widower , he was also the only unmarried person ever to reside at Rideau Hall . Typically , the governor general ' s wife would be the viceregal consort and act as the hostess and chatelaine of the household . In Massey ' s case , however , his daughter - in - law , Lilias Massey , fulfilled the role , though she was not accorded the style of " Her Excellency " , usually given to the viceregal consort . As governor general - designate . It was on February 1 , 1952 , announced from the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada that George VI had , by commission under the royal sign - manual and Great Seal of Canada , approved Prime Minister Louis St . Laurent ' s choice of Massey to succeed the Viscount Alexander of Tunis as the King ' s representative . Within five days , however , the King was dead and Massey , upon his swearing - in , would thus be the first Canadian - born representative of George ' s daughter , Queen Elizabeth II . To respect the king ' s death , there was little fanfare around Massey ' s appointment ; Lord Alexander quietly departed Canada shortly after the announcement of Massey as his successor , leaving Chief Justice Thibaudeau Rinfret as administrator of the government in his place , as Massey was , at the time , in London . As he was a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom , he attended the new queen ' s Accession Council on February 7 . In Canada , there was some commentary about the soon - to - be representative of the new queen . The notion of a Canadian - born governor general , and one also not elevated to the peerage , was viewed as somewhat controversial by traditionalists . Massey , thus , was to be a compromise : while it was known he was closely associated with the Liberal Party , having been the group ' s chairman during the 1930s , the governor general - designate was a commoner Canadian by birth but he also embodied loyalty , dignity , and formality , as expected from a viceroy . Massey stated that , for his role as governor general , he looked for inspiration to one of his predecessors and a man Massey had known for decades : the Baron Tweedsmuir , whom Massey said he " greatly admired " and had " learnt much from " his tenure as governor general . " Life magazine " magazine ran a profile piece on Massey in which the Marquess of Salisbury described Massey as an elegant individual — citing Massey ' s Oxford schooling and tailored clothing as illustrations — and thoroughly Canadian , though noting that " Vincent ' s a fine chap , but he does make one feel like a bit of a savage . " But the elite demeanour he was sometimes criticised for was not evident in Massey ' s belief that the Crown belonged to Canadians and that it was his task as viceroy to act as a link between the people and the monarch . He similarly believed that the arts were a way to assert Canadian sovereignty and that the various artistic fields should be accessible to all Canadians . In office . On February 26 , 1952 , Massey was sworn in as governor general of Canada in a ceremony in the Senate chamber , where he was presented with the Canadian Forces Decoration ( subsequently given to all governors general upon taking office ) . However , Massey ' s first months as the viceroy were muted , due to the ongoing 16 - week period of official mourning . It was not until the coronation of Elizabeth II on June 2 , 1953 , that Massey was called upon to take charge of any national celebration . For the occasion , he revived the use of the state carriage when he rode in it , with an accompanying guard of Royal Canadian Mounted Police , from the royal and viceroyal residence of Rideau Hall to Parliament Hill , where he introduced to the gathered crowd the Queen ' s coronation speech , broadcast around the world via radio . He also gave a silver spoon to each child born on that day . Massey welcomed the Queen and her consort , the Duke of Edinburgh , to Ottawa on three occasions from 1957 on ; when the royal couple were engaged in a cross - country tour , Massey invited them to stay at his private estate , Batterwood , near Port Hope , Ontario . He also hosted a number of foreign heads of state , including United States president Dwight D . Eisenhower on November 13 , 1953 . As a return gesture , Massey was invited by Eisenhower to Washington , D . C . , where , on May 4 , 1954 , he addressed a joint session of the United States Congress . It was Massey ' s intent as governor general to work to unite Canada ' s diverse cultures . He travelled across the country , using any and all available transportation , including canoe and dog sled , and delivered speeches promoting bilingualism , some 20 years before it became an official national policy . Along with the usual ceremonial duties undertaken by a viceroy , such as opening in 1955 the new home of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum and , with his 1958 Dominion Day speech , inaugurating the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ' s first national televised broadcast , the Governor General toured the Canadian arctic extensively , journeying to such places as Frobisher Bay and Hall Beach in the Northwest Territories , meeting with local Inuit residents , participating in their activities , and watching their performances . During his governor generalship , Massey also became Upper Canada College , donating funds and his time to the school and seeing a number of spaces there named in his honour in return . As part of his effort to unify Canadians , it was Massey ' s desire to see established an entirely Canadian honours system . Though such a thing was never realised during his viceregal tenure , he helped lay the groundwork for the system that would be implemented by his successor , and in 1967 , just months before his death , Massey was inducted as one of the first companions of the Order of Canada . Legacy . It was said by Claude Bissell in his biography of Massey , " The Imperial Canadian " , that Massey ' s most influential years were between 1949 and 1959 , when Massey " made his major contribution . More than any other Canadian , he was responsible for the first major movement of the arts and letters from the periphery of national concern towards the centre . It was a notable achievement . " In this vein , he created awards for artistic endeavours , such as the Governor General ' s Medals in Architecture , and promoted the concept of an annual , national arts festival , which eventually led to the founding of the National Arts Centre . Further , Massey initiated in 1954 the Governor General ' s Gold Medal for the Institute of Chartered Accountants , as well as in 1959 the Massey Medal , for excellence in geographic endeavours for the Royal Canadian Geographical Society . Post - viceregal life . Upon his final departure from Rideau Hall as governor general , Massey retired to Batterwood House , in the village of Canton , near Port Hope , Ontario . For his service to the Crown , he was awarded from the Queen the Royal Victorian Chain , making him the first Canadian recipient of that honour and today only one of two to ever receive it . Massey continued his philanthropic work , dedicating his time to the stewardship of the Massey Foundation , and its endowment to the University of Toronto , in particular . While Hart House continued as one of the recipients of Massey ' s attention and funds , Massey also expanded the scope of his donations to U of T with the establishment in 1963 of Massey College , to which Massey ' s protégé , Robertson Davies , was appointed as the college ' s first master . In 1961 , the Massey Lectures were also initiated , conceived as a focus on important contemporary issues by leading thinkers , and they remain considered as the most important public lecture series in Canada . At the end of 1967 , on December 30 , Massey died while on holiday in the United Kingdom . His remains were returned to Canada and he was , as is customary for former governors general , given a state funeral , in early January 1968 . He was buried alongside his wife at St . 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