Reuben Wells Leonard

Infobox Military Person
name= Lieutenant-Colonel Reuben Wells Leonard


caption=
rank= Lieutenant-Colonel
branch=Corps of Guides
commands=
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battles=Northwest Rebellion (1885)
family=
nickname=
allegiance=Canada
born= 21 February 1860
died= 17 December 1930
placeofbirth=
placeofdeath=
placeofburial=
serviceyears=
portrayedby=
laterwork=soldier, civil engineer, railroad and mining executive, and philanthropist.
awards=

Lieutenant-Colonel Reuben Wells Leonard was a soldier, civil engineer, railroad and mining executive, and philanthropist.

Education

Following a short stint as a teacher in Brant County, he studied civil engineering at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, student # 87. He graduated from RMC as the silver medallist in a class of 23 cadets.

Career

He worked as an engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railway. He left temporarily to serve as a transport officer in the Northwest Rebellion of 1885. In the period from 1886 to early 1906, he was involved mainly in railway and hydroelectric projects in central and eastern Canada. Among these, he worked on the construction of the first Niagara Falls power station, in 1892–93. A grubstaking venture in northern Ontario in 1905 led to the acquisition of a mineral-rich claim in the centre of Cobalt, Ontario. These mines, which contained cobalt, nickel), silver, and arsenic, made him wealthy. [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=7933&interval=20&&PHPSESSID=90gbana0a8hfa7312cp83n3jj4 Reuben Wells Leonard Biography ]

Railway

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Military Service

He joined the Corps of Guides in 1904. During World War I, he served in Europe with the Corps of Guides. He was promoted to a Lieutenant-Colonel in September 1915. [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=7933&interval=20&&PHPSESSID=90gbana0a8hfa7312cp83n3jj4 Reuben Wells Leonard Biography ]

Philanthopy

In 1916, he established a philanthropic foundation and gave extensively to educational institutions, churches (low-church Anglican), hospitals, and other causes. Reuben Leonard was a philanthropist, and made monetary donations not only to Queen's but also to the Girl Guides, Boy Scouts, the University of Toronto, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and many other organisations. He also established the Leonard Foundation in 1916, educational trust to provide financial assistance for children of ministers, soldiers, teachers and engineers. [http://www.leonardfnd.org/ Leonard Foundation ] He gave generously to support the war effort.

Governance

Following the armistice, he served a year as president of the Engineering Institute of Canada in 1919-20. In 1920, he was to the Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission. He was appointed to boards of governance at the University of Toronto, Wycliffe College in Toronto, Ridley College in St Catharines, Ontario the School of Mining and Agriculture and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and the Khaki University of Canada. [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=7933&interval=20&&PHPSESSID=90gbana0a8hfa7312cp83n3jj4 Reuben Wells Leonard Biography ]

Family

Lieutenant-Colonel Reuben Wells Leonard and his wife Kate built a stately home, Springbank, which overlooked the old Welland Canal in St Catherines. They did not have any children. [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=7933&interval=20&&PHPSESSID=90gbana0a8hfa7312cp83n3jj4 Reuben Wells Leonard Biography ]

Honours

Queen’s University, conferred an honourary doctorate in October 1930.

Legacy

In 1923, he donated land to Queen’s University, on which Leonard Hall, and Leonard Field were named in his honour. [http://www.queensu.ca/secretariat/History/bldgs/leo.html]

Controversy

Under the Leonard Foundation terms, boursaries were made available to students who were white, British subjects, and Protestant and no more than one-quarter of the moneys could be awarded to females. The goal was to provide financial assistance to needy students who showed the promise of becoming leading citizens of the British Empire. A complaint filed against the Leonard Foundation under the Ontario Human Rights Code in 1986 prompted litigation. The Ontario Court of Appeal held in 1990, that the trust’s exclusionary terms relating to race , religion, nationality, and gender were contrary to law.

External Links

* [http://www.leonardfnd.org/ Leonard Foundation]
* [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=7933&interval=20&&PHPSESSID=90gbana0a8hfa7312cp83n3jj4 Reuben Wells Leonard Biography]

References

Books

*Bruce Ziff "Unforeseen legacies: Reuben Wells Leonard and the Leonard Foundation trust" (Toronto, 2000)
*4237 Dr. Adrian Preston & Peter Dennis (Edited) "Swords and Covenants" Rowman And Littlefield, London. Croom Helm. 1976.
*H16511 Dr. Richard Arthur Preston "To Serve Canada: A History of the Royal Military College of Canada" 1997 Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1969.
*H16511 Dr. Richard Arthur Preston "Canada's RMC - A History of Royal Military College" Second Edition 1982
*H16511 Dr. Richard Preston "R.M.C. and Kingston: The effect of imperial and military influences on a Canadian community" 1968 Kingston, Ontario.
*H1877 R. Guy C. Smith (editor) "As You Were! Ex-Cadets Remember". In 2 Volumes. Volume I: 1876-1918. Volume II: 1919-1984. RMC. Kingston, Ontario. The R.M.C. Club of Canada. 1984