Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett
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The Right Honourable The Viscount Bennett PC KC |
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| 11th Prime Minister of Canada | |
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In office 7 August 1930 – 23 October 1935 |
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| Monarch | George V |
| Governor-General |
The Viscount Willingdon The Earl of Bessborough |
| Preceded by | W.L. Mackenzie King |
| Succeeded by | W.L. Mackenzie King |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Richard Bedford Bennett 3 July 1870 Hopewell Hill, New Brunswick, Canada |
| Died | 26 June 1947 (aged 76) Mickleham, England, United Kingdom |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Resting place | St. Michael's Churchyard, Mickleham, England |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Education | Dalhousie University (1893) |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| Signature |  |
Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett PC, KC (3 July 1870 – 26 June 1947) was a Canadian lawyer, businessperson, politician, and philanthropist. He served as the 11th Prime Minister of Canada from 7 August 1930 to 23 October 1935, during the worst of the Great Depression years. Following his defeat as prime minister, Bennett moved to England, and was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Bennett.
Bennett was born on 3 July 1870, when his mother, Henrietta Stiles, was visiting at her parents' home in Hopewell Hill, New Brunswick, Canada. He grew up nearby at the Bay of Fundy home of his father, Henry John Bennett, in Hopewell Cape, the shire town of Albert County, then a town of 1,800 people.
His father was descended from English ancestors who had emigrated to Connecticut in the 17th century. His great-great-grandfather Bennett migrated from Connecticut to Nova Scotia c. 1765, before the American Revolution, taking the lands forcibly removed from the deported Acadians during the Great Upheaval.
R. B. Bennett's family was poor, subsisting mainly on the produce of a small farm. His early days inculcated a lifelong habit of thrift. The driving force in his family was his mother. She was a Wesleyan Methodist and passed this faith and the Protestant ethic on to her son. Bennett's father does not appear to have been a good provider for his family, though the reason is unclear. He operated a general store for a while and tried to develop some gypsum deposits.
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