1. George Stanley studied at Keble College, University of Oxford, in 1929 as the Rhodes Scholar from Alberta, and held a Beit Fellowship in Imperial Studies and a Royal Society of Canada Scholarship.
53 Facts About George Stanley
1. 2.
George Stanley returned to Canada in 1936 and was appointed a professor of history at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick.
3.
George Stanley joined the military upon arriving there and qualified as a lieutenant in the New Brunswick Rangers.
4.
George Stanley served as an infantry training officer in Fredericton and then proceeded overseas during World War II as historian in the Historical Section at Canadian Army Headquarters in London, England; he was responsible for administering the War Artist Program, whose staff included Bruno Bobak, Molly Lamb Bobak, Alex Colville, Charles Comfort, Lawren P Harris and Will Ogilvie.
5.
George Stanley then taught at the University of British Columbia, holding the first chair in Canadian history in Canada.
6.
George Stanley came out of military retirement in 1948 to help fight floods in the Fraser Valley and was on the Reserve of Officers until 1967.
7.
George Stanley was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to do research into the history of Canadian government policy in dealing with Aboriginal people.
8.
In 1949, George Stanley began teaching at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, where he remained for twenty years.
9.
George Stanley's students included John de Chastelain, Jack Granatstein, and Desmond Morton.
10.
George Stanley was president of the Arts Society, director of the Art Collection Society, served on various committees working to save Kingston's old limestone buildings, was president of the St Andrew's Society, and acted as clerk of his church's vestry council.
11.
George Stanley was president of the Canadian Historical Association, a member of the Massey Commission's Committee on Historic Sites and Monuments, and a founding member of the Archaeological and Historic Sites Board of Ontario.
12.
George Stanley was chairman of the federal government's Centennial Publications Committee and acted as chairman of centennial celebrations in Pittsburgh Township, Ontario.
13.
In 1969, George Stanley returned to Mount Allison University to become founding director of the new Canadian Studies program, the first of its kind in Canada.
14.
George Stanley was the first holder of the Edgar and Dorothy Davidson Chair of Canadian Studies.
15.
At Mount Allison, George Stanley taught courses in Canadian civilization, dealing with literature, music, architecture and culture.
16.
George Stanley served as a member of the Commission de Planification Academique de l'Universite de Moncton, and a member of the advisory panel on the Symons Commission on Canadian Studies.
17.
George Stanley was a founding member of the Atlantic Canada Institute.
18.
George Stanley served as member of the Federal Government Advisory Board on Canadian Military Colleges, on the Council of the New Brunswick Army Cadet League and of the Maritime Automobile Association, and as president of the New Brunswick Council of St John Ambulance.
19.
George Stanley was a director of the Canadian Association of Rhodes Scholars and of SEVEC, served as a member of the Advisory Board of the Canadian War Museum and as Honorary Colonel of the Royal New Brunswick Regiment, and continued his long-standing role as corresponding member of the Institut d'histoire de l'Amerique francaise.
20.
George Stanley retired from teaching in 1975, but remained active in public life.
21.
Well into his nineties, George Stanley continued to research, write, read manuscripts, review books, give interviews and talks, encourage young scholars, and maintain an active interest in the militia, cadets, St John Ambulance, and SEVEC.
22.
George Stanley answered a steady flow of letters from school children asking about the Canadian flag.
23.
George Stanley never missed an opportunity to promote Canadian citizenship and love of country.
24.
George Stanley died in 2002 and was buried with full military honours in Sackville, New Brunswick.
25.
George Stanley was the Head of the History Department when I was a young cadet at RMC.
26.
George Stanley led by example and set his students on a path of personal and individual achievement unhampered by his own prejudices and influences.
27.
In 1981, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau advised the appointment of George Stanley to be the 25th Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick since Confederation.
28.
When George Stanley retired from his post as Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick in 1987, a testimonial dinner was given in his honour at CFB Gagetown; the guests at the head table were all Canadian generals, who had flown in to honour their former professor from the Royal Military College.
29.
In 1946, George Stanley married Ruth L Hill, ONB, BA, BCL, LLD, DCLJ, MMLJ, FRSA, a Montreal lawyer.
30.
In 1976, George Stanley was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Companion in 1994.
31.
George Stanley was the recipient of twelve honorary degrees, in addition to his five earned degrees.
32.
George Stanley was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the Royal Historical Society.
33.
George Stanley was Professor Emeritus of both the Royal Military College and Mount Allison University.
34.
Early in his career, George Stanley received an Army Efficiency Medal, but in 1992 he was awarded a Canadian Forces' Decoration ; at 85, he was almost certainly the oldest Canadian soldier so to be honoured.
35.
George Stanley was made a Knight of Justice of the Order of Saint John, a Knight Grand Cross of the "Acadia Commandery of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem, Grand Priory in Canada", which he helped establish, and a Comendador of the Brazilian Order of Sao Paulo.
36.
George Stanley was a Fellow of the Company of Military Historians and a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International.
37.
George Stanley was a Life Member of the Royal Canadian Legion, the New Brunswick Teachers' Association, the York-Sunbury Historical Society, the Kingston Historical Society, the United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada, the Military Institute of Fredericton, the Fredericton Garrison Club, and the Union Club of Saint John.
38.
In 1994, George Stanley was awarded a special certificate of merit by the Kingston Historical Society to mark the 100th anniversary of the Society and to recognize his long devotion to their work and to historical research and architectural conservation.
39.
Historical plaques honouring George Stanley have been erected in the Public Library, Stoney Creek, Ontario, in front of the Public Library, Sackville, New Brunswick, at his boyhood home in Calgary, Alberta, and on the Parade Square, Royal Military College, Kingston, Ontario.
40.
George Stanley's name was added the RMC Wall of Honour in 2015.
41.
The Dr George Stanley School was officially opened in Calgary in 2017.
42.
On 23 March 1964, George Stanley wrote a formal four-page memorandum to John Matheson, a member of the multi-party parliamentary flag committee, suggesting that the new flag of Canada should be instantly recognizable, use traditional colours, and be a simple design.
43.
George Stanley included a rough sketch of his design in the memorandum.
44.
George Stanley had become friends with Matheson in Kingston, Ontario, where their children learned Scottish dancing together.
45.
At the centre, George Stanley proposed, should be placed a single red maple leaf instead of the college emblem: a mailed fist holding a sprig of three green maple leaves.
46.
George Stanley's vision provided a sound rationale and brought together all the key components of the new flag design.
47.
George Stanley was forbidden by his superiors at RMC from appearing in person before the Parliamentary Flag Committee, which was made up of 15 MPs from various federal political parties.
48.
The George Stanley proposal was placed on a wall of the Flag Committee's meeting room in Ottawa with hundreds of other flag designs, and eventually was selected as one of the final three designs for consideration.
49.
George Stanley's design was slightly modified by Jacques Saint-Cyr, a graphic artist with the Canadian Government Exhibition Commission, who reduced the number of points on the stylized maple leaf from 13 to 11.
50.
The George Stanley design was officially adopted as the national flag of Canada by the House of Commons on 15 December 1964 and by the Senate on 17 December 1964, and proclaimed by Queen Elizabeth II, taking effect on 15 February 1965.
51.
Shortly before the official flag raising on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on 15 February 1965, George Stanley received an anonymous death threat.
52.
George Stanley suggested the name for the Canadian pale, an original vexillological and heraldic device first used in the Maple Leaf flag.
53.
George Stanley served in the Canadian military during World War II, a cause to which he was profoundly committed.