The Earl of Athlone, Canada's sixteenth Governor General was the second member f the Royal Family to occupy the vice-regal post.

Born on April 14th, 1874, Alexander Augustus Frederick William Alfred George Cambridge was the third son of the Duke of Teck and Her Royal Highness Princess Mary, daughter of the Duke of Cambridge.

Educated at Eton and the Military College at Sandhurst, Athlone made soldiering his career. He won distinction and high honours in the Matebeleland African campaign; in the South African War and the First World War.

Named Governor General of Canada in 1914, he refused the post because of the outbreak of war. In 1923, he was made Governor General of South Africa and served until 1930, a total of seven years, and later became Governor and Constable of Windsor Castle. He was re-appointed to Canada and took office on June 21, 1940.

With the world in the throes of the second great war, much of his early activities were in connection with Canada's war effort, which he supported with a wisdom born of wide experience and a constant optimism in the outcome of the struggle.

Like his predecessors Athlone studied Canada intimately through constant travel . He visited President Roosevelt at Hyde Park in 1940 and again in 1945, he and the Countess, Princess Alice, a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, were guests of the White House at a State Dinner. They were probably the last distinguished visitors to meet President Roosevelt, who died a few days later of a stroke.

Momentous events were crowded into Athlone's tenure, mostly associated with the war and the comings and goings of leaders, including the two Churchill-Roosevelt war conferences held in the Citadel in Quebec, the summer residence of the Governor General.