Dr. Armour is minister emeritus of The Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul on Sherbrooke Street - offspring congregations of the original Scotch Kirk on St. Gabriel’s Street, founded in 1792. Just to step outside his former church (incidentally the regimental church of The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada) is to learn something of the Scottish contribution to the city of Montreal. To the west, Mackay Street named for Donald Mackay, an early fur trader; and Simpson Street, named for Sir George Simpson, governor of the Hudson Bay Company. The church is on Redpath Street, which once led to the home of sugar magnate John Redpath, whose son Peter gave to McGill the Redpath Museum and the Redpath Library. Amy Redpath lived across the street from the church in a gracious home with trees and green grass, now obliterated by the Port Royal. Amy gave the Roddick Gates at McGill, in memory of her husband, a Newfoundland Scot from Harbour Grace. To the east of the church, there is Drummond Street, named for John Redpath’s wife, McTavish Street and Hutchison Street. And that’s only the streets! Think of the institutions – Trafalgar School for Girls, The Museum of Fine Arts, Ogilvy’s, the Montreal General, to say nothing of James McGill’s university, made famous by another Scot, Sir William Dawson - its buildings given by men whose names were McLellan, Macdonald, Strathcona and Mount Stephen. And behind the church is the Golden Square Mile, once home to the wealth of the Dominion, largely peopled by Scots. Historians speak of the Anglo Ascendency – Scoto might be more accurate, as you will hear.

J.S.S. Armour holds degrees from the Universities of Toronto, Edinburgh, Memorial and Union Theological Seminary, New York City, as well as an honorary doctorate from Presbyterian College, Montreal. He is the author of three books and edited histories of the Royal Montreal Curling Club; Presbyterian College, Montreal; and the Dissenting Church of Christ in St. John’s, Newfoundland. On retirement from St. Andrew and St. Paul in 2000, he wisely moved to Beaconsfield.

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