Bust of James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine - Ottawa, Ontario
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N 45° 25.281 W 075° 41.605
18T E 445750 N 5029992
This bust of James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine, located in the lobby of the Lord Elgin Hotel, was a gift to Canada from the United Kingdom by the 10th Earl of Elgin.
Waymark Code: WMX9NK
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 12/13/2017
Views: 3
Text of the plaque on the base of the sculpture:
This bust of James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine, K.T.G.C.B. Governor-General of British North-America - 1847-1854
This bust and that of his wife, Mary Louisa, Countess of Elgin and Kincardine, C.I.
were presented in 1939 by their grandson, Edward James, 10th Earl of Elgin and 14th Earl of Kincardine K.T. to the Canadian Government through the Right Honourable W. Mackenzie King, then the P.M. of Canada on the understanding that they should be placed in the Lord Elgin Hotel in Ottawa.
The 10th earl (of Elgin) was very moved when he learned in 1939 from (Mackenzie) King (Prime Minister of Canada) that a hotel in Ottawa was going to be built and named in honour of his grandfather. The marble busts were commissioned by the directors of Standard Life of Scotland for his family. English sculptor William Behnes created the bust of Lord Elgin, while Scottish artist Amelia Paton did the bust of Lady Elgin. They were shipped to Canada in a Royal Navy battleship.
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James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine
James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine KT GCB KSI PC (20 July 1811 – 20 November 1863) was a British colonial administrator and diplomat. He served as Governor of Jamaica (1842–1846), Governor General of the Province of Canada (1847–1854), and Viceroy of India (1862–1863).[1] In 1857, he was appointed High Commissioner and Plenipotentiary in China and the Far East to assist in the process of opening up China and Japan to Western trade. In 1860, during the Second Opium War in China, in the retaliation of the torture and execution of almost twenty European and Indian prisoners, he ordered the destruction of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, an architectural wonder with immeasurable collections of artworks and historic antiques, inflicting invaluable loss of cultural heritage.[2] Subsequently, he submitted the Qing Dynasty to the unequal treaty of the Convention of Peking, adding Kowloon Peninsula to the British crown colony of Hong Kong.
Under Lord Elgin, the first real attempts began at establishing responsible government in Canada. Lord Elgin became the first Governor General to distance himself from the affairs of the legislature. Since then, the Governor-General has had a largely symbolic role with regards to the political affairs of the country. As Governor-General, he wrestled with the costs of receiving high levels of immigration in the Canadas, a major issue in the constant debate about immigration during the 19th century.
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