{{Short description|Canadian politician}} {{Use Canadian English|date=September 2021}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]] | name = Sir George Halsey Perley | honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|PC|GCMG|size=100%}} | image = GeorgePerley23.jpg | image_size = | office = [[Secretary of State for Canada|Secretary of State of Canada]] | term_start = 29 June 1926 | term_end = 24 September 1926 | prime_minister = [[Arthur Meighen]] | predecessor = [[Ernest Lapointe]] | successor = [[Fernand Rinfret]] | office2 = [[High Commission of Canada in London|Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom]] | prime_minister2 = [[Robert Borden]],<br />[[Arthur Meighen]]<br />[[William Lyon Mackenzie King|W.L. Mackenzie King]] | term_start2 = 4 August 1914 | term_end2 = 1922 | predecessor2 = [[Donald Alexander Smith]] | successor2 = [[Peter C. Larkin]] | office3 = [[Minister of Overseas Military Forces]] | term_start3 = 31 October 1916 | term_end3 = 11 October 1917 | prime_minister3 = [[Robert Laird Borden]] | successor3 = [[Albert Edward Kemp]] | constituency_MP4 = [[Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel|Argenteuil]] | parliament4 = Canadian | term_start4 = 1904 | term_end4 = 1917 | predecessor4 = [[Thomas Christie Jr.]] | successor4 = [[Peter Robert McGibbon]] | term_start5 = 1925 | term_end5 = 1938 | predecessor5 = [[Charles Stewart (premier)|Charles Stewart]] | successor5 = [[Georges Héon]] | birth_date = {{birth date|1857|09|12|mf=y}} | birth_place = [[Lebanon, New Hampshire]], United States | death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1938|01|04|1857|09|12}} | death_place = [[Ottawa, Ontario]], Canada | party = [[Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942)|Conservative]] | spouse = Annie Hespeler Bowlby | relations = | children = | alma_mater = [[Harvard University]] | profession = Lumber merchant }} '''Sir George Halsey Perley''' {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|PC|GCMG}} (September 12, 1857 – January 4, 1938) was an [[Americans|American]]-born [[Canadians|Canadian]] politician and diplomat.
==Early life==
Born in [[Lebanon, New Hampshire]], the son of [[William Goodhue Perley]] and Mabel E. Ticknor Stevens, Perley was educated at the [[Lisgar Collegiate Institute|Ottawa Grammar School]], at [[St. Paul's School (Concord, New Hampshire)|St. Paul's School]] in [[Concord, New Hampshire]], and at [[Harvard University]] where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1878. Perley became a partner in the Perley & Pattee, a lumber company in which his father was senior partner. After Perley & Pattee dissolved in 1893, Perley became head of G.H. Perley & Co which had mills at [[Pointe-Calumet, Quebec]] and vice president of the Hull Lumber Company, Ltd., which is operating largely on the upper Ottawa. For many years, Perley was vice president of the [[Canada Atlantic Railway Company|Canada Atlantic Railway Co.]], president of the [[Rideau Club]] and president of the Ottawa Golf Club. Along with the other heirs of his father, he donated his homestead on Wellington Street for the purpose of establishing a hospital and served as vice president of its [[Board of Management]]. In 1900, he was chairman of the Ottawa and Hull Fire Relief Fund, and distributed about $1,000,000 among the sufferers by the [[1900 Hull–Ottawa fire]].
Perley married Annie Hespeler Bowlby in [[Kitchener, Ontario]] on 4 June 1884. Perley had two children: Mabel, born 8 July 1885 and died 13 March 1887, and Ethel Lesa, born 16 September 1888.
