Canada’s 12th Prime Minister, the great Louis St.-Laurent, was in the UK on this date in 1955. He was afforded a rare honour and granted the Freedom of the City of London. The ceremony in the ancient city was steeped in tradition and St.-Laurent was moved by it. The Lord Mayor of London said the had the high honour of extending to the distinguished Canadian guest “the hand of fellowship and to greet you as a fellow citizen of London.” In his own remarks, Prime Minister St.-Laurent recalled the early British explorers, “gentlemen adventurers,” who had done so much to help Canada develop into the great nation he represented. You can watch parts of the ceremony, along with St.-Laurent’s short speech, at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6JAT6qorHw&t=28s
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.