Charles Drury

Brigadier-General Charles Mills "Bud" Drury Template:Post-nominals (17 May 1912 – 12 January 1991) was a Canadian military officer, lawyer, civil servant, businessman and politician.<ref name=encyclopedia>Charles Mills Drury, The Canadian Encyclopedia.</ref>

Early life and education

Born in Westmount, Quebec, he was the elder son of Victor Montague Drury (1884–1962), a prominent businessman who was the son of Major-General Charles William Drury (1856–1913) and the brother-in-law of Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook.<ref name="Fong2008">Template:Cite book</ref> He was educated at Selwyn House School and Bishop's College School,<ref>Selwyn House School Yearbook 1950</ref> and he later attended the Royal Military College of Canada, McGill University (B.C.L., 1936) and the University of Paris.<ref name=gov>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Career

Drury served in the Canadian Armed Forces from 1933 to 1936,<ref name=Parliament>The Hon. Charles Drury, Parliament of Canada biography. </ref> then he practised law from 1936 to 1939.<ref name=gov/> During World War II, he was a Canadian Army officer and from March−July 1944 commanded the 4th Field Regiment of the Royal Canadian Artillery, part of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division, which took part in Operation Overlord, before being made the 2nd Division's General Staff Officer Grade 1 (GSO1) and later becoming the Commander, Royal Artillery (CRA) of the 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General in 1945.<ref name=Parliament/> After the war, he headed the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration mission in Poland from 1945 to 1947.<ref name=gov/>

He then entered the Canadian civil service and was appointed as deputy minister of the Department of National Defence from 1949 to 1955.<ref name=Parliament/> He spent 1955 to 1962 working on private family business before running for election to the House of Commons of Canada.<ref name=gov/>

Drury was elected as a Liberal party Member of Parliament (MP) for the Montreal riding of Saint-Antoine—Westmount (later Westmount) in the 1962 federal election. He was re-elected in the 1963, 1965, 1968, 1972 and 1974 elections.

He held many ministerial positions in the governments of prime ministers Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, including Defence Production, Industry, Trade and Commerce, Treasury Board, National Defence (acting), Public Works and Finance (acting).<ref name=Parliament/>

After leaving politics in 1978, Drury became chairman of the National Capital Commission from 1978 to 1984. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1980.<ref>Template:Canadian honour.</ref>

External links

• Template:Canadian Parliament links
• Template:OCC
• Charles Mills Drury at The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Generals of World War II