Hugh Graham, 1st Baron Atholstan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hugh Graham, 1st Baron Atholstan of Huntingdon (July 18, 1848–January 28, 1938), was a Canadian publisher of Scots-Quebec ancestry.

Born in the village of Huntingdon, Quebec, Canada into a Scottish immigrant family of modest circumstances, he was educated at the local school and as a young boy went to the city of Montreal where he found work as a newspaper office boy with the Montreal Daily Telegraph. Despite his limited education, Graham's good business sense and ambition saw him rapidly move up the corporate ladder and a few years later he accepted a job offer from the Montreal Gazette. In 1869 he and George T. Lanigan raised the money to start their own newspaper, which was called the Montreal Evening Star. Instantly successful, the following year the two started up the Family Herald and the Weekly Star. After differences over editorial policy, Lanigan left the partnership in 1872.

Graham's publishing business prospered and he became one of the most powerful media executives in Canada. His newspaper's editorials greatly influenced the federal government's decision in 1900 to send troops to participate in the British offensive in the Second Boer War. In 1905, Graham expanded his publishing business with the establishing of the Montreal Standard newspaper. In 1908, he was invested as a Knight Bachelor (K.B.) by King Edward VII in 1908 and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law (LL.D.) from the University of Glasgow. In May of 1917 he was created 1st Baron Atholstan, of Huntingdon in the province of Quebec in the Dominion of Canada, and of the City of Edinburgh by King George V. He is the last person to be granted a peerage on the recommendation of the Canadian government. (see Nickle Resolution)

In 1925, the 77-year-old Graham sold his publications to John W. McConnell. In 1936 he donated the Atholstan Trophy, emblematic of cricket supremacy in eastern Canada.

Hugh Graham married Annie Beekman Hamilton in 1892, with whom he had a daughter, Alice Hamilton Graham. Because he had no male issue, on his death in 1938 the Barony of Atholstan became extinct.

Some people speculate that he had an affair with the much younger Lady Louis Mountbatten, but these claims seem to be unsubstantiated.

Hugh Graham is interred with his wife in the Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal.