Ambrose Bury

Ambrose Upton Gledstanes Bury (August 1, 1869 – March 29, 1951) was a politician in Alberta, Canada, a mayor of Edmonton, and a member of the House of Commons of Canada.

Early life

Ambrose Bury was born in Downings House, County Kildare, Ireland on August 1, 1869. He was educated at the Liverpool Institute, the Royal School in Raphoe, Dublin High School, Trinity College, and the King's Inn in Dublin, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1890 and a Master of Arts in 1893.

He married Margaret Amy Beatrice Owen on June 16, 1897, with whom he would have one son.

He was called to the Irish Bar in 1906, and practiced law in Ireland before immigrating to Edmonton in 1912. The following year, he was admitted to the Law Society of Alberta. He practiced law as a partner of Ewing, Harvie & Bury (later Harvie, Bury & Yanda), and was chancellor of the Anglican diocese at Athabasca from 1919.

Political career

Bury's first attempt at public office was running for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 1921 provincial election as a Conservative in Edmonton. He was defeated, finishing fourteenth of twenty-six candidates.

Later that year, in the 1921 municipal election, Bury was elected to the Edmonton City Council for a two-year term as alderman, finishing fourth of nineteen candidates in a race in which the top seven candidates were elected. He was re-elected to another two-year term in the 1923 election.

Towards the end of his second term on council, Bury was elected to the House of Commons of Canada as a Conservative in the riding of Edmonton East in the 1925 election. However, Parliament was dissolved amid the King-Byng Affair the following year, and Bury was narrowly defeated in the ensuing election by Liberal (and incumbent mayor of Edmonton) Kenny Blatchford.

Blatchford had taken his job, and Bury set out to take Blatchford's, running for mayor in the 1926 election. He defeated Daniel Kennedy Knott (who would go on to become mayor himself after Bury left municipal politics), and was re-elected in 1927 and 1928. He did not seek re-election in 1929, anticipating a rematch against Blatchford in the next federal election.

Bury defeated Blatchford by a substantial margin in the 1930 election as R. B. Bennett's Conservative government swept to power. He opted not to seek re-election in the 1935 election. He was appointed as a district court judge that year, and served in that capacity until he reached the retirement age of 75 in 1944.

Later life and death

In 1946, Bury's wife died, and Bury moved to England to live with his brother. He died in Ottawa March 29, 1951. His funeral was held in Edmonton, and he was buried in the Edmonton Cemetery.

Bury had been an active Freemason.