Item 9 - Letter, from Richard Beford Bennett

Richard Bedford Bennett was born at Hopewell Hill, New Brunswick in 1870. He taught at Douglastown for three years, 1888-1890, before studying law at Dalhousie University, 1890-1893. Upon graduation he became a partner in the law firm of L.S. Tweedie in Chatham and in 1897 moved to Calgary as a junior partner of Senator James Lougheed. After the partnership dissolved in 1922, Bennett established the firm of Bennett, Hannah and Sandford of which he remained a member until 1937.

In 1898 Bennett was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the North-West Territories and to the Alberta Legislative Assembly in 1909 and 1911. In the House of Commons Bennett represented Calgary, 1911-1917 and Calgary West, 1925 to 1938. At the first convention of the Conservative Party in Winnipeg, 1927, Bennett was elected leader. Following the defeat of the King government in 1930 he became Prime Minister. Bennett also held the offices of Minister of Finance, 1930-1932 and Secretary of State for External Affairs, 1930-1935. After the Conservative defeat in 1935, Bennett served as Leader of the Opposition until 1938 when he retired from active political life. In 1939, he moved to England and settled on an estate in Surrey where he lived until his death in 1947. In 1941, he was created Viscount Bennett of Mickleham, calgary and Hopewell. he never married.