Frederick Edmund Meredith
Frederick Edmund Meredith K.C., D.C.L. (January 16, 1862 – November 23, 1941 was a Canadian lawyer and businessman, the 8th Chancellor of Bishop's University, Lennoxville.
Background
Born at Quebec City, January 16, 1862. F.E. Meredith was the youngest son of Chief Justice The Hon. Sir William Collis Meredith of Quebec and his wife Sophia Naters Holmes (1820–1898), granddaughter of William Holmes (1762–1834) of Quebec. He was a cousin of James Creed Meredith and the godson of Edmund Allen Meredith and Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell, his father's cousin. Another of his father's cousins was John Walsingham Cooke Meredith, the father of the 'Eight London Merediths' who included amongst them Sir Vincent Meredith and Charles Meredith, with whom he was well acquainted with from Montreal.
Legal and Business Career
Meredith was educated privately in Quebec and then in France before returning to Canada to read law at Bishop's University, Lennoxville (B.A., M.A.) and then Université Laval, Quebec City (LL.B., LL.L., LL.M., LL.D.). He was called to the Bar of Quebec in 1884, commencing his career as a corporation barrister in the firm of Abbott & Badgley at Montreal.
In 1898, Meredith and his two closest friends from Laval, Charles Sandwith Campbell and James Bryce Allan (1861-1945) K.C. (a brother of his cousins wife, Lady Vincent Meredith) took over from the ageing Sir John Abbott and William Badgley to become the senior partners of the firm, that since the departure of his father to Quebec, had been the most influential in Montreal. Campbell, Meredith & Allan continued the firm's dominance, acting as lawyers to the majority of the residents of the Golden Square Mile, the holders of 70% of Canada's wealth in 1900. Today the firm is known as Borden Ladner Gervais.
Created a Queen's Counsel in 1899, Meredith became Syndic of the Bar of Montreal in 1904/05, Councillor and Trustee of the Montreal Bar Association, and in May 1906 he was a delegate of the Montreal Bar to the General Council of the Province, along with another close friend, Aime Geoffrion. In 1907 he was elected Bâtonnier of the Bar of Montreal, and in an address in this capacity before the Canada Club, he stressed the need for more justices in the Superior Court and declared his opposition to the proposed abolition of the Admiralty Court. Privy Council cases took him often to England, and he twice turned down offers to become a judge preferring to maintain the lucrative business connections he held with his many client companies.
His personal popularity, derived from graciousness of manner and sincerity of feeling, coupled with his intimate association with many of Canada's larger business concerns made him a desirable addition to the boards of a number of the country’s foremost corporations. These included: the Bank of Montreal, The Royal Trust Company, Canadian Pacific Railway and Shipping Ltd., Standard Life of Edinburgh, The National Steel Car Corporation, Canadian Cottons Ltd., National Liverpool Insurance Company (England), Montreal & General Investor Ltd., The Banker's Trust Company and the Liverpool, London & Globe Insurance Company in England. When the National City Company of New York had a subsidiary in Montreal he was chosen as a member of the advisory board of that concern.
Bishop's and Laval Universities
His interest in various educational and cultural undertakings was well known, particularly in the progress and welfare of Bishops University, where he led the successful financial campaign of 1924. His interest in the university had never faded since he himself had graduated from there in 1883. As an advocate to many of the country's largest corporations, along with his family connections and strength of character, Meredith wielded a very considerable influence in Quebec. Elected in 1926, he served as the eighth chancellor of Bishop's until 1932. In his obituary, Principal Arthur McGreer stated that all the substantial financial gifts from 1924 onwards had in some cases been entirely, and in most cases largely, due to Meredith.
The F.E. Meredith Prize at Bishop’s was endowed after his death by his son W.C.J. Meredith, awarded annually to the student with the best written English who had graduated from an English course. He also donated the Meredith Cup which is competed for annually amongst the golfers of the college.
In 1904, Université Laval conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Civil Laws (D.C.L.) honoris causa. To commemorate the event, Meredith instituted a scholarship payable each year to the graduating student of the law faculty who obtained the highest marks. He and his two former partners, Charles Sandwith Campbell and James Bryce Allan, also endowed the Prix Jette, awarded annually to the best student in civil law at their shared alma mata, Université Laval.
Family
In 1903 Meredith married Anne Madeleine (1863–1945), daughter of Mathew Robert VanKoughnet (1824–1874) of Cornwall and Toronto, Barrister and Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada. VanKoughnet practised law with his brother, Philip Michael Matthew Scott VanKoughnet, Chancellor of Upper Canada. Mrs Meredith's mother, Elizabeth Hagerman Macaulay (1826–1899), was a daughter of barrister George Macaulay (1796–1828), and a niece John Simcoe Macaulay, Sir James Buchanan Macaulay, Christopher Alexander Hagerman and John Solomon Cartwright. Mrs Meredith, a cousin of David Ross McCord, was the widow of the ‘extremely philanthropic’ Francis Wolferstan Thomas (1834–1900), by whom she had three children.
