F. Cyril James, McGill's 11th principal, was installed in January 1940.
The 1940s were also the beginning of the reign of Frank Cyril James as McGill's eleventh principal. James oversaw so many events and changes during his years at McGill that we have devoted a separate section to him. One of his many duties during the war years included a hastily arranged ceremony at the Convocation in Quebec City in 1944, at which McGill bestowed honorary degrees on Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt. James was notified at four p.m., September 15, that the degrees would be awarded the next day at three p.m.
"There was an animated to-do in the administration offices when we learned that the University would confer honorary degrees upon President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill at the Quebec Citadel the following afternoon," wrote University Registrar T.H. Matthews in the Winter 1944 issue of the News. "There were so many things to be done so quickly.... The Principal, in addition to supervising the general preparations and making the arrangements with the Prime Minister who was to be our host, had also to prepare introductions for two of the three most important men alive, and these introductions are not simple things to write."
The 1940s also saw the loss of McGill's most legendary faculty member, Stephen Leacock, eight years after being forced by the University to retire at age 65. While very sick, Leacock found time and strength enough to write a message to the graduating class of '44. The note accompanying his message to the president of the Graduates' Society read, "I sat down to explain that the state of my health forbid me to write more than a couple of sentences -- but I found that like all professors I couldn't be brief if I tried." He died shortly afterward, on the 28th of March, 1944.
