George McKinnon Wrong

Born in Grovesend, Elgin County, on June 25, 1860, he studied at the University of Toronto and Wycliffe College, and was ordained in the Church of England in 1883. After further study in England and Germany, he returned to Canada and built a career that joined religious training with a deep interest in history.

He became the first Professor of Modern History at the University of Toronto in the 1890s and is widely remembered as one of the people who helped establish professional historical scholarship in Canada. His work often focused on New France, the British Empire, and the making of Canada, and he wrote in a way meant to connect the past to public life.

Among his best-known books are The Conquest of New France, The Fall of Canada, and The Rise and Fall of New France. He died in Toronto on June 29, 1948, leaving behind a major influence on how Canadian history was taught and written in the early twentieth century.