Sir Herbert Meredith Marler: The Life and Lineage of a Montreal Patrician

Adopting the ‘patrician’ model as recently applied by Brian Young and John Irvine Little, this paper examines a family’s ascendancy across three generations. This process propelled Montreal born lawyer-turned-diplomat Sir Herbert Meredith Marler (1867-1940) into the upper echelons of Quebec and Canadian society. An archetypical patrician, Marler imbued an emergent Canadian-national identity. Through a contextualization of lineage, the author assesses aspects of Herbert Meredith’s identity – considerations that together illuminate the developments of a life in the public and private spheres of early-century Montreal. Not only was Herbert Meredith Marler a well-educated and wealthy Anglophone lawyer, Member of Parliament, diplomat, and head of Canada’s third foreign legation, he provides a multi-facet vantage point into Montreal society during a formative period of Canadian history. This article is based on contemporary press reports, Liberal party publications, the memoirs of colleagues, Canadian and Japanese diplomatic cables, and privately penned and published family histories. In addition, portraits and images from the McCord Museum’s Notman collection reveal the Marler’s self-perceptions and image-shaping habits. Concluding in late-inter-war period, the author’s analysis thus exhibits a parallel between the closing stages of the life of Sir Herbert Meredith Marler and the end of an era dominated by the ascendant patrician