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Nolan, Henry GrattanNolan, Henry Grattan
808 Royal Avenue SW
Demolished: 1964

1895-1957
Henry Grattan Nolan was born in Calgary in 1895 to Patrick and Elizabeth Nolan. During his lifetime, the younger Nolan surpassed the achievements of his famous trial lawyer father "Paddy." Henry graduated from the University of Alberta in 1914 and was awarded a Rhodes scholarship for Alberta in 1915. World War I temporarily delayed Nolan’s education. He served with the 49th Canadian Battalion in France until he was wounded at Cambrai and awarded the Military Cross in 1918.

At the end of the war Nolan returned to his studies. In 1922 he graduated from Oxford University and was called to the English and Alberta Bar. He returned to Alberta and joined a law firm where R.B. Bennett, his father’s former rival, was a senior partner. In 1928, Nolan married Doris Margery McCarter of Calgary. They had two daughters, Moira and Shelagh.

Nolan practiced with Bennett’s firm until the beginning of World War II. During this conflict he served with the Canadian Active Army (1940-1948) rising swiftly in the ranks to become Vice-Judge Advocate General with the rank of Brigadier. After the war, Nolan served as a Prosecutor for Canada before the International Military Tribunal for the Trial of War Criminals in the Far East at Tokyo from 1945 to 1948. For his services Nolan was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1946.

After his work in the Far East was completed Nolan returned to his Royal Avenue home in Calgary and his private law practice. In 1956 he became the first Alberta lawyer appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. He died at Banff, Alberta on July 8, 1957.

 

 

 

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