Background
PARKIN, George Robert was born on February 8, 1846 in Salisbury, New Brunswick.
PARKIN, George Robert was born on February 8, 1846 in Salisbury, New Brunswick.
Studied at British School, Eston. Glasgow University; Sunderland College. Bachelor of Divinity.
Born at Parkindale near Salisbury, New Brunswick, he was a graduate from the University of New Brunswick. From 1867 to 1871, he taught at the Bathurst Grammar School. From 1872 to 1889, he was the headmaster of the Fredericton Collegiate School, where the poets Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, and Francis Sherman came under his influence.
From 1895 to 1902, he was the headmaster of Upper Canada College.
He was the organizing secretary of the Rhodes Trust (1902–1922) and the Toronto Round Table Group (1910–1922). Lord Milner was an ardent admirer of Parkin"s imperial ideas.
He was the author of Imperial Federation: The Problem of National Unity (1892) and a school textbook, Round the Empire. He was the maternal grandfather of the philosopher George Grant.
The former Liberal Party of Canada leader Michael Ignatieff is his great-grandson.
His portrait hangs at Rhodes House, Oxford, besides that of Cecil Rhodes and another Canadian, John MacBain.
Club: Royal Societies.
Spouse 1878, Annie Connell,daughter of William Fisher of Fredericton.