George MacKinnon Wrong (June 25, 1860 – June 29, 1948) was a Canadian clergyman and historian.

Life and career

Born at

Grovesend Grovesend ( cy, Pengelli; ) is a village in the community of Grovesend and Waungron ( cy, Pengelli a Waungron), City and County of Swansea in Wales. The community has a population of 1,131.Elgin County Elgin County is a county of the Canadian province of Ontario with a 2016 population of 50,069. Its population centres are St. Thomas, Aylmer, Port Stanley, Belmont, Dutton and West Lorne. The county seat is St. Thomas, which is separated from t ...

Canada West The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report on the ...

(now

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

), he was ordained in the

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

priesthood in 1883 after attending

Wycliffe College Wycliffe College () is an evangelical graduate school of theology at the University of Toronto. Founded in 1877 as an evangelical seminary in the Anglican tradition, Wycliffe College today attracts students from many Christian denominations from ...

. In 1894, as successor to Sir Daniel Wilson, he was appointed professor and head of the Department of History at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

from which he retired in 1927. He was elected a fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

in 1908 and received an honorary LLD from

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

in 1919 and University of Toronto in 1941. Wrong died in Toronto, Ontario on June 29, 1948. A believer in the historian's moral duty to interpret the past for society's present needs, Wrong viewed Canadian history in terms of the country's British and French origins, and the American presence. As a teacher, administrator, writer and a moving force in the early days of the

Canadian Historical Association The Canadian Historical Association (CHA; French ''Société historique du Canada'', SHC) is a Canadian organization founded in 1922 for the purposes of promoting historical research and scholarship. It is a bilingual, not-for-profit, charitable ...

, he helped to provide an intellectual base for a developing Canadian nationality. In 1896-97 he founded the Review of Historical Publications Relating to Canada (since 1920 the

Canadian Historical Review The ''Canadian Historical Review'' (''CHR'') is a scholarly journal in Canada, founded in 1920 and published by the University of Toronto Press.

) and in 1905 he co-founded the

Champlain Society The Champlain Society seeks to advance knowledge of Canadian history through the publication of scholarly books (both digital and print) of primary records of voyages, travels, correspondence, diaries and governmental documents and memoranda. The ...

. He wrote numerous monographs and texts on Canadian history, the best being A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs (1908). Formal in habit and something of an anglophile in taste, Wrong influenced a generation of students. Wrong's eldest son Murray was a long-time friend of

Vincent Massey Charles Vincent Massey (February 20, 1887December 30, 1967) was a Canadian lawyer and diplomat who served as Governor General of Canada, the 18th since Confederation. Massey was the first governor general of Canada who was born in Canada after ...

. He "assumed his ecclesiastical robes" in 1915 to assist in Massey's marriage to Alice Parkin. Wrong owned a property near

Canton, Ontario Canton is a hamlet in southeastern Ontario, a few kilometers (a few miles) north of Port Hope. It has a small wooden chapel built in 1832, one of the oldest in the region. Canton was once the home of Vincent Massey, the lawyer, diplomat and Govern ...

. Massey bought the adjacent property in 1918 and converted it into his principal residence, Batterwood House, in 1927.

Personal life

In 1886, Wrong married Sophia Hume Blake, the daughter of

Edward Blake Dominick Edward Blake (October 13, 1833 – March 1, 1912), known as Edward Blake, was the second premier of Ontario, from 1871 to 1872 and leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 1880 to 1887. He is one of only three federal permanent Li ...

, Premier of Ontario (1871 to 1872) and leader of the Liberal Party of Canada (1880 to 1887). They had five children: * Margaret Christian Wrong (1887–1948); educator *

Edward Murray Wrong Edward Murray Wrong (14 April 1889 – 15 February 1928) was a Canadian-born historian, vice-president of Magdalen College, Oxford (1924–25). Biography Known as Murray, he was the son of Canadian historian George MacKinnon Wrong, and of Sophi ...

(1889–1928); historian and Oxford academic * Harold Verschoyle Wrong (1891–1916);

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer, killed in action in the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Humphrey Hume Wrong Humphrey Hume Wrong (September 10, 1894 – January 24, 1954) was a Canadian historian, professor, career diplomat, and Canada's ambassador to the United States. Background and early life Wrong was the grandson of Liberal Party leader Edward Bl ...

(1894–1954); diplomat * Agnes Honoria Wrong (1903-1995) The historian

Rosalind Mitchison Rosalind Mary Mitchison FRSE (11 April 1919 – 19 September 2002) was a 20th-century English historian and academic who specialised in Scottish social history. She was affectionately known as "Rowy" Mitchison. Life Rosalind Mary Wrong wa ...

and the physician

Oliver Wrong Professor Oliver Murray Wrong (7 February 1925 – 24 February 2012) was an eminent academic nephrologist (kidney specialist) and one of the founders of the speciality in the United Kingdom. From a background as a "salt and water" physician, he ma ...

were both grandchildren by Edward Murray Wrong. The sociologist

Dennis Wrong Dennis Hume Wrong (November 22, 1923 – November 8, 2018) was a Canadian-born American sociologist and emeritus professor in the Department of Sociology at New York University. Wrong was the author of several books, including two essay collecti ...

was his grandson by Humphrey Hume Wrong. All of the Wrong children and their father were graduates of the

Selected works

* ''The Conquest of New France'' (1910) * ''The Fall of Canada'' (1914) * ''The United States and Canada: A Political Study'' (1921) * ''The Rise and Fall of New France'' (1928) * ''Britain's History'' (1929) * ''Canada and the American Revolution: The Disruption of the First British Empire'' (1935)

References

External links

* * * *
Canadian Encyclopedia biography

George M. Wrong Family fonds

MacKinnon-Wrong Family fonds
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrong, George 1860 births 1948 deaths 20th-century Canadian Anglican priests 20th-century Canadian historians Canadian male non-fiction writers Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) University of Toronto faculty Presidents of the Canadian Historical Association 19th-century Canadian Anglican priests

Life and career

Personal life

Selected works

References

Further reading

External links