About Lord Byng:
Lord Byng was a British peer and cavalry officer. When he was appointed Governor General of Canada he was well known to Canadians as the commander who led the Canadian Corps to victory at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in World War I. He became even better known for the King-Byng Affair, in which he exercised his royal prerogative and rather than dissolving Parliament at the request of Prime Minister Mackenzie King, chose to ask the Leader of the Opposition Arthur Meighen to form the government.
Governor General of Canada:
1921-26
Birth:
September 11, 1862 in Wrotham Park, England
Death:
June 6, 1935 in Thorpe-le-Soken, England
Military Career of Lord Byng:
- Byng joined the Royal Hussars in 1883. He served in the 1884 Sudan expedition and in the South African War from 1899-1902.
- At the start of World War I, Byng served in France as commander of the British Cavalry Corps.
- Byng led the Canadian Corps in the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917.
- In command of the 3rd British Army at Cambrai, Byng used tanks on a large scale in a surprise attack to break through the German Hindenburg Line. It was considered a turning point in World War I.
Byng as Governor General of Canada:
- Byng was appointed Governor General of Canada in 1921.
- Byng was the first governor general of Canada to appoint Canadian aides-de-camp, one of whom was Georges Vanier.
- Lord Byng is best remembered for his handling of a minority government crisis in what came to be known as the King-Byng Affair.
- In 1926 Liberal Prime Minister Mackenzie King and his minority government were faced with a customs scandal. King asked the Governor General to dissolve Parliament and call an election. Byng refused. Instead Byng asked Arthur Meighen, the Conservative Leader of the Opposition, to form a government. Within a week, Arthur Meighen's Conservatives had lost a non-confidence motion in the House of Commons. Meighen then asked Byng to dissolve Parliament, which he did. A new election was called, and the Liberals were returned with a majority government.
- Although Byng had acted within his royal prerogative, the events cast a cloud on his term as Governor General.
- The King-Byng affair led to the role of governor general of Canada being clearly defined as representative of the sovereign, rather than the British government.
- After his term as Governor General, Lord Byng returned to England where he served as Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police from 1928 to 1931.
