Desbarats, George-Joseph, 1861-1944 : George J. Desbarats (1861-1944) Born in Quebec, in 1861, son of Georges Edouard Desbarats and Lucie Anne Bossé. He graduated with honours from L'école polytechnique, Montreal, and in 1879, at the age of eighteen, he went straight to the Service of Dominion Government as an assistant engineer in the Department of Railways and Canals. He took part in the design and construction of some of the most important sections of the Canada's canal system such as Carillon Canal, the locks at Ste. Anne de Bellevue, the Canadian Locks at Sault Ste. Marie, and the Welland and Soulanges Canals. In 1892 he was appointed an inspector of railways in British Columbia. Four years later, he joined a firm of contractors on the building of the Galops Canal. In 1898, Georges-Joseph Desbarats married Lilian Scott, daughter of political leader Sir Richard W. Scott and Mary Anne Heron. He then returned to government service and took charge of a hydrographic survey of the St. Lawrence river, after which he was appointed director of the government shypyard at Sorel, Quebec, for the Department of Marine and Fisheries and responsible for its reconstruction and operation. In 1907, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Marine and Fisheries and from 1910 until 1922, he became the first Deputy Minister and Controller of the new Department of Naval Service with heavy responsibilities during the Wolrd War 1. His Department acted as agent in Canada for the British Admiralty and was involved in the construction of many ships and the supply of their crews, organized the Royal Canadian Naval Air Service and built defensive air stations for Maritime harbours. Desbarats represented the Canadian government in 1912 at the Radio Telegraph Conference in London, and in 1920 at Seamen's Conference of the League of Nations. In 1923, the Government established a Department of National Defense to merge the land, sea and air services with Desbarats as its first Deputy minister. Among other responsabilities, the Department surveyed air routes, constructed airports and the safety and communications services between them, and radio links with the Far North.
Desbarats joined Canadian Society of Civil Engineer (CSCE) (which will become the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) in 1917), as a member in 1897 and served on councils of the Society and the Institute several times Her served as chairman of the Ottawa branch in 1931 and was elected to honorary membership of the EIC in 1936 before becoming the 49th president IEC in 1937, the semi-centennial year of the Institute.
In 1915, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) in recognition of his work during the World War 1 as Deputy Minister of the Department of Naval Service. He received a B.A. Sc. from Laval University in 1901. He received an Honorary Degree of Engineering from Université de Montréal in 1943, the Julian C. Medal in 1943, the Medal for their Majesties Coronation in 1937 and an honorary doctorate for University of Windsor, Ontario.
Georges Joseph Desbarats died in April 1944 in Ottawa.
See : The Canadian Who's Who, 1938-1939 and Andrew H. Wilson, The second fifty Years: EIC presidential biographies, 1937-1987 (Extended to 2010 Part One, February 2010.
