(4 April 1913-22 Nov. 1980), public figure. Born at St-Anicet, Que. Parents: Ernest Léger and his wife Alda Beauvais. One of the best known and most-respected Canadian public figures of his time, Jules Léger, after a distinguished career as a diplomat and ambassador, was governor general of Canada from Jan. 1974 to Jan. 1979. He died at Ottawa. He was married to Gabrielle Carmel. The future governor general and his brother Paul-Émile, the future Cardinal LÉGER, were GC residents in their early years. The Léger family moved from St-Anicet in the spring of 1920 to a farm three miles north of Lancaster village. Then soon afterwards they moved to Lancaster village, where Ernest Léger operated a store. Jules Léger attended school at Lancaster and learned English there, or improved the English he already knew. The school appears to have been the public school. The Léger family remained at Lancaster till the spring of 1923, when they moved to St-Polycarpe, Que. Because of this Lancaster connection, Bill Cumming, as reeve of Lancaster, and Mrs Cumming, were invited to the installation of Jules Léger as governor general in 1974. An attractive picture of Mr and Mrs Russell Harper talking to Mr and Mrs Léger at the induction of Russell Harper into the Order of Canada was printed in the Glengarry News 30 Oct. 1975. Oscar MÉNARD, the author of a valuable short history of Lancaster village, wrote that it was Ernest Léger, the father of the family, who”attracted me to Lancaster in 1937.”

Bernard Crevier [correctly, Chevrier], “Jules Leger Attended School in Lancaster,” Glengarry News 7 Dec. 1983, repr. Chevrier, Chapter 10 * letter (undated, but from late 1970s) from Miss G. Blais, Secretary [of Jules Léger], to Ewan Ross, dating the Léger years at Lancaster (copy in present author’s files) * Ménard 17 * Ross, Lancaster, 300 * invitation to installation: letter (by C.C. Fraser) & editorial (presumably by Eugene Macdonald), GN 17 & 24 Jan. 1974; Bill Cumming: see entry for Donald N. Cumming