Sir Frederick Arthur Stanley, the first Baron Stanley of Preston and sixteenth Earl of Derby, served as the Governor General of Canada from 1888 until 1893. An avid fan of impromptu ice-hockey games on Ottawa's Rideau Canal and on Rideau Hall's own skating rink, he is best known for having given Canada one of its most treasured and well-known national icons: the Stanley Cup, awarded to the National Hockey League championship team each year. His political actions, though eclipsed by his contribution to sport, were critical in cementing the role of the Governor General in the Dominion of Canada.
Stanley was the son of the fourteenth Earl of Derby, one Edward Stanley, who at times served as Chief Secretary of Ireland, Colonial Secretary, and Prime Minister. He was born in London on January 15, 1841; his family could date its ancestry of nobility to the second Baron Stanley, who was elevated to his position for supporting Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
After studying at both Eton College and Sandhurst, Stanley entered political life as a Member of Parliament and later a Minister in Cabinet for the Conservative party. In 1864, he married Lady Constance Villiers; they would have ten children during the course of their marriage.
Appointed to the position of Governor General of the Dominion of Canada on May 1, 1888, Stanley was sworn in on June 11 of the same year. One of his first actions was to travel to western Canada; this immediately endeared him to both the First Nations indigenous peoples of the dominion and the farmers and ranchers who felt that their concerns were largely ignored by a government centred in the east.
Stanley worked closely with then-Prime Minister John A. Macdonald until his death in office of a heart attack in 1891. He then asked that Sir John Abbot take over the office; Abbot's administration was short-lived, however, and after he resigned due to illness the position was turned over to Sir John Thompson.
Perhaps Stanley's most important achievement was that of proving that the role of the Governor General was not influenced by politics. A motion in the House of Commons called for his opposition to the Jesuit Estates Bill, passed by the provincial government of Quebec; much of the opposition in the House stemmed from the Anglophone provinces' wariness of the Roman Catholic Church which held sway in Quebec.
He refused to take a side in the issue, saying that the proposed disallowal of the bill by the House was unconstitutional -- which, of course, it was. The bill went through, and Stanley's popularity grew as both English and French Canadian politicians slowly came to realise that he had no intention of compromising the studiously neutral political stance of his position, set out in the constitution.
In 1892 at a banquet, a message from Lord Stanley was delivered to the Ottawa Amateur Athletic Association:
I have for some time been thinking that it would be a good thing if there were a challenge cup which should be held from year to year by the champion hockey team in the Dominion (of Canada).
There does not appear to be any such outward sign of a championship at present, and considering the general interest which matches now elicit, and the importance of having the game played fairly and under rules generally recognised, I am willing to give a cup which shall be held from year to year by the winning team.
Shortly after, Stanley purchased a trophy for that very purpose. For the paltry price of ten guineas, he had bought immortality in a fame that would last a century after his death.
BlakJak reminds me that Vancouver's Stanley Park, named in honour of Lord Stanley, was originally Crown land; the British government, personified in the Dominion by the Governor General, handed it over to the city in 1888 for a pittance in return for a promise that the 1000-acre area be maintained as a park, in accordance with Stanley's conservationist vision. Stanley dedicated the park in 1889.
His wife, Lady Stanley, was also a notable figure. Described by Wilfrid Laurier as "an able and witty woman", she founded a school of nursing on Rideau Street: the Lady Stanley Institute for Trained Nurses, and the first of its kind in Ottawa.
In autumn of 1893, Stanley's term as Governor General came to an end. Earlier in the year, however, his brother, the fifteenth Earl of Derby, had died; Stanley returned to England in the summer to succeed him as the sixteenth Earl of Derby, cutting his term in office short. Lord Aberdeen was sworn in to replace him as Governor General in September.
Soon after his return to England, he became the Lord Mayor of Liverpool and then the chancellor of the University of Liverpool. A dedicated philanthropist, he busied himself with charitable donations and work until his death on June 14, 1908. Lady Stanley died fourteen years later, on April 17, 1922.
Strangely, Lord Stanley never once attended a championship game. He left Canada for England before his trophy was awarded.
Sources:
http://www.gg.ca/governor_general/history/bios/stanley_e.asp
http://nhl.com/hockeyu/history/cup/cup.html
http://www.canadahistory.com/sections/politics/lordstanley.htm
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/pms/derby.html
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/pms/derby1.html
http://www.aviewoncities.com/vancouver/stanleypark.htm | 