Meredith and his wife ‘mutually consented to separate’ in 1913, leaving one son, William Campbell James Meredith (1904–1960) Q.C., D.C.L. William Meredith became Dean of Law at McGill University, where the Meredith Lectures are held every two years in his memory, and was the special federal prosecutor at the trial of Fred Rose. He married a daughter of Louis de Lotbiniere-Harwood of Vaudreuil and Montreal.
In Montreal, Mrs Meredith had served with Lady Brenda Meredith (the wife of Sir Vincent Meredith) as a Governor of the Montreal Maternity Hospital. When she separated from her husband in 1913 she moved to England, living in Knightsbridge, London and during World War I she served with the Canadian Red Cross at Moor Park Convalescent Home for Canadian Officers in Devonshire. In 1942, Mrs Meredith went to stay with her daughter Shearme and her husband, Colonel Philips, at their home Abbey Cwmhir Hall. During her stay she fell ill and three years later she died there, July 27, 1945. A funeral service was held for her at Penybont, where there is a bench in the churchyard to her memory. She was survived by her four children and two of her sisters, Mrs Frank Wolf May of Montreal, and Lady Casimir Cartwright van Straubenzee of London.
Personal life
Meredith had been a noted sportsman. As a young man he played ice hockey, and after he stopped playing he was the honorary president of the Montreal Victorias when they won the Stanley Cup in 1895, 1896 and 1897. He later sponsored a team for the office boys in his firm. He took flying lessons in Winnipeg, and rode to hounds with his relatives in Montreal, England and Ireland, as well as racing with the old Montreal Jockey Club.
- Fred Meredith at centre with the Stanley Cup winning Montreal Victorias, 1897 Image:Montreal Victorias Hockey Club 1897.png
He was a noted rackets player (his brother, Edward, and brother-in-law, Harry Stanley Smith, were co-owners of the Quebec Rackets Club) and a Dominion finalist on one occasion. He frequently represented Canada in competitions against the United States and in 1897 won the championship of the Montreal Rackets Club, and was the runner-up in 1898. At university he developed a keen interest in photography, and at one stage even considered an apprenticeship with William Notman. He enjoyed fishing and shooting, and played croquet, golf and tennis, playing the latter into his late seventies, notably as one of the group of John Wilson McConnell, at his indoor court, the only one then in Montreal.
- One of Meredith's early photographs showing his father in his study c. 1890 [1]
Meredith was extremely sociable and amongst the many clubs he belonged to in Montreal he served as President of three of them; the Mount Royal Club, the Montreal Racquet Club and the University Club. In England he belonged to the St. James', Travellers, Marlborough and British Empire clubs.
Obituaries
F.E. Meredith was well remembered for his dry sense of humour and was frequently described as the most colourful and prominent figure on the Montreal Bar and one of the most eminent personalities not only in the Quebec Bar but in the whole of Canada (La Revue du Barreau, 1941). He died shortly before his eightieth birthday (‘birthdays are not the kind of thing one wants to commemorate’ he once said), after an illness of several weeks. He died at his home on Pine Avenue shortly after eleven o’clock of that morning, predominantly of old age. Dr Horst Oertel of Montreal wrote ‘an appreciation’ of his friend that was published in The Times of London in 1941,
The death of Frederick Edmund Meredith K.C., D.C.L., LL.D., has removed an outstanding Canadian who combined in a rare degree fine British traditions with Canadian outlook in a new world. May I just pay a personal tribute? Few men are able to impress others by the qualities of their individuality as Meredith did. Rather serious in his outlook on things and events, yet with a charming touch of Puck and Ariel in his nature, he united the imagination of his Irish ancestry with a sense of reality, responsibility and sympathetic feeling for others to a rare degree. To help those who were in difficulties was a joy and reward to him; his friendship was unbounded. Emotional to a high degree, he never expressed a vicious thought, and I knew him intimately for nearly 30 years. He had many friends on both sides of the Atlantic, and Privy Council cases brought him frequently to London. Whoever met him felt the better for it and wished more. I imagine that there are not many men who may warm both hands at the fire of life and combine the dignity and joy of living as Fred Meredith did.
Meredith's funeral was one of the largest ever seen in Montreal, and the practice division of the courts was closed for the day. He was buried in the Meredith plot at Mount Royal Cemetery, Montreal, next to his cousins, Sir Vincent Meredith and Charles Meredith and their respective wives.