It is now thirty-three years since the first volume of biographies bearing the title “Representative Canadians” was issued by the present firm of publishers. In 1886 the scope of the work was unique, so far as this country was concerned, for previous volumes of the kind had confined themselves to the careers of Canadians who have won fame in either a political or military capacity. The aim of the editors of the first volume of “Representative Canadians” was to give recognition of the emergence of Canada from a colonial to something like a national status by recording something of the achievements of those who had contributed to the intellectual, industrial and commercial growth of the country, as well as of its political leaders. The purpose remained the same in the second volume published in 1888, and is once more the impulse of the present book.

The vast majority of those whose careers were recorded in 1886 have passed away; and the same is true of those who figured in the second volume of the series. Consequently, the earlier issues of “Representative Canadians” grow every day more precious, for, in many cases, they contain the sole records of men who initiated great enterprises or furthered important movements which have left a lasting mark on the history of Canada. We cannot but think that the reader who, thirty or forty years hence, may chance to scan the pages of the present volume will gather a very vivid picture of Canada as it was in one of the crucial periods of the world’s affairs—a picture in which the characters of those Canadians who lived and “carried on” through the years of the greatest war in all history may be discerned in the records of their lives. There is hardly a page in this book into which the war does not enter directly or indirectly in some form or other, by way of allusions to services rendered, bereavements endured, or honours gained on the field of battle. In that sense the 1919 volume must remain unique, and a mine of useful information for students in future generations.

Generally speaking, in comparing the biographies of the Canadians of to-day with those of 1886 and 1888, the reader gains a sense of this country’s continuous expansion. The present century has witnessed a marvellous development in the Canadian West, so that in these pages we find numerous records showing not merely the commercial, but the intellectual, progress of the Provinces West of the Great Lakes—stories of brilliant careers built up by men who were mere children in the East when the first volume was published. The reader will also note in the biographies of business men which abound in these pages, the ever-increasing scale on which Canadian commerce and enterprise everywhere is conducted, so that what seemed large in 1886 is relatively small to-day. Though some of the men whose names figure in the index are of less importance than others, all play their part in our complex and vigorous social life, and the story of their progress and fortunes cannot be really tedious to any sympathetic student of humanity.

Toronto, 1919.

MAJOR-GEN. SIR. ARTHUR WILLIAM CURRIE
Victoria, B.C.