Gilbert Parker

Sir Gilbert Parker (1862-1932) was born in Camden East, Ontario, and built his career in London as a novelist, journalist and Conservative Member of Parliament. His reputation rested on fiction set in French Canada and on the Canadian frontier, beginning with the story collection Pierre and His People (1892) and the bestselling historical novel The Seats of the Mighty (1896). During the First World War he directed British propaganda aimed at American opinion, work that drew sharp criticism in later years. He was knighted in 1902 and made a baronet in 1915.