View source for George Halsey Perley

{{Short description|Canadian politician}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=September 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name                = Sir George Halsey Perley
| honorific-suffix    = {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|PC|GCMG|size=100%}}
| image               = GeorgePerley23.jpg
| imagesize           = 
| office              = [[Secretary of State for Canada|Secretary of State of Canada]]
| term_start          = 29 June 1926
| term_end            = 24 September 1926
| primeminister       = [[Arthur Meighen]]
| predecessor         = [[Ernest Lapointe]]
| successor           = [[Fernand Rinfret]]
| office2             = [[High Commission of Canada in London|Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom]]
| primeminister2      = [[Robert Borden]],<br />[[Arthur Meighen]]<br />[[William Lyon Mackenzie King|W.L. Mackenzie King]]
| term_start2         = 4 August 1914
| term_end2           = 1922
| predecessor2        = [[Donald Alexander Smith]]
| successor2          = [[Peter C. Larkin]]
| office3             = [[Minister of Overseas Military Forces]]
| term_start3         = 31 October 1916
| term_end3           = 11 October 1917
| primeminister3      = [[Robert Laird Borden]]
| successor3          = [[Albert Edward Kemp]]
| constituency_MP4    = [[Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel|Argenteuil]]
| parliament4         = Canadian
| term_start4         = 1904
| term_end4           = 1917
| predecessor4        = [[Thomas Christie Jr.]]
| successor4          = [[Peter Robert McGibbon]]
| term_start5         = 1925
| term_end5           = 1938
| predecessor5        = [[Charles Stewart (premier)|Charles Stewart]]
| successor5          = [[Georges Héon]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1857|09|12|mf=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Lebanon, New Hampshire]], United States
| death_date          = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1938|01|04|1857|09|12}}
| death_place         = [[Ottawa, Ontario]], Canada
| nationality         = American, Canadian
| party               = [[Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942)|Conservative]]
| spouse              = Annie Hespeler Bowlby
| relations           = 
| children            = 
| residence           = 
| alma_mater          = [[Harvard University]]
| profession          = Lumber merchant
| religion            = 
}}
'''Sir George Halsey Perley''' {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|PC|GCMG}} (September 12, 1857 – January 4, 1938) was an [[Americans|American]]-born [[Canadians|Canadian]] politician and diplomat.

==Early life==

Born in [[Lebanon, New Hampshire]], the son of [[William Goodhue Perley]] and Mabel E. Ticknor Stevens, Perley was educated at the [[Lisgar Collegiate Institute|Ottawa Grammar School]], at [[St. Paul's School (Concord, New Hampshire)|St. Paul's School]] in [[Concord, New Hampshire]], and at [[Harvard University]] where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1878. Perley became a partner in the Perley & Pattee, a lumber company in which his father was senior partner. After Perley & Pattee dissolved in 1893, Perley became head of G.H. Perley & Co which had mills at [[Pointe-Calumet, Quebec]] and vice president of the Hull Lumber Company, Ltd., which is operating largely on the upper Ottawa. For many years, Perley was vice president of the [[Canada Atlantic Railway Company|Canada Atlantic Railway Co.]], president of the [[Rideau Club]] and president of the Ottawa Golf Club. Along with the other heirs of his father, he donated his homestead on Wellington Street for the purpose of establishing a hospital and served as vice president of its [[Board of Management]]. In 1900, he was chairman of the Ottawa and Hull Fire Relief Fund, and distributed about $1,000,000 among the sufferers by the [[1900 Hull–Ottawa fire]].

Perley married Annie Hespeler Bowlby in [[Kitchener, Ontario]] on  4 June 1884. Perley had two children: Mabel, born 8 July 1885 and died 13 March 1887, and Ethel Lesa, born 16 September 1888.

