Joseph Pope (public servant)


Sir Joseph Pope was a Canadian public servant. He was Private Secretary to Sir John A. Macdonald from 1882 to 1891 and Assistant Clerk to the Privy Council & Under Secretary of State for Canada from 1896 to 1926. From 1909 to 1925, he was the first permanent under-secretary of State for External Affairs.
Pope was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George during the visit to Canada of TRH the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York in October 1901.
He was later knighted as a Knight Commander of the same order.
He married Marie-Louise-Joséphine-Henriette Taschereau in Rivière-du-Loup, Que. on Oct 15, 1884. They had five sons and a daughter.
Pope's life story was edited and completed by his son Maurice Arthur Pope, and was published as "Public servant: the memoirs of Sir Joseph Pope". Sir Joseph tells the story of his conversion to the Roman Catholic faith in Why I Became a Catholic, published privately in 1921, and republished by Ignatius Press in 2001.