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Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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BURCHILL, GEORGE PERCIVAL (1889-1977)

BURCHILL, GEORGE PERCIVAL, forester, lumber company head, and senator; b. Nelson, 3 Nov 1889, s/o John Percival Burchill and Eliza Bacon Wilkinson; m. 1916, Jean Gordon Garden, BA, of Woodstock, N.B.; d. Newcastle, 22 Aug 1977.

G. Percival ("Percy") Burchill was educated at Harkins Academy, Rothesay Collegiate School, and the University of New Brunswick (BScF 1910). As a businessman, he was president of George Burchill & Sons Ltd, president and chairman of the board of directors of the New Brunswick Telephone Co, and a director of the Montreal Trust Co. and the Bathurst Power & Paper Co. As a lumber company head, he served terms as president of the Canadian Lumbermen's Association, the New Brunswick Forest Products Association, and the Maritime Lumber Bureau. As a professional forester, he was president of the Canadian Forestry Association from 1941 to 1944.

Burchill was an early president of the Miramichi Hospital Board (1920-24), the main organizer and first president of the Miramichi Golf and Country Club (1925), president of the Miramichi Exhibition Association (1932-34), founding president of the Northumberland Air Observer School (1941), under which much of the activity at the Chatham airfield was conducted during World War II, a founding director of the Northumberland Co-Operative Creamery Ltd (1942), and a member of the Miramichi Historical Society and the Miramichi Folksong Festival committee. He became executive head of the Boy Scouts' Association of New Brunswick in 1968. He was a warden of St Paul's Anglican Church for more than forty years and an active Mason, being worshipful master of Northumberland Lodge in 1919.

Burchill served for a time as a county councillor and was county warden for two years. He was chairman for twelve years of the provincial Liberal Association and an unsuccessful candidate in the federal election of 1930. He held an honorary LLD degree from UNB (1941) and an honorary DCL from King's College, Halifax (1954). In 1945 he was appointed to the Senate of Canada, where he sat until his death some thirty-two years later. He was one of the most accomplished and respected persons of his time on the Miramichi and a tireless promoter of the interests of the community. He and his wife, Jean G. Garden, had one son, John G. Burchill, who was his successor in business.

Sources

[b/m] Can. Who's Who 1948 [d] Telegraph 23 Aug 1977 / Gill; Hubbard; Leader 25 Feb 1965, 22 Feb 1968; 28 May 1975; Lee, A.; MacMillan; Manny Collection (F182); NB Elections


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