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LEVEL OF DESCRIPTION: Fonds
No.: PR0813
TITLE: Charles Coursolles McCaul fonds
CREATOR: McCaul, Charles Coursolles
DATE RANGE: 1899-1925, predominant 1921-1925
EXTENT: 0.15 m of textual records. - 1 photograph
ADMINISTRATIVE
HISTORY/BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Charles Coursolles (C.C.) McCaul was born in Toronto, Ontario, on 17 February 1858. He earned his law degree at Osgoode Hall in 1883, and later that year made his way west to Fort Macleod, North-West Territories. Over the next 24 years he moved a number of times, and practiced law in several provinces, states and territories, before settling in Edmonton, Alberta in 1907. He remained active in the legal profession until 1927, working for several firms including Friedman and Lieberman (1920-1925) and Stanton and Smith (1926). McCaul died in Edmonton in 1928. Over the course of his 43-year legal career McCaul developed a reputation for being one of the best attorneys in Western Canada. McCaul was granted designation as Queen’s Counsel in 1890, and he twice pled cases before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) in London, England – one being the defence of the Nat Bell Liquor Company. This was a high profile case relating to the province’s liquor prohibition laws of the early 1920s. McCaul was actively engaged in the activities of the Alberta Bar Association, and he was a prolific writer and editor of legal works. He also took a keen interest in all matters dealing with the law, history, current affairs and natural history, writing extensively on the latter.
CUSTODIAL HISTORY:Accession PR1971.0338 was donated by Naomi Radford. Radford was the daughter of Balmer Watt, a longtime friend of McCaul. McCaul gave or bequeathed the diary to Watt, who in turn left it to his daughter. Radford loaned the diary to the Provincial Archives of Alberta in November 1968, and donated it to the Archives in 1971. The copy print and negative of Charles Coursolles McCaul located in accession PR1973.0199 were made from an original portrait loaned to the Archives by former Chief Justice of Alberta, the Honourable S. Bruce Smith. Smith received the original from Frank J. Newson’s law firm. Accession PR1976.0237 was deposited in the Archives by Mr. Frank Newson. Newson came into possession of these items having joined, and eventually risen to the position of senior partner of, the same law firm McCaul once worked for.
SCOPE AND CONTENT: The fonds consists of records dating from 1899 to 1925 which relate to McCaul’s business and social affairs and includes a diary, appeal books, briefing documents, opening addresses, petitions, and a photographic copy of a portrait.
RELATED RECORDS: A photograph of C.C. McCaul is located in accession PR1973.199 of the Bruce S. Smith fonds. The Provincial Archives of Alberta also holds the records of F. J. Newson, as well as the records of McCaul and Newson’s legal associate, Moses I. Lieberman.
GENERAL NOTE: This fonds was donated at the same time, and in the same accession as the following unrelated fonds: Frank Jost Newson fonds (PR0814). Information in the biographical sketch was taken from Ridge, Alan D. “C.C. McCaul, Pioneer Lawyer,” in Alberta Historical Review, vol. 21, no. 1, Winter 1973, p. 21-5.
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