High Commission of Canada to the United Kingdom

High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom Haut-commissariat du Canada au Royaume-Uni (French)
Canada House in 2004
Location	London, England
Address	Trafalgar Square
High Commissioner	Janice Charette
Website	Official website

The High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom in London is the diplomatic mission of Canada to the United Kingdom. Until mid-December 2014, it was housed in two separate buildings in central London – Canada House on Trafalgar Square and Macdonald House in Mayfair – with an additional Regional Service Centre at 3 Furzeground Way, Stockley Park, Uxbridge. Additionally, the Government of Quebec maintains a representative office at 59 Pall Mall.

The Canadian high commission in London is Canada's oldest diplomatic posting, having been established in 1880. Canada House, in Trafalgar Square, became the site of the mission in 1923. In 1962, Canada also acquired the former American Embassy at 1, Grosvenor Square in London's Mayfair district, and it was renamed Macdonald House. Macdonald House was the official residence of the Canadian High Commissioner until the building was vacated in mid-December 2014, after having been sold for redevelopment.

Canada's presence in London goes back to 1869, when Sir John Rose, 1st Baronet was appointed as Canada's informal representative in Britain. This was the first Canadian diplomatic posting and the first from any British colony to the motherland. Since Canada did not have a foreign ministry, Rose acted as the personal representative of Canada's prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. Rose's position was retained despite a change of government in Canada, and his position was given the title "Financial Commissioner for the Dominion of Canada". Additionally, in 1874, the government of Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie named Edward Jenkins, a British Liberal Party Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom who had grown up in Quebec, as Canada's Agent-General in London. His duties in that role were clarified to the Canadian House of Commons in May 1874 by the Canadian Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie, who said that Jenkins would have surveillance of the Canadian emigration business in London, would occasionally be asked to attend to other business of a confidential nature. He would also be "expected to give some little attention to Canadian gentlemen sojourning in London". He held the post for two years. Mackenzie then appointed former Nova Scotia premier William Annand as agent general in 1876; he held the position until Mackenzie's government was defeated.

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