Charles Herbert Mackintosh

He was born in London, Canada West on May 13, 1843,[2] the son of Captain William Mackintosh, of Wicklow, Ireland, an Irish-born officer posted to Canada with the British Army's Ordnance Department, who later served as County Engineer for Middlesex County, Ontario. Mackintosh's paternal grandfather was Captain Duncan Mackintosh, a Scotsman who had been sent to Ireland with the British Army's Highland regiment during the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

After the Rebellion, he bought an estate in County Wicklow, and in 1802, married, at Dublin, Alicia Weldon, who is variously described as being the daughter of Lady Weldon, and a niece of the Earl of Dysart, though which ones are meant is not specified. C.H. Mackintosh's mother was Leonora Sophia (d. 1891), daughter of Col. Dickinson, of Jamaica, British West Indies. Through the maternal line, Mackintosh claimed to be close kin to Sir Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore, one of whose sisters was called Leonora, and one of whose half-aunts, Elizabeth Raffles, married William Carter, Esq., of Jamaica. Paternally, he claimed to be a near relation of the essayist and politician, the Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh, who was member of the Kellachie branch of the Inverness-shire-based Clan Mackintosh, part of the Scottish Highlands Chattan Confederation.

In addition to C.H. Mackintosh's grand, if vague, ties to the ruling class, there is occasional confusion with another Mackintosh author, Charles Henry Mackintosh (1820–1896), a prolific Plymouth Brethren author and evangelist, who was known principally by the initials, C. H. M., which happen to coincide with those of the present subject. Details in this second man's biography indicate that the elder and younger C. H. Mackintoshes were possibly uncle and nephew, or, at least, related (see References).

At any rate, in nineteenth century colonial Canada, these exalted family connexions in Britain and the empire may have played a rôle in fostering Mackintosh's ambitions, and aiding him in his later advancement. Coupled with his innate talents, they may also have served to mark him in Conservative party political circles where, in 1893, Canada's Prime Minister Sir John Thompson clearly viewed him as the more suitable vice-regal candidate over rival fellow Tory, Nicholas Flood Davin, whose own chagrin at Mackintosh's appointment is well documented.

The Montreal Gazette described him as "a tactful, capable and experienced public man", while the Toronto Telegram declared him to be "warm hearted, amiable and altogether likeable".

He was a life director of the Carleton County Protestant Home for the Aged in Ottawa, Ontario.

In politics, he was a Liberal-Conservative, being noted as "an imperialist of no uncertain sound", and served as vice-president of the British Empire League in Canada. In religion, he was an Anglican. He was a member of two gentleman's clubs, the Union Club, Victoria, British Columbia, and of the Vancouver Club, Vancouver, British Columbia.

He was author of the Liberal-Conservative Handbook (1876), and wrote a prize essay entitled Potential Resources of British Columbia (1908). For the Canadian Magazine, he wrote various articles including one entitled, British America's Golden Gateway to the Orient.

Gertrude Mackintosh by William James Topley in a costume she wore in February 1896 at a Fancy Dress Ball given at Ottawa by the Earl and Countess of Aberdeen

Mackintosh married in April 1868, Gertrude Niles Cook (d. 1925), daughter of Timothy Cook, J.P., of Strathroy, Ontario, and his wife, Harriet Terry, the daughter of Dr William Terry, ex-M.P.P., Niagara, Ontario, and granddaughter of Parshall Terry, M.H.A., a United Empire Loyalist, and member of the 1st Parliament of Upper Canada. Mrs Mackintosh was born at Strathroy, Ontario, and educated at a convent at London, Ontario. While wife of the mayor of Ottawa, in 1879, she assisted at the opening of the first Dominion Exhibition. Later, she assisted at the opening of the great North-West Exhibition, held in Regina in 1895. She served as vice-president in the Territories for the National Council of Women.

The couple had two sons and seven daughters. The eldest daughter, Gertrude, married Sandford Hall Fleming, eldest son of Sir Sandford Fleming, the inventor of Standard Time, while another daughter, Marion, divorced wife of Alfred Louis Castellain, became, secretly, in 1906, the wife of Sir Frederick W. A. G. Haultain, the man her father had appointed as first premier of the Northwest Territories in 1897. Of the sons: the elder, Edward Compton Mackintosh, died of a fever, on 28 January 1901, at Pretoria, while he was serving as a private in the Canadian contingent with Lord Strathcona's Horse fighting in the Second Boer War. The younger, Charles St Lawrence Mackintosh, who had served as his father's personal secretary and aide-de-camp when he was N.W.T. lieutenant governor, first married Eileen White of Quebec City, granddaughter of Sir Hugh Allan, in 1899. They had a son, Charles Allan Mackintosh, born in 1901. Divorced in 1906, he remarried, in 1908, to Kate Totten Putnam (d.1919), and was married for the last time, in 1927, to Lillie Tupper Cameron, whose mother was the eldest child of Canadian Conservative Prime Minister Sir Charles Tupper, 1st Baronet.[4]

The Hon. C. H. Mackintosh died in 1931 and was buried in Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa, Ontario, alongside his wife who had predeceased him in 1925.

There is a Charles Herbert Mackintosh fonds at Library and Archives Canada.[5] Archival reference number is R4507.

1. Nicholas Flood Davin, The Irishman in Canada, 1877, p. 604
2. Morang's Register of Canadian Affairs 1901, (1902), p. 311
3. Hector Willoughby Charlesworth A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time, 1919, p. 56C (C.H. Mackintosh's entry)
4. Morgan, Canadian Men and Women of the Time, 1912, p. 704, col. 1 & 2
5. Burke's Landed Gentry, 1855 edition, Raffles family.
6. Napoleon Noel, The History of the Brethren, 1936, p. 64

• Perry, Sandra E.; Powell, Karen L. (2006), On Behalf of the Crown: Lieutenant Governors of the North-West Territories and Alberta 1869–2005, Alberta: Legislative Assembly of Alberta
• Thompson, John Herd (1994). "Davin, Nicholas Flood". In Cook, Ramsay; Hamelin, Jean (eds.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. XIII (1901–1910) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.

• Legislative Assembly of Alberta
• Charles Herbert Mackintosh – Parliament of Canada biography
• The Canadian parliamentary companion, 1891, JA Gemmill
• Additional papers and record materials