William L. Walsh

Walsh was born in 1857 at Simcoe, Canada West, to Aquila and Jane Adams Walsh (née Wilson).[3] His father, Aquila, born in Charlotteville Township,[3] initially worked as a civil engineer, later serving as Deputy Registrar for Norfolk County[3] and as a member of the House of Commons of Canada.[4]

Walsh attended public schools in Simcoe, before he moved to Toronto and graduated from the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall Law School, where he earned his Bachelor of Laws degree.[4][1]

William Walsh was called to the bar in 1880[5] and practised law in Orangeville in the firm Maitland and McCarthy but soon left the firm for independent practice, under his own name, from 1885 to 1900.[4] In 1889, he was elected a town councillor, serving on assessment, finance, public works and printing committees. He had also participated as a school trustee.[4] He went on to twice serve as mayor of Orangeville, from 1890 to 1891 and in 1899.[4]

Justice William L. Walsh

In 1900, enticed by the Klondike Gold Rush, Walsh moved to the Yukon.[6] After being called to the Yukon bar in 1900, he became a partner in the firm, Tabor, Walsh, & Hulme in Dawson.[6] He was created a King's Counsel in 1903.[6] He also invested in gold-mining, but failed to gain profits from the investments.[6] In 1904, Walsh was an unsuccessful candidate for Mayor of Dawson.[6]

Walsh moved to Calgary in 1904, and was admitted to the bar on June 10 of that year.[6] He joined a law firm as a senior partner of the firm Walsh, McCarthy and Carson.[6] One of his first cases, in 1904 was defending a man accused of horse theft, being heard by the Chief Justice Arthur Sifton and the Supreme Court of Alberta.[6] He was a member of the Benchers of the Law Society of Alberta from 1907 to 1912, and in 1910 was appointed as one of two counsels to the Royal Commission on the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal.[7]

Walsh was a prominent trial lawyer, claiming several victories in several "major precedent-setting cases".[7] Fellow lawyer and future Prime Minister of Canada R. B. Bennett reportedly referred to Walsh as "the best potential railway lawyer in the province".[6] He was appointed to the Supreme Court of Alberta in 1912, and upon its restructuring of courts into appellate and trial divisions in 1921, became a judge of the Appellate Division in Calgary.[7]

He travelled all over the province, going as far north to Peace River, and south to Lethbridge to hear cases.[7] The most notable trial that Walsh presided over was that of Emilio Picariello, for the murder of Alberta Provincial Police Constable Stephen Lawson. After the murder charge was laid by Attorney General of Alberta John Edward Brownlee, Picariello and his accomplice, Florence Lassandra were found guilty of their crimes and were sentenced to hang.[8] The execution was carried out on May 2, 1923.[9] Walsh was a strong believer that capital punishment was a strong deterrent to crime, sentencing 18 convicted criminals to hang,[8] earning him the nickname, "the Hanging Judge".[8]

In the 1896 federal election, Walsh was an unsuccessful Conservative candidate for the Cardwell constituency in Ontario.[4]

In 1905, he became the first President of the Conservative Association of Alberta, in which he also was the party's chief organizer.[6] He ran in a 1906 by-election for the provincial constituency of Gleichen, but was unsuccessful, losing by just over 100 votes to Liberal Ezra Riley.[6]

Lieutenant Governor William L. Walsh in his office

Walsh's son, Legh Aquila

Walsh married Bessie Amelia McVittie at Barrie, Ontario on November 14, 1883.[4] The couple had 2 children: Marguerite "Greta" Clare (1886–1913) and Legh Aquila (1895–1938). His daughter Marguerite married Dr. George Robinson Pirie (1879–1938), a prominent children's doctor and member of the Royal College of Physicians (1931). They were married in Calgary on April 14, 1909.[11] Dr. Pirie was Superintendent of the Great Ormond Street children's hospital in England from 1914 to 1919. They had one child, Miss Margaret Walsh Pirie (Mrs. R. O. Funston). Legh Walsh enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I and served the duration of the war. At the time of his enlistment he described his occupation as law student. He became a Lieutenant in the 82nd Battalion in May 1916. He was wounded at Flers–Courcelette in 1916, returned briefly to Calgary, and then sailed back to the front. After the war he returned to Calgary in April 1919 and resumed his law studies. After being called to the Law Society of Alberta in 1920, he was created a King's Counsel and made secretary of the Law Society of Alberta in 1932. Bessie Walsh died after a long illness in 1925.[4] William Legh Walsh later married Bertha Main Barber, widower of a Royal Navy Commander, on April 22, 1931.[4]

Walsh enjoyed many activities in his free time. While living in the Yukon, he was a member of a curling team that won the Yukon championship.[4] In Calgary, Walsh was a member of the Calgary Golf and Country Club, and, 1907 was the first president of the Canadian Club of Calgary.[12] An avid golfer, Walsh founded a seniors' golf tournament named for him that still is held presently, alternatively in Edmonton and Calgary.[12]

In 1931, he was made an honorary chief by Chief Sitting Eagle,[13] who gave him his own name of "Sitting Eagle (Pee'topi)" of the Blood Nation First Nations tribe.[14] He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree and an honorary rank of Colonel of the University of Alberta Contingent of the Canadian Officers' Training Corps from the University of Alberta in 1932.[14] In 1934, he was admitted as a Knight of Grace of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.[14] Additionally, in 1981, the City of Edmonton named Walsh Crescent, in the Westridge neighbourhood in the southwestern part of the city after the former lieutenant governor.[14]

William L. Walsh died on January 13, 1938, of heart failure following a stroke in Victoria, British Columbia.[14] A simple service was held in Calgary at the Pro-Cathedral Church of the Redeemer, which was attended by the then Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta John C. Bowen, University of Alberta President William Alexander Robb Kerr and leaders of Alberta's legal system and Royal Canadian Mounted Police.[14] He was buried in Calgary's Union Cemetery.[14] His wife, Bertha, died on August 20, 1943, and was cremated. His first wife, Bessie, who died in 1925, was buried in Simcoe.[14]

Affectionately referred to as "Daddy Walsh", Walsh was well-liked amongst his many friends.[14] William A. R. Kerr, president of the University of Alberta said of him, "All who knew [Walsh] … not only respected him for his gifts of mind and character but loved him as a fine warm-hearted human being."[14] L. Ralph Sherman, an Anglican bishop of Calgary described his legacy as "a record of integrity, devotion to duty and service which will be an inspiration."[14]

• Perry, Sandra E.; Powell, Karen L. (2006). On Behalf of the Crown : Lieutenant Governors of the North-West Territories and Alberta, 1869-2005. Edmonton, Alberta: Legislative Assembly of Alberta. ISBN 0-9689217-4-4.
• MacRae, Archibald Oswald (1912). History of the province of Alberta, Volume 2. Calgary, Alberta: Western Canada History Co.
• Mardon, Ernest G.; Mardon, Austin A. (2011). Alberta's Judicial Leadership: A Biographical Account. Edmonton, Alberta: Golden Meteorite Press. ISBN 978-1-897472-32-3.