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The HonourableNorman McLeod RogersPC MP
Minister of National Defence
In office September 19, 1939 – June 10, 1940
Prime Minister	W. L. Mackenzie King
Preceded by	Ian Alistair Mackenzie
Succeeded by	Charles Power
Minister of Labour
In office October 23, 1935 – September 18, 1939
Prime Minister	W. L. Mackenzie King
Preceded by	Wesley Ashton Gordon
Succeeded by	Norman Alexander McLarty
Member of Parliament for Kingston City
In office October 14, 1935 – June 10, 1940
Preceded by	Arthur Edward Ross
Succeeded by	Angus Lewis Macdonald
Personal details
Born	(1894-07-25)July 25, 1894 Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada
Died	June 10, 1940(1940-06-10) (aged 45) near Newtonville, Ontario, Canada
Political party	Liberal
Spouse	Mary Francis Parker Kierstead ​ ​(m. 1924)​
Children	2
Military service
Allegiance	Canada
Branch/service	Canadian Expeditionary Force
Years of service	1914–1918
Rank	Lieutenant

Norman McLeod Rogers PC MP (July 25, 1894 – June 10, 1940) was a Canadian lawyer and statesman. He served as the Member of Parliament for Kingston, Ontario, Canada and as a cabinet minister in the government of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. He was also an early biographer of King.

Rogers was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, and served in the military during World War I. He was educated at Acadia University and in 1919 he was elected a Rhodes Scholar. He went to University College, Oxford, where he was awarded a BA Honours (MA) degree in Modern History, the B.Litt., and the BCL.

Rogers was private secretary to King from 1927 to 1929, then worked as a professor at Queen's University in Kingston. He was elected to the Parliament in 1935, and served under King as Minister of Labour until 1939, and then Minister of National Defence from 1939 until his death in 1940.

Rogers died in a plane crash on June 10, 1940, near Newtonville, Ontario, while en route from Ottawa to Toronto for a speaking engagement. On the day National Defence Minister Rogers died, Canada declared war on Italy.

Prime Minister King took the death of Rogers extremely hard. Rogers was a key Cabinet minister, and close advisor, and Canada was in the midst of World War II. The two men were friendly on a personal basis, and King may have been grooming Rogers to become his successor as prime minister.

Kingston/Norman Rogers Airport is named in his honour, as is a street in Kingston. A Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker was named after him; it has since been sold to Chile and renamed Contraalmirante Oscar Viel Toro.

Bibliography

• W. A. M., 'Obituary: Norman McLeod Rogers, 1894–1940', Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne d'Economique et de Science politique, vol. 6, no. 3 (August, 1940), pp. 476–478
• Barry Cahill (2022) The Life and Death of Norman McLeod Rogers, Newcastle UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

References

1. "Members of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada - Information Resources - Privy Council Office". www.pco-bcp.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011.
2. "Allies Take Sicily". CBC Digital Archives. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
3. Canada and the Age of Conflict, volume 2, 1981, by C. P. Stacey

External links

• Biography at Collections Canada
• Norman McLeod Rogers – Parliament of Canada biography

• 1894 births
• 1940 deaths
• Canadian military personnel from Nova Scotia
• People from Amherst, Nova Scotia
• Acadia University alumni
• Alumni of University College, Oxford
• Canadian Rhodes Scholars
• Liberal Party of Canada MPs
• Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario
• Academic staff of Queen's University at Kingston
• Accidental deaths in Ontario
• Canadian people of World War II
• Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Canada
• Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1940
• 20th-century Canadian lawyers
• Canadian Expeditionary Force officers
• 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada