High Commission of Canada to the United Kingdom

High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom Haut-commissariat du Canada au Royaume-Uni (French)

Location	London
High Commissioner	Gordon Campbell

The High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom in London is the diplomatic mission of Canada in the United Kingdom.^[1] Up until Mid-December 2014, it was housed in two separate buildings in central London - Canada House on Trafalgar Square and Macdonald House in Mayfair,^[1] with an additional Regional Service Centre at 3 Furzeground Way, Stockley Park, Uxbridge.^[1] Additionally the Government of Quebec maintains a representative office on Pall Mall.^[1]

History

The Canadian high commission in London is Canada's oldest diplomatic posting, having been established in 1880. Canada House, in Trafalgar Square, became the site of the mission in 1923. In 1962, Canada also acquired the former American Embassy at 1, Grosvenor Square in London's Mayfair district and was renamed Macdonald House. Macdonald House was also the residence of the High Commissioner until the building was vacated in Mid-December 2014 after having been sold for redevelopment.

Canada's presence in London goes back to 1869 when Sir John Rose, 1st Baronet was appointed as Canada's informal representative in Britain. This was the first Canadian diplomatic posting and the first from any British colony to the motherland. Since Canada did not have a foreign ministry, Rose acted as the personal representative of Canada's prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald. Rose's position was retained despite a change of government in Canada and his position was given the title "Financial Commissioner for the Dominion of Canada". When Macdonald returned to power in 1878 he wanted to elevate the office to "resident minister" but this was disallowed by Britain, who offered the title of high commissioner instead; this was the origin of the practice whereby members of the Commonwealth send high commissioners rather than ambassadors to each other, which continues to this day.

The first high commissioner was Alexander Tilloch Galt, appointed in 1880. The office remained the most important in Canadian diplomacy and was always filled by political appointees rather than career diplomats even after Canada created a Ministry of External Affairs in 1909.

As the high commission's role grew it needed to expand its facilities, and on 29 June 1925, King George V and Queen Mary officiated at the dedication of Canada House on Trafalgar Square. The mission's needs continued to expand, however, and Canada acquired the former American embassy on Grosvenor Square and renamed it Macdonald House, in honour of Canada's first prime minister. Macdonald House opened on Canada Day, (1 July), 1961.

Canada House was refurbished in 1997-98.

After years of operating from two buildings, in Mid-December 2014, all the activities of the High Commission were regrouped in the expanded and fully refurbished Canada House on Trafalgar Square. In order to expand the historic Canada House, the Government of Canada had purchased the adjoining building, at 2-3-4 Cockspur Street, originally built as the British Head Office of the Sunlife Assurance Company of Canada in 1927. It is remarkable that the Sunlife building had been built to match the architecture of Canada House. For that reason, it does look, from the outside, as if the building was built from the start as an extension of Canada House, although this is not the case. The historic Canada House and the former Sunlife Head Office now form a very coherent ensemble.

List of Canadian High Commissioners in the United Kingdom

High Commissioner	Start of term	End of term
The Hon. Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt	1880	1883
The Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Tupper	1883	1896
The Rt. Hon. Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal	1896	1914
The Rt. Hon. Sir George Perley	1914	1922
The Hon. Peter C. Larkin	1922	1930
Lucien Turcotte Pacaud (acting)	1930	1930
The Hon. Howard Ferguson	1930	1935
The Rt. Hon. Vincent Massey	1935	1946
Norman Robertson	1946	1949
L. Dana Wilgress	1949	1952
Norman Robertson (second time)	1952	1957
The Hon. George Drew	1957	1964
The Hon. Lionel Chevrier	1964	1967
Charles Ritchie	1967	1971
Jake Warren	1971	1974
The Rt. Hon. Paul Joseph James Martin	1974	1979
Jean Casselman Wadds	1979	1983
The Hon. Donald Jamieson	1983	1985
The Hon. Roy McMurtry	1985	1988
The Hon. Donald Stovel Macdonald	1988	1991
Fredrik S. Eaton	1991	1994
The Hon. Royce Frith	1994	1996
The Hon. Roy MacLaren	1996	2000
Jeremy Kinsman	2000	2002
Mel Cappe	2002	2006
James R. Wright	2006	2011
Gordon Campbell	2011	Present

Gallery

Canada House on Trafalgar Square
Macdonald House at 1 Grosvenor Square, Mayfair
The office of the government of Quebec at 59 Pall Mall

References

"Canadian Heads of Posts Abroad from 1880". Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

1 2 3 4 "The London Diplomatic List" (PDF). 13 December 2013.

External links

Official website

Diplomatic missions of Canada

Americas	Boston Bridgetown Buffalo (closed 2012) Chicago Houston Los Angeles Mexico City New York Washington, D.C.

Asia	Abu Dhabi Kabul Hong Kong Taipei Tokyo

Europe	Berlin Bucharest Budapest London Canada House Kyiv Moscow Oslo Paris Zagreb

Oceania	Canberra

Other	European Union

Former	Washington, D.C. (1927-1988) Dublin (residence, 1957-2008) London (Macdonald House, 1961-2014)

Diplomatic missions in the United Kingdom

Africa	Algeria Angola Botswana Burundi Cameroon Democratic Republic of the Congo Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Ivory Coast Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Malawi Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Nigeria Rwanda Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone South Africa South Sudan Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe

Americas	Antigua and Barbuda Argentina The Bahamas Barbados Belize Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Grenada Guatemala Guyana Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Trinidad and Tobago United States of America Uruguay Venezuela

Asia	Afghanistan Bahrain Bangladesh Brunei Cambodia China East Timor India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Lebanon Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Myanmar Nepal North Korea Oman Pakistan The Philippines Qatar Saudi Arabia Singapore South Korea Sri Lanka Syria Tajikistan Thailand Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen

Europe	Albania Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czechia Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kosovo Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro The Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Vatican City (Apostolic Nunciature)

Oceania	Australia Fiji New Zealand Papua New Guinea Tonga

States with limited recognition	North Cyprus Palestine Taiwan

De facto independent states	Somaliland

British Overseas Territories	Anguilla Bermuda British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Falkland Islands Gibraltar Montserrat Saint Helena

Other economies with their own representations	Hong Kong

International organisations	Arab League European Union International Organisation for Migration United Nations (UNHCR) (World Food Programme) World Bank

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