==Politics== {{stack|[[File:George Perley and wife.jpg|thumb|upright|Perley and his wife inspecting Lt. Gen. Sir Richard Turner during World War I]]}}
He was first elected to the [[House of Commons of Canada]] as the [[Conservative Party of Canada (historical)|Conservative]] [[Member of Parliament (Canada)|MP]] for [[Argenteuil (electoral district)|Argenteuil]] in 1904, having failed to defeat [[William Cameron Edwards|Mr. W. C. Edwards]] for the seat in [[Russell County, Ontario|Russell County]] during the election of 1900. Perley served as [[High Commissioner]] to the [[United Kingdom]] and Minister of the Overseas Military Forces in the [[World War I]] government of Sir [[Robert Borden]]. He did not run for re-election in the [[1917 Canadian federal election|1917 federal election]] in order to concentrate on his duties in [[London]]. He returned to the House of Commons in the [[1925 Canadian federal election|1925 federal election]] and subsequently served as [[Secretary of State for Canada]] in the short-lived 1926 government of [[Arthur Meighen]] and then as [[Minister without Portfolio]] in the government of [[R. B. Bennett]] following the [[1930 Canadian federal election|1930 federal election]]. He was re-elected in the [[1935 Canadian federal election|1935 federal election]] which also saw the defeat of Bennett's government, and remained an MP until his death in 1938.
== Electoral record == {{Election box begin | title=3 December 1902}} {{Canadian party colour|CA|Liberal|row}} |[[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]] |[[Thomas Christie, Jr.]] |align="right"| 1,261 || 54.10 {{Canadian party colour|CA|PC|row}} |[[Conservative Party of Canada (historical)|Conservative]] |George Halsey Perley |align="right"| 1,070 || 45.90 {{end}} {{1935 Canadian federal election/Argenteuil}} {{1930 Canadian federal election/Argenteuil}} {{1926 Canadian federal election/Argenteuil}} {{1925 Canadian federal election/Argenteuil}} {{1911 Canadian federal election/Argenteuil}} {{1908 Canadian federal election/Argenteuil}} {{1904 Canadian federal election/Argenteuil}} {{1900 Canadian federal election/Russell}}
==References== * {{Canadian Parliament links|ID=8151}} * {{cite web|title=A history of Quebec, its resources and people, Volume 2|work=[[Internet Archive]]|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofquebeci02sultuoft}} * [http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol&id=103861&lang=eng George Halsey Perley fonds, Library and Archives Canada]
{{s-start}} {{s-par|ca}} {{s-bef|before=[[Thomas Christie, Jr.]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Member of Parliament (Canada)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Argenteuil (electoral district)|Argenteuil]] |years=1904–1917}} {{s-aft|after=[[Peter Robert McGibbon]]}} {{s-bef|before=[[Charles Stewart (premier)|Charles Stewart]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Member of Parliament (Canada)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Argenteuil (electoral district)|Argenteuil]] |years=1925–1938}} {{s-aft|after=[[Georges-Henri Héon]]}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=[[Ernest Lapointe]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Secretary of State of Canada]] |years=1926}} {{s-aft|after=[[Fernand Rinfret]]}} {{s-dip}} {{s-bef|before=[[Donald Alexander Smith]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[List of Canadian High Commissioners to the United Kingdom|Canadian High Commissioner<br /> to the United Kingdom of Great Britain<br /> and Northern Ireland]] |years=1914–1922}} {{s-aft|after=[[Peter Charles Larkin]]}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=None}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Minister of Overseas Military Forces]] |years=1916-1917}} {{s-aft|after=[[Albert Edward Kemp]]}}
{{end}}
{{CA-Ministers of Defence}} {{CA-Ministers of Public Works}} {{Canadian High Commissioners to the United Kingdom}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perley, George Halsey}} [[Category:1857 births]] [[Category:1938 deaths]] [[Category:American emigrants to Canada]] [[Category:American businesspeople in the timber industry]] [[Category:High commissioners of Canada to the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Harvard University alumni]] [[Category:Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942) MPs]] [[Category:Canadian Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George]] [[Category:Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec]] [[Category:Canadian members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada]] [[Category:Canadian businesspeople in the timber industry]] [[Category:20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada]]