Opened in 1852, Mount Royal Cemetery is a 165-acre (67 ha) terraced cemetery on the north slope of Mount Royal in the borough of Outremont, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The burial ground shares the mountain with the much larger adjacent Roman Catholic cemetery, Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges. Mount Royal Cemetery is now bordered on the southeast by Mount Royal Park, on the west by Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery and on the north by two Jewish cemeteries.
Although the cemetery is non-denominational today, it continues to be governed by its original charter with a board of trustees representing the founding Protestant denominations.
The cemetery is a private non-profit organization. Burial rights have always been offered in perpetuity, with the commitment that no graves would ever be reused or abandoned. The founding charter stipulates that all profits should be entirely devoted to the embellishment and improvement of the property.
Mount Royal Cemetery is in operation and even the old portion of the cemetery still has some burial sites available.
The cemetery contains 459 war graves of Commonwealth service personnel, 276 from World War I and 183 from World War II, most of which form two War Plots in Section G. A Cross of Sacrifice stands on the boundary with Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery.
Military graves at Mount Royal did not take significance until World War I, when Canada lost over 60 000 soldiers. After this event, the population of the city started looking toward public memory more seriously, and gave an entire section to war veterans and fallen soldiers.
The first crematory in Canada was built by Sir Andrew Taylor in 1901 on the eastern side of the Mount Royal Cemetery property with funds donated by Sir William Christopher Macdonald, a well-known tobacco tycoon and great philanthropist. This building is the oldest of its kind in the country and it remained the only crematorium in Quebec until 1975. The first cremation took place on April 18, 1902.
Built with Montreal limestone, the original building had a chapel, a room for the cremation chambers, a large winter storage vault and a conservatory filled with exotic plants. In the 1950s, for maintenance reasons, the conservatory was demolished but the original chapel, on the left of the building, is still intact with a beautiful hand made mosaic floor.
A few of the prominent people interred in the cemetery are:
Sir John Abbott (1821–1893), Prime Minister of CanadaSir Hugh Allan (1810–1882), financier and shipping magnateSir Montagu Allan (1860–1951), businessman, Hockey Hall of Fame memberRichard Bladworth Angus (1831–1922), bankerWilliam Thomas Benson (1824–1885), businessman, politicianFrank Calder (1877–1943), National Hockey League executiveWilliam Clark-Kennedy (1879–1961), Scotland born Victoria Cross recipientSir Arthur Currie (1875–1933), First World War military commander, educatorJ. William Dawson (1820–1899), scientist, educatorGeorge Mercer Dawson (1849–1901), scientistWilliam Dow (1800–1868), brewer and businessmanSir George Alexander Drummond (1829–1910), entrepreneurWilliam Henry Drummond (1854–1907), Irish-Canadian poet, doctorEdith Maude Eaton (1865–1914), author, a.k.a. "Sui Sin Far"Charles Edward Frosst (1867–1948), pharmaceuticals manufacturerSir Alexander Galt (1817–1893), businessman, statesman, Father Of ConfederationHoratio Gates (1777–1834), businessman, statesmanSamuel Gerrard (1767–1857), businessmanHugh Graham, 1st Baron Atholstan (1848–1938), newspaper publisherJoseph Guibord, (1809–1869), printer, was temporarily interred for six years at Mount Royal, pending litigation about his ultimate burial in Notre-Dame des Neiges Cemetery in 1875Charles Melville Hays (1856–1912), Grand Trunk Railway executive and Titanic victimCharles Heavysege (1816–1876), author, poetSir Herbert Holt (1856–1941), financierC. D. Howe (1886–1960), American-born politician and engineerAnna Leonowens (1834–1915), Governess at the Court of Siam, founder of Nova Scotia College of Art and DesignSir William C. Macdonald (1831–1917), tobacco manufacturer, philanthropistJohn Wilson McConnell (1877–1963), publisher, philanthropistDavid Ross McCord (1844–1930), lawyer, philanthropic founder of the McCord MuseumPeter McGill (1789–1860), businessman, municipal politicianDuncan McIntyre (1834–1894), businessmanRobert Mackay (1840–1916), businessman, statesmanCharles Meredith (1854–1928), President of the Montreal Stock ExchangeFrederick Edmund Meredith (1862–1941), Chancellor of Bishop's UniversitySir Vincent Meredith (1850–1929), 1st Baronet of Montreal, President of the Bank of MontrealWilliam Campbell James Meredith (1904–1960), Dean of Law at McGill UniversityShadrach Minkins (c. 1815 – 1875), American-born fugitive slave rescued from federal custody in Boston in 1851.Hartland Molson (1907–2002), brewing magnate, World War II fighter pilot, statesmanJohn Molson (1763–1836), brewing tycoonHowie Morenz (1902–1937), Hall of Fame ice hockey playerHenry Morgan (1819–1893), opened first department store in CanadaArthur Deane Nesbitt (1910–1978), decorated soldier of World War II, stockbrokerArthur J. Nesbitt (1880–1954), cofounder of Nesbitt Thomson & Co. and Power Corporation of CanadaJ. Aird Nesbitt (1907–1985), owner/operator of Ogilvy's department store in MontrealWilliam Notman (1826–1891), photographer and businessmanAlexander Walker Ogilvie (1829–1902), miller, statesmanWilliam Watson Ogilvie (1835–1900) millerFrank L. Packard (1877–1942), mystery writerJohn Redpath (1796–1869), contractor, built the first sugar refinery in CanadaRobert Wilson Reford (1867–1951), shipping executive, artist, photographerMordecai Richler (1931–2001), authorAnne Savage (1896–1971), painter and art teacherF. R. Scott (1899–1985), scholarFrancis Scrimger (1880–1937), physician, Victoria Cross recipientDenis Stairs (1889–1980), Chairman, Montreal Engineering Co.George Washington Stephens (1832–1904), businessman, lawyer, politician, philanthropistDavid Thompson (1770–1857), surveyor and explorerDavid Torrance (1805–1876), merchant, bankerJohn Torrance (1786–1870), merchant, shipperJocelyn Gordon Whitehead(Unknown–1954), the man who sucker punched Harry Houdini who died of the injury.Thomas Workman (1813–1889), businessman, politician, philanthropistWilliam Workman (1807–1878), businessman and municipal politicianWalter P. Zeller (1890–1957), founder of Zellers.Sir Mortimer Barnett Davis (1866–1928), businessman and philanthropistSimon McTavish (1750–1804), businessman
