Robert Laird Borden

Not to be confused with his cousin Frederick Borden, Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence from 1896-1911.

Related Topics:
Frederick Borden - Minister of Militia and Defence

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The Right Honourable Sir Robert Laird Borden, PC (June 26, 1854 – June 10, 1937) was the eighth Prime Minister of Canada from October 10, 1911 to July 10, 1920, and the third Nova Scotian to hold this office.

Related Topics:
The Right Honourable - PC - June 26 - 1854 - June 10 - 1937 - Prime Minister of Canada - October 10 - 1911 - July 10 - 1920

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He was born and educated in Grand Pre, Nova Scotia, an agricultural community at the northern end of the Annapolis Valley where his great-grandfather Perry Borden, Sr. of Tiverton, Rhode Island had taken up Acadian land in 1760. Perry had accompanied his father, Samuel Borden, the chief surveyor chosen by the government of Massachusetts to survey the former Acadian land and draw up new lots for the Planters in Nova Scotia. His father Andrew Borden was judged by his son to be "a man of good ability and excellent judgement", of a "calm, contemplative and philosophical" turn of mind, but "He lacked energy and had no great aptitude for affairs". His mother Eunice Jane Laird was more driven, possessing "very strong character, remarkable energy, high ambition and unusual ability". Her ambition was transmitted to her first-born child who applied himself to his studies while assisting his parents with the farm work he found so disagreeable.

Related Topics:
Grand Pre, Nova Scotia - Annapolis Valley - Tiverton, Rhode Island

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From 1869 to 1874, he worked as a teacher in Grand Pré and Matawan, New Jersey. Seeing no future in teaching, he returned to Nova Scotia in 1874 to article for four years at a Halifax law firm (without a formal university education) and was called to the Nova Scotia Bar in August 1878, placing first in the bar examinations. Borden went to Kentville, Nova Scotia as the junior partner of the Conservative lawyer John P. Chipman. In 1882 he was asked by Wallace Graham to move to Halifax and join the Conservative law firm headed by Graham and Charles Hibbert Tupper. Borden became the senior partner in fall 1889 when he was only 35 following the departure of Graham and Tupper for the bench and politics. His financial future guaranteed, on September 25, 1889, he married Laura Bond (1863-1940), the daughter of a Halifax hardware merchant. They would have no children. In 1894 he bought a large property and home on the south side of Quinpool Road which the couple called "Pinehurst". In 1893 Borden successfully argued the first of two cases which he took to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. He represented many of the important Halifax businesses and sat on the boards of Nova Scotian companies including the Bank of Nova Scotia and the Crown Life Insurance Company. President of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society in 1896, he took the initiative in organizing the founding meetings of the Canadian Bar Association in 1896 in Montreal. By the time he was prevailed upon to enter politics, Borden had what some judged to be the largest legal practice in the Maritime Provinces, and had become a wealthy man.

Related Topics:
1869 - 1874 - Matawan, New Jersey - Halifax - 1878 - Kentville, Nova Scotia - John P. Chipman - Wallace Graham - Charles Hibbert Tupper - September 25 - 1889 - Laura Bond - 1863 - 1940 - Judicial Committee of the Privy Council - Bank of Nova Scotia - Crown Life Insurance Company - Canadian Bar Association

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