Right Honourable Sir John Sparrow David Thompson
Jurist and first Catholic Premier of Canada, b. at Halifax, Nova Scotia, 10 Nov., 1844; d. at Windsor Castle, England, 12 Dec., 1894. He was the son of John Sparrow Thompson, queen’s printer in Nova Scotia, superintendent of the money order system, and native of Waterford, and of Catherine Pottinger, who was of Scottish descent. The parents on both sides were rigid Protestants. Young Thompson made a short course in the common schools and in the Free Church Academy in his native city. At the age of fifteen he began the study of law and at the same time of stenography.
