1959 Fredericton Convocation
Mackay, John Keiller
Doctor of Civil Law (D.C.L.)
Orator: Cattley, Robert E.D.
Citation:
CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1959
JOHN KEILLER MACKAY
to be Doctor of Civil Law
Too rarely can we welcome to this platform one in whom is so happily blended the Scholar and the Soldier, the Lawyer and the Statesman, the representative of his Kirk, his Clan and his Queen.
If in all these fields his honours stand thick as ears of corn, to tell over that rich harvest would but lengthen this long afternoon and embarrass their illustrious but humble recipient.
Nor need I dwell on those advantages of geography and education which we in these Atlantic Provinces take so for granted. Other panegyrists, in what they themselves are pleased to refer to as "Upper Canada", have rightly envied his birth and upbringing in Nova Scotia, and counted it a privilege to have yet another Maritimer -- I quote their sentiments if not their adjectives -- come, see and conquer their barbaric wilderness.
Of the many stars in his firmament two, however, glitter in a most happy conjunction. Not without genius for the Law did he become successively King's Counsel, Justice of the Supreme, and subsequently of the Appeal, Court of Ontario, before Ontario made him her Lieutenant Governor. And it will be surprising indeed if the speech
wherewith he is about to charm us will not be "thick inlaid with patines of bright gold" from the two poets to whom he is so dedicated. But us -- at this University, in this city of Fredericton -- us he touches on two other sides, and touches home. And they are the sides he would more gladly hear rehearsed.
First, John Keiller Mackay was schooled at Pictou Academy, N.S. And Pictou Academy, as early as 1914, had already provided eight Canadian colleges with their Presidents and was destined to provide yet another, in the person of Dr. Norman A. MacKenzie of the University of New Brunswick.
Second, in 1914 Major John Keiller Mackay was posted to Fredericton as Officer Commanding the 23rd Battery of the Canadian Field Artillery. Of the 23rd Battery over half the gunners were graduates or undergraduates of U.N.B. and others were Fredericton lads.
He was the inspiring leader of a splendid unit, not surprisingly the best battery in its brief day in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. This is what he will be most proud of on this occasion. Some of his gunners are in this audience, waiting to wring their major's hand. Some have since passed on. Four were killed in action. But the roll
call, if incomplete, cannot but stir his old soldier's heart: Alexander, Barker, Burden, Cass, Fraser, Harvey, Hipwell, Ketchum, Kurhring, Lawson, McGibbon, McInerney, Morrison, Otty, de Veber, Walker, Williams.
It is in their names and for their sakes more than for any other, that we of Fredericton and its University now do him honour. It is they that have virtually written this citation for their beloved O.C.
From:
Cattley, Robert E.D. Honoris causa: the effervescences of a university orator. Fredericton: UNB Associated Alumnae, 1968.
JOHN KEILLER MACKAY
to be Doctor of Civil Law
Too rarely can we welcome to this platform one in whom is so happily blended the Scholar and the Soldier, the Lawyer and the Statesman, the representative of his Kirk, his Clan and his Queen.
If in all these fields his honours stand thick as ears of corn, to tell over that rich harvest would but lengthen this long afternoon and embarrass their illustrious but humble recipient.
Nor need I dwell on those advantages of geography and education which we in these Atlantic Provinces take so for granted. Other panegyrists, in what they themselves are pleased to refer to as "Upper Canada", have rightly envied his birth and upbringing in Nova Scotia, and counted it a privilege to have yet another Maritimer -- I quote their sentiments if not their adjectives -- come, see and conquer their barbaric wilderness.
Of the many stars in his firmament two, however, glitter in a most happy conjunction. Not without genius for the Law did he become successively King's Counsel, Justice of the Supreme, and subsequently of the Appeal, Court of Ontario, before Ontario made him her Lieutenant Governor. And it will be surprising indeed if the speech
wherewith he is about to charm us will not be "thick inlaid with patines of bright gold" from the two poets to whom he is so dedicated. But us -- at this University, in this city of Fredericton -- us he touches on two other sides, and touches home. And they are the sides he would more gladly hear rehearsed.
First, John Keiller Mackay was schooled at Pictou Academy, N.S. And Pictou Academy, as early as 1914, had already provided eight Canadian colleges with their Presidents and was destined to provide yet another, in the person of Dr. Norman A. MacKenzie of the University of New Brunswick.
Second, in 1914 Major John Keiller Mackay was posted to Fredericton as Officer Commanding the 23rd Battery of the Canadian Field Artillery. Of the 23rd Battery over half the gunners were graduates or undergraduates of U.N.B. and others were Fredericton lads.
He was the inspiring leader of a splendid unit, not surprisingly the best battery in its brief day in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. This is what he will be most proud of on this occasion. Some of his gunners are in this audience, waiting to wring their major's hand. Some have since passed on. Four were killed in action. But the roll
call, if incomplete, cannot but stir his old soldier's heart: Alexander, Barker, Burden, Cass, Fraser, Harvey, Hipwell, Ketchum, Kurhring, Lawson, McGibbon, McInerney, Morrison, Otty, de Veber, Walker, Williams.
It is in their names and for their sakes more than for any other, that we of Fredericton and its University now do him honour. It is they that have virtually written this citation for their beloved O.C.
From:
Cattley, Robert E.D. Honoris causa: the effervescences of a university orator. Fredericton: UNB Associated Alumnae, 1968.
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