Quick Facts
Biography
Sir Edmund Walker Head, 8th Baronet, KCB (16 February 1805 – 28 January 1868) was a 19th-century British politician and diplomat.
Life
He was born at Wiarton Place, near Maidstone, Kent, the son of the Reverend Sir John Head, 7th Bt. and Jane (née Walker) Head. He was educated at Winchester College and Oriel College, Oxford, and in 1830 he was made a Fellow of Merton College. He succeeded to his father's title in 1838. He was an Oxford scholar and tutor who published several books.
He was simultaneously Governor General of the Province of Canada, and Lieutenant Governor of both Canada West and Canada East (1854–1861). He had previously been Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick (1847–1854).
He was appointed a Privy Councillor in 1857, and knighted Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1860. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1863.
In 1866, Head published The Story of Viga Glum, which he had translated from the original Icelandic.
While Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick, Head authorized the creation of an engineering faculty at the University of New Brunswick (UNB). This was the first such programme in what would become Canada. In his honour, the buildings housing this faculty at UNB are called Head Hall. The city of Edmundston, New Brunswick, was named after him. In the county of Renfrew, a township of Head was named in his honour. He died in London in 1868.
Family
He had married Anna Maria Yorke, daughter of Reverend Philip Yorke Prebendary of Ely, and his wife, Hon. Anna Maria Cocks, daughter of John Cocks, 1st Earl Somers, on 27 November 1838. Anna Maria was born in 1808. The couple had three children. One son accidentally drowned in Quebec's Saint-Maurice River in September, 1859. One of their two daughters was born at Fredericton, New Brunswick on 6 February 1849.
Anna Maria was an artist, who sketched a picture of the view from Major's Hill, Ottawa, Ontario which she subsequently presented to Queen Victoria. Within a month or two after this event Her Majesty chose Ottawa as the seat of Government of United Canada. Lady Head volunteered and bestowed alms among the poor. A memorial of her Ladyship's visit to the Upper Ottawa, in a bark canoe, in 1856, stands at Portage-du-Fort, Quebec. In the county of Renfrew, a township Maria, was named in her honour. Lady Head died at Oak Lea, Shere, Guildford, England, 25 August 1890.