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Dougall Carmichael

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Dougall Carmichael
DSO MC VD
Ontario MPP
In office
1919–1926
Preceded byIsaac Benson Lucas
Succeeded byRiding abolished
ConstituencyGrey Centre
Personal details
Born(1885-11-08)8 November 1885
Collingwood, Ontario
Died15 September 1945(1945-09-15) (aged 59)
Ottawa, Ontario
Resting placeCollingwood Presbyterian Cemetery
PartyUnited Farmers
SpouseBessie Devereaux
OccupationFarmer
PortfolioMinister without portfolio, 1919-1923
Military service
AllegianceCanadian
Branch/serviceCanadian Expeditionary Force
Years of service
1915–1919
RankLieutenant-colonel
Unit58th Battalion
116th Battalion
Battles/warsWorld War I
AwardsDSO and bar
MC and bar
Mentioned in dispatches

Dougall Carmichael, DSO MC VD (8 November 1885 – 15 September 1945), was a Canadian farmer, war hero, politician and public servant.

Personal life

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Born Dougald Carmichael to John and Mary Carmichael[1] in 1885 in Collingwood Township, Grey County, Ontario.[2] He was the older brother of Capt. John Carmichael, who died of injuries incurred as a field ambulance driver in France on April 20, 1918, and Nursing Sister Rachel Carmichael.[1] Dougall grew up to become a farmer.[3] He married Bessie Devereaux in Collingwood in 1920,[4] after returning home from World War I.

Together, they had one child, Mary Devereaux Carmichael, six grandchildren, and numerous great-grandchildren. In 1928, Bessie was injured and remained bedridden, leading Dougall to sell his farm and move their family to Ottawa, where he became a civil servant, and later a Colonel in a military training facility in Brockville.

World War I

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Carmichael served in the Canadian Militia for ten years in 35th Simcoe Foresters, before enlisting into the 58th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, in 1915.[3] He attained the rank of Major, and became second in command of the 58th. He had many raids to his credit, and showed up well in all battles.[5] When Colonel George Pearkes was wounded in September 1918, Carmichael took over his command of the 116th Battalion and faced violent opposition at Cambrai.[5]

He received numerous honours for his service:

Political career

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Shortly after his discharge from service in 1919, he stood in the Ontario general election,[12] and was elected in Grey Centre. He became Minister without portfolio in the United Farmers of Ontario – Labour coalition government which was in office from 1919 to 1923.

He was given the responsibility of being the government representative on the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, and specifically with keeping its chairman Adam Beck in line.[13] He also promoted the cause of rural electrification.[14]

In 1922, Carmichael announced to the Legislature that he was resigning as Commissioner because Hydro "was either inefficient or dishonest." He was forced to retract the allegation of dishonesty.[5] He also continued to be Commissioner until the following year.[15]

Hydro's plans for the promotion of interurban railways were significantly scaled back after the Sutherland Commission's report on the subject recommended it in 1921,[16] and its affairs in general were the subject of the Gregory Commission appointed in 1922.[17]

Carmichael retained his seat in the 1923 general election, in contrast to the fortunes of many of his UFO colleagues, and returned to his farm.[18] He contested the federal 1925 election in Grey North as a Progressive candidate, but lost to the incumbent Matthew Robert Duncan. Grey Centre was abolished before the 1926 general election, and he did not campaign elsewhere.

Public service

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In 1930, Carmichael was appointed as a member of the War Veterans Allowance Board. At the beginning of World War II, he returned to military service as a colonel in charge of a training centre in Brockville for a year,[19] but returned to Ottawa to become Acting chairman of the board in 1942 and chairman in 1944. He died in 1945.[20] He is buried in Collingwood Presbyterian Cemetery.[21]

Further reading

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  • Keith R. Fleming (1992). Power at Cost: Ontario Hydro and Rural Electrification, 1911–1958. McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 0-7735-0868-6.
  • Kevin R. Shackleton (2002). Second to None: The Fighting 58th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 1-55002-405-1.

References

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  1. 1 2 "Lieutenant-Colonel Dougall Carmichael".
  2. ↑ "Dougald Carmichael, 'Canada, Births and Baptisms, 1661–1959'". familysearch.org.
  3. 1 2 "Attestaton Paper". Library and Archives Canada. Archived from the original on 20 October 2013. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  4. ↑ "Dougall Carmichael, 'Ontario Marriages, 1869–1927'". familysearch.org.
  5. 1 2 3 "First Time Carmichael Ever Withdrew Anything". The Morning Leader. 18 March 1922. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  6. ↑ "No. 31119". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 January 1919. p. 587.
  7. ↑ "No. 31583". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 October 1919. p. 12217.
  8. ↑ "No. 30023". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 April 1917. p. 3689.
  9. ↑ "No. 30466". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 January 1918. p. 581.
  10. ↑ "No. 31089". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 January 1918. p. 15221.
  11. ↑ "No. 31448". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 July 1919. p. 8819.
  12. ↑ "Grey U.F.O. Name Col. D. Carmichael". Toronto World. 11 September 1919. p. 6. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  13. ↑ Réal Bélanger; J. Andrew Ross; Andrew Smith, eds. (2011). Canada's Entrepreneurs: From the Fur Trade to the 1929 Stock Market Crash. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 388. ISBN 978-1-4426-4478-6.
  14. ↑ Fleming 1992, p. 68.
  15. ↑ Fleming 1992, p. 262.
  16. ↑ Reports of Commission appointed to inquire into hydro-electric railways. Toronto: King's Printer. 1921.
  17. ↑ General report of the Hydro-Electric Inquiry Commission. Vol. I. Toronto: King's Printer. 1924.
  18. ↑ Gil O'Mourne (23 February 1924). "Drury and Ex-Ministers Have 'Broadened Out', Farming No Longer Chief Interest of Cabinet". The Morning Leader. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  19. ↑ "Brockville Center To Be School For Training Officers". Ottawa Citizen. 13 March 1941. p. 11. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  20. ↑ Ottawa Journal, 19 September 1945, p. 17
  21. ↑ "Dougall CARMICHAEL, 1885-1945". findagrave.com.
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