Walsh, William Legh

  • DCB profile notes:
    • Lawyer, politician, sportsman, judge, and office holder; b. 28 Jan. 1857 in Simcoe, Upper Canada, son of Aquila Walsh and Jane Wilson Adams; m. first 14 Nov. 1883 Bessie Amelia McVittie (d. 2 Sept. 1925) in Barrie, Ont., and they had a daughter and a son; m. secondly 22 April 1931 Bertha Main Barber, née Cassady (d. 20 Aug. 1943), in Vancouver; d. 13 Jan. 1938 in Victoria.
    • Of loyalist descent, William Walsh’s father sat in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada and after confederation in the new dominion’s House of Commons. He ended his public career in Winnipeg as commissioner of crown lands. William, who attended public and high school in Simcoe, studied law at the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall. Called to the Ontario bar in 1880, he first practised in his hometown and the following year he moved to Orangeville. He recognized the importance of thoroughness in researching and presenting a case and displayed marked analytical power in unravelling the tangles and intricacies encountered in litigation. During his 19 years in Orangeville, he took a special interest in business, civic affairs, and sports, as well as the law. For three years he served on the public-school board, including a term as chair, and in 1891–93 and 1899–1900 he was mayor.
    • Lured by gold-rush fever, Walsh moved to the Yukon Territory in 1900, was called to the bar there that year, and established a practice in Dawson. Although he arrived after the rush had peaked, there was still plenty to engage him personally – he took up curling – and professionally. As a lawyer, he earned his largest cheque ever in the Yukon, though when he left he claimed he had less money than when he arrived because of his wildcat investments in gold-mining properties. Despite his energetic work for the Conservatives, in 1903 the Liberal government in Ottawa named him a kc in recognition of his able legal contributions. The same year he ran for the position of mayor of Dawson.
    • Defeated in this bid and facing the economic decline of the north, in 1904 he moved to Calgary to join a legal partnership. He continued his political involvement, as founding president of the Alberta Conservative Association in 1905 and head of the Calgary association. It was in this circle, and in the courts, that he came to know Richard Bedford Bennett, a local lawyer with political aspirations. In 1906 Walsh unsuccessfully contested the provincial by-election in Gleichen. Though never a candidate again, he was an organizer in the federal election of 1911, which the Conservatives won.
    • Following this election and eight years of practice in Calgary, Walsh secured an appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court of Alberta on 3 April 1912, a position he had coveted. On 27 Jan. 1931 he was named to its appellate division.
    • With Walsh’s commendable record as a jurist and chair of a number of provincial inquiries, Prime Minister R. B. Bennett recommended that he be appointed lieutenant governor of Alberta, effective 5 May 1931.
  • Great Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=8905
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8523612/william_legh-walsh