Joseph Badenoch Clearihue (1887–1976) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

lawyer, judge, academic and politician.

Life

Clearihue was born in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. The ...

in 1887. He was educated at Victoria High School before attending

Victoria College, British Columbia Victoria College was an affiliated college based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1903, it was the first post-secondary institution established in British Columbia, and served as the predecessor to the University of Victoria. As ...

(a predecessor institution of the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary insti ...

) in 1903, where he was one of the first to study at the college. He then attended

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

before winning a Rhodes Scholarship to the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, studying for two years at

Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship S ...

, from 1911. During the First World War, Clearihue served with the Fifth Canadian Field Artillery Unit. Thereafter, he worked as a lawyer and served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia when he was elected in 1920 as a member of the

British Columbia Liberal Party The British Columbia Liberal Party, often shortened to the BC Liberals, is a centre-right provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada. The party currently forms the Official Opposition. Subsequent to the 2020 British Columbia genera ...

for Victoria City. He was later an

alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

for Victoria and a county court judge, becoming chair of the Victoria College Council in 1947 and leading it to the award of university status in 1963. He was the first chancellor for the University and he served as chair of the Board of Governors from 1963 to 1966. The Clearihue building on the University of Victoria campus is named in his honour. Clearihue died in 1976.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clearihue, Joseph 1887 births 1976 deaths University of Victoria alumni McGill University alumni Canadian Rhodes Scholars Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford 20th-century Canadian lawyers Judges in British Columbia Canadian military personnel of World War I Canadian university and college chancellors British Columbia Liberal Party MLAs Politicians from Victoria, British Columbia Victoria College, British Columbia alumni