Richmond, Charles Gordon Lennox, 4th Duke
Charles Lennox (1764-1819), fourth Duke of Richmond, pursued a distinguished military career before serving as Captain General and Governor-in-Chief of Upper and Lower Canada, 30 July 1818 - 28 August 1819.
Rideau 150 Citizen's Committee
The Rideau 150 Citizen's Committee was established in May 1980 in collaboration with Parks Canada to prepare events in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Rideau Canal. . Patrick Watson and Cameron Graham were national co-chairmen, with regional chairs in the Northern Area (Georges Bédard), Central Area (F.C.L. Wyght) and Southern Area (Neil A. Patterson) of the Rideau Canal. The Central and Southern Areas also had vice-chairpersons for various cities and municipalities along the canal. The Southern Area extended from Narrows to Kingston.
Frederick J. Rowan was Chief engineer with the Grand Trunk Railway and based in Kingston, Ontario.
George William Russell (10 April 1867 - 17 July 1935) who wrote with the pseudonym Æ (sometimes written AE or A.E.), was an Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, artistic painter and Irish nationalist. He was also a mysticism writer, and a personage of a group of devotees of theosophy in Dublin for many years.
Russell was born in Lurgan, County Armagh. His family relocated to Dublin when he was eleven years old. He was educated at Rathmines School and the Metropolitan School of Art, where he began a lifelong friendship with William Butler Yeats. He started working as a draper's clerk, then worked many years for the Irish Agricultural Organization Society (IAOS), an agricultural co-operative society initiated by Horace Plunkett in 1894. In 1897 Plunkett needed an able organiser and W. B. Yeats suggested Russell, who became Assistant Secretary of the IAOS.
Russell was editor from 1905 to 1923 of the Irish Homestead, the journal of the IAOS. His gifts as a writer and publicist gained him a wide influence in the cause of agricultural co-operation. He then became editor of the The Irish Statesman, which merged with the Irish Homestead, from 15 September 1923 until 12 April 1930. With the demise of this newspaper he was for the first time of his adult life without a job, and there were concerns that he could find himself in a state of poverty, as he had never earned very much money from his paintings or books. Unbeknownst to him meetings and collections were organized and later that year at Plunkett House he was presented by Father T. Finlay with a cheque for £800. This enabled him to visit the United States the next year, where he was well received all over the country and his books sold in large numbers.
He moved to England after his wife's death in 1932 and died of cancer in Bournemouth in 1935.
Charles Sangster was born at Navy Bay, Kingston, Upper Canada in 1822. He served with the loyalist forces in the MacKenzie uprising in 1837. He developed a taste for writing in his early twenties and became editor of a small newspaper, "The Courier", in Amherstburg. He returned to Kingston, became a sub-editor of the "British Whig", and later a reporter on the "Daily News". He early turned to poetry and published verse in such journals as the "Literary Garland", Barker's "Canadian Monthly Magazine", and "The Anglo-American Magazine". In 1856, his first book of poetrry, "The St. Lawrence and The Saguenay and Other Poems", was issued simultaneously in Kingston and New York. Four years later, another volume appeared entitled "Hesperus and Other Poems and Lyrics". He died in 1893 at Kingston, Ontario.
William Sawyer was born to John and Agnes Brown Sawyer in Montreal, Quebec, November 9, 1820. His academic background is unknown, however it seems likely that he had some form of education given his level of literacy evident in later years. He found his first employment with a Montreal law firm at the age of fourteen. By the early 1840's Sawyer opened a studio in Montreal in the Moyer Building and sought commissions for portraits from the local citizenry. Although business was steady, it was not sufficient for Sawyer who was likely responsible for helping to support his step-mother (Ann Sutherland) and half-sister Elizabeth Sarah. In order to garner more business Sawyer became an itinerant painter travelling the north shore of Lake Ontario, ranging as far west as Toronto, Sawyer stopped at all the major centres in between.
Exhibition and promotion was a necessity for the itinerant painter. Sawyer exhibited at the Montreal Society of Artists in 1847, in the company of Krieghoff and several other artists. In 1867 he exhibited with the Society of Canadian Artists in Montreal, and in 1872 he sent works to the first exhibition of the Ontario Society of Artists at Toronto.
During Sawyer's travels, he met Eliza Jane Baxter in Kingston, whom he married November 18, 1851. With this added financial responsibility, Sawyer continued to travel, occasionally moving further afield. In 1852 Sawyer travelled to New York with his new wife but quickly returned and set up a studio in Kingston in the Gas Office Building. The studio did not last long and the Sawyers returned to Montreal in the same year. The Sawyers remained in Montreal until 1855 when Sawyer, likely due to Eliza's desire to be close to her family, permanently relocated in Kingston. Although settled in Kingston, Sawyer continued to work as an itinerant artist travelling along the north and south shores of Lake Ontario. Having some level of success during this time allowed Sawyer to travel to Europe in 1862 where he was able to view the work of some important portrait artists in Scotland, England, France, and Belgium.
Upon his return Sawyer divided his time between Kingston and Montreal. In Montreal he partnered with Edwin R. Turner in an Art and Photographic Studio, acting as both a painter and a photographer. In 1863 Sawyers reputation brought him a commission to paint a portrait of John A. Macdonald for the Kingston city hall , where several of his portraits of mayors were already hanging. His commissions extended to three speakers of the Senate, who engaged him to paint their portraits for the Library of Parliament, and to Sir William Edmond Logan, William Molson, Charles Tupper, and William Workman, as well as to senators Frank Smith and Robert Duncan Wilmot.
William Sawyer continued to be an active photographer, painter, and promoter of his work, until his death at age 69, in Kingston on December 9, 1889. Sawyer was survived by his wife, six sons and three daughters.
Fred Warner Shibley was a financial banker and author based in New York City. His grandfather, John Shibley, was a UEL in Ernestown. Shibley was granted Aspinwal Island in Sharbot Lake in 1901, a location he would visit frequently throughout his life.