John Wendell Holmes (Photo retrieved from Toronto Star)

John Holmes was born in London, Ontario, in 1910 and was educated at the University of Western Ontario.He took his Master of Arts at the University of Toronto and did graduate studies in history at the University of London. From 1941 to 1943, he was National Secretary of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs.

In 1943, Mr. Holmes joined the Department of External Affairs. While in the foreign service he was First Secretary in London, Chargé d’affaires in Moscow, Acting Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Permanent External Affairs member of the directing staff, National Defence College, Kingston, and Assistant Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs in which capacity he supervised the work of the Far Eastern, United Nations, and Commonwealth Divisions.

In 1960, he left the public service to become President of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs. In 1964, his title was changed to that of Directorr General. He relinquished that position in 1973 but was still associated with the Institute as Counsellor. He was a Visiting Professor of international Relations at the University of Toronto from 1967 until his death. 

Mr. Holmes was the chairman of the editorial board for the Department of External Affairs History Project from 1964 until his death. He was a member of the board of trustees of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (1967-76), on the council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (1965-75), a member of the United Nations Advisory Board on Disarmament Studies (1978-83), and chairman of the Selection Committee for Professorships of Military and Strategic Studies, National Defence Canada (1973-79). He was Professor of International Relations at York University, Glendon College (1971-81), and, during the 1980-81 academic year, Claude T. Bissell Visiting Professor of Canadian-American Relations at the University of Toronto. During the autumn 1979 and summer 1985 terms he was a Visiting Professor of History at the University of Leeds, Great Britain.

In 1969, he was made an officer of the Order of Canada; in 1973, he received an honorary LL.D. from the University of Western Ontario, in 1975, from the University of New Brunswick, in 1976, from the University of Waterloo, in 1981, from York University, in 1983, from St. Lawrence and Carleton Universities, in 1985, from Trent University, and in 1986, from St. Francis Xavier University; in 1977, he received an honorary DCL from Acadia University and in 1980, an honorary D. Litt. from the University of Windsor. In 1977, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and in 1981, a member of the Class of 1842 of Pickering College. In 1986, he received the Tyrrell Medal from the Royal Society of Canada.

He wrote articles on Canadian foreign policy and on international organization in Foreign Affairs, International Organization, International Journal, Queen’s Quarterly, The Observer, The Times, The Round Table, Le Devoir, Atlantic Community Quarterly, Politique étrangère, Études internationales, Survival, Canadian Banker, The World Today, Canadian Business, Pacific Affairs, Pacific Community, Orbis, Worldview, Saturday Night, International Perspectives, Foreign Policy, among others.

Mr. Holmes contributed to the following scholarly volumes: Africa and World Order (Praeger 1963); The United States and Canada (Prentice-Hall 1964); NATO in Quest of Cohesion (Praeger 1965); Peacekeeping: Experience and Evaluation (McGraw-Hill 1965); China and the Peace of Asia (Chatto and Windus 1965); Policies towards China: Views from Six Continents (McGraw-Hill 1965); Canada’s Role as a Middle Power (CIIA 1966); A Decade of the Commonwealth 1955-1964 (Duke 1966); Peace, Power and Protest (Ryerson 1967); The United Nations Political System (Wiley 1968); War and Society in North America (Nelson 1971); The Star Spangled Beaver (Peter Martin 1971); A Nation Observed: Perspectives on America’s World Role (Potomac Associates 1974); Britain and Canada: Survey of a Changing Relationship (Frank Cass 1976); The Changing United Nations: Options for the United States (Academy of Political Science 1977); International Law and Canadian Foreign Policy in the 1980s (Ottawa 1982); And he Loved Big Brother: Man, State and Society in Question (MacMillan for the Council of Europe 1985). 

He was the author of The Better Part of Valour: Essays on Canadian Diplomacy (Carleton Library Series, McClelland & Stewart 1970); Canada: A middle-Aged Power (Carleton Library Series, McClelland & Stewart 1976); The Shaping of Peace: Canada and the Search for World Order 1943-1957 (2 vols., University of Toronto Press 1979, 1982); Life with Uncle: the Canadian-American Relationship (University of Toronto Press 1981).

He died in August 1988 after a courageous fight with cancer.