==Politics==
{{stack|[[File:George Perley and wife.jpg|thumb|upright|Perley and his wife inspecting Lt. Gen. Sir Richard Turner during World War I]]}}

He was first elected to the [[House of Commons of Canada]] as the [[Conservative Party of Canada (historical)|Conservative]] [[Member of Parliament (Canada)|MP]] for [[Argenteuil (electoral district)|Argenteuil]] in 1904, having failed to defeat [[William Cameron Edwards|Mr. W. C. Edwards]] for the seat in [[Russell County, Ontario|Russell County]] during the election of 1900. Perley served as [[High Commissioner]] to the [[United Kingdom]] and Minister of the Overseas Military Forces in the [[World War I]] government of Sir [[Robert Borden]]. He did not run for re-election in the [[1917 Canadian federal election|1917 federal election]] in order to concentrate on his duties in [[London]]. He returned to the House of Commons in the [[1925 Canadian federal election|1925 federal election]] and subsequently served as [[Secretary of State for Canada]] in the short-lived 1926 government of [[Arthur Meighen]] and then as [[Minister without Portfolio]] in the government of [[R. B. Bennett]] following the [[1930 Canadian federal election|1930 federal election]]. He was re-elected in the [[1935 Canadian federal election|1935 federal election]] which also saw the defeat of Bennett's government, and remained an MP until his death in 1938.

== Electoral record ==
{{Election box begin | title=3 December 1902}}
{{Canadian party colour|CA|Liberal|row}}
|[[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]]
|[[Thomas Christie, Jr.]]
|align="right"| 1,261    || 54.10
{{Canadian party colour|CA|PC|row}}
|[[Conservative Party of Canada (historical)|Conservative]]
|George Halsey Perley
|align="right"| 1,070    || 45.90
{{end}}
{{1935 Canadian federal election/Argenteuil}}
{{1930 Canadian federal election/Argenteuil}}
{{1926 Canadian federal election/Argenteuil}}
{{1925 Canadian federal election/Argenteuil}}
{{1911 Canadian federal election/Argenteuil}}
{{1908 Canadian federal election/Argenteuil}}
{{1904 Canadian federal election/Argenteuil}}
{{1900 Canadian federal election/Russell}}

==References==
* {{Canadian Parliament links|ID=8151}}
* {{cite web|title=A history of Quebec, its resources and people, Volume 2|work=[[Internet Archive]]|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofquebeci02sultuoft}}
* [http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol&id=103861&lang=eng George Halsey Perley fonds, Library and Archives Canada]

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|ca}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Thomas Christie, Jr.]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Member of Parliament (Canada)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Argenteuil (electoral district)|Argenteuil]]
 |years=1904–1917}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Peter Robert McGibbon]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Charles Stewart (premier)|Charles Stewart]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Member of Parliament (Canada)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Argenteuil (electoral district)|Argenteuil]]
 |years=1925–1938}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Georges-Henri Héon]]}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Ernest Lapointe]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Secretary of State of Canada]]
 |years=1926}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Fernand Rinfret]]}}
{{s-dip}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Donald Alexander Smith]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of Canadian High Commissioners to the United Kingdom|Canadian High Commissioner<br /> to the United Kingdom of Great Britain<br /> and Northern Ireland]]
|years=1914–1922}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Peter Charles Larkin]]}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before=None}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Minister of Overseas Military Forces]]
 |years=1916-1917}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Albert Edward Kemp]]}}

{{end}}

{{CA-Ministers of Defence}}
{{CA-Ministers of Public Works}}
{{Canadian High Commissioners to the United Kingdom}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perley, George Halsey}}
[[Category:1857 births]]
[[Category:1938 deaths]]
[[Category:American emigrants to Canada]]
[[Category:American businesspeople in the timber industry]]
[[Category:High commissioners of Canada to the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942) MPs]]
[[Category:Canadian Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
[[Category:Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec]]
[[Category:Canadian members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada]]
[[Category:Canadian businesspeople in the timber industry]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada]]