Date Published:
July 2007

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Sir Gordon Drummond

Drummond, Sir Gordon (1771-1854), administrator of Upper Canada (1813-15) and of Canada (1815-16), was born in Quebec in 1771, the youngest son of Colin Drummond, paymaster-general of the forces in Lower Canada. He entered the British army in 1789 as an ensign in the First Regiment of Foot, and rose rapidly in rank, becoming in 1794 lieutenant-colonel commanding the Eighth Regiment. He served throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars; and in 1813 he was appointed second-in-command to Sir George Prevost in Canada, having attained in 1811 the rank of lieutenant-general. He commanded on the Niagara frontier during the winter of 1813-4 and the summer of 1814, and was wounded at Lundy's Lane. In the autumn of 1814 he was ordered to Quebec, to succeed Prevost as commander-in-chief, and to assume the administration of the Canadas. He returned to England in 1816, and in 1826 he was promoted to be full general. His later years were spent in retirement, and he died in London, England, on October 10, 1854. In 1809 he married Margaret, daughter of William Russell, of Brancipath Castle, Durham; and by her he had two sons and one daughter. He was created a K.C.B. in 1815 and a G.C.B. in 1817.

Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411pp., p. 237.