Chapais, Sir Thomas

Related Category: Canadian History: Biographies

(shäpā´), 1858–1946, Canadian politician and historian, b. Quebec prov.; son of Jean Charles Chapais (1811–85). Thomas Chapais became professor of history at Laval Univ. He was appointed to the legislative council of Quebec in 1892, became speaker in 1895, and president of the executive council in 1896. In 1919 he was appointed to the Canadian Senate, and in 1930 he represented Canada in the Assembly of the League of Nations. He served as a cabinet minister in 1897 and from 1936 to 1939. A noted French Canadian historian, his most important works were his biographies Jean Talon (1904), The Great Intendant (1914), and Montcalm (1911), and his Cours d'histoire du Canada (8 vol., 1919–34). He was knighted in 1935.