Henry Grattan Nolan, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetHenry Grattan Nolan
Canadian judge
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
About Henry Grattan Nolan
- Henry Grattan Nolan, (May 5, 1893 – July 8, 1957) was a Canadian lawyer and jurist.
- He was the first Albertan appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. Nolan was born in Calgary, Northwest Territories (now in Alberta), the son of Patrick James "Paddy" Nolan, a criminal defence lawyer, and Mary Elizabeth Lee.
- According to his friend, Ronald Martland, who succeeded him on the Supreme Court, Nolan did not have a good relationship with his father, possibly because of his father's struggles with alcohol.
- Martland said that Nolan "very seldom ever spoke of his father", who had not treated Nolan's mother well.
- Nolan was determined not to follow the path set by his father.
- Nolan's wife stated that Nolan's father had not had any sort of relationship with Nolan, and had not even answered Nolan's schoolboy letters.Nolan received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Alberta in 1914 and was awarded a Rhodes scholarship for Alberta in 1915.
- However, he enlisted in the army during World War I and received a Military Cross in 1918 for his service.
- He was wounded at Cambrai, in France. After the war, he received a second Bachelor of Arts in 1921 from University College, Oxford.
- He was called to the English and Alberta bars.
- He returned to Calgary to practice law, as an associate with the firm of Bennett, Hannah & Sanford, founded by Richard Bedford Bennett. In 1928, he married Doris Margery McCarter.
- They had two daughters, Moira and Shelagh. During World War II, he served with the Canadian Army, becoming a Vice-Judge Advocate General with the rank of brigadier.
- From 1945 to 1948, he was a prosecutor before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East at Tokyo.
- He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1946. On March 1, 1956, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada and served barely a year until his death in 1957 at the age of 64.
Read more at Wikipedia