Bennett, Richard Bedford Bennett, Viscount

Bennett (of Mickleham and of Calgary and Hopewell), Richard Bedford Bennett, Viscount

(born July 3, 1870, Hopewell, N.B., Can.—died June 27, 1947, Mickleham, Surrey, Eng.) Canadian prime minister (1930–35). Bennett was admitted to the bar in 1893 and practiced in New Brunswick. He then moved west and served in the legislatures of the Northwest Territories and Alberta and in the Canadian House of Commons (1911). He was named director general of national service (1916) and later minister of justice (1921). He became head of the Conservative Party in 1927 and, promising relief from the Great Depression, prime minister in 1930. But he underestimated the severity of the crisis, and his measures were ineffective. He was defeated by the Liberals under W.L. Mackenzie King. In 1939 he retired to England, where he was made a viscount in 1941.