John Robert Cartwright
12th Chief Justice of Canada (1895–1979)
John Robert Cartwright (March 23, 1895 – November 24, 1979) was a Canadian lawyer and judge who served as Chief Justice of Canada from 1967 until 1970 and as a puisne justice from 1949 to 1967.
Early life
Born in Toronto, Cartwright was the son of James Strachan Cartwright and Jane Elizabeth Young. After graduating from Upper Canada College in 1912, he enrolled at Osgoode Hall Law School and began his articles with Smith, Rae & Greer.
He interrupted his studies in 1914 to serve overseas with the armed forces during the First World War. In 1915, he was wounded twice and for the following two years was an aide-de-camp to three successive generals. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1917.
Legal career
Upon his return to Canada, he resumed his study of law. He was called to the bar in 1920, then joined the firm of Smith, Rae & Greer in Toronto. In 1946, he was named a bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada, he had the most votes of any candidate.
In 1947, he was counsel for the Government of Canada in the prosecutions that resulted from the findings of the Royal Commission on Spying Activities in Canada, which had been chaired by Justices Robert Taschereau and Roy Kellock.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Robert Cartwright” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.