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Hugh McLennan (no relation to Hugh MacLennan the Canadian novelist) was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, third child of five and only son of wealthy industrialist John Stewart McLennan. With the exception of a few years in Boston starting in 1894, the family lived in Cape Breton and on their Montreal estate, “Petersfield,” built in Westmount in 1902. Summers were always spent in Louisbourg, Cape Breton, where his father was passionately interested in the history of the fort there. Hugh went to McGill University from 1905 to 1907 for a degree in architecture, probably staying downtown with his father’s sister, Isabella, “Aunt Belle” in his grandfather’s home at 50 Ontario Street; she donated over a million dollars to McGill, enough for construction of the library that bears her name. In 1912 his mother died of appendicitis. In January of 1915, his father remarried with Grace Seely Henon, widow of an Egyptologist.
Hugh eventually headed to Paris to study at the École des Beaux Arts before enlisting in the Canadian Army. He became a sergeant in the Fifth Battery, Second Brigade of the Canadian Field Artillery. While in France, he wrote a diary and many letters home which are now in the library at the University of British Columbia, along with a letter from his cousin Durie describing his last days. In May of that year Hugh, was killed by enemy shell fire while taking part in operations near St. Jean northeast of Ypres in Belgium. In 1918, his uncle Bart (Lt. Col. Bartlett McLennan, brother of his father), who had been awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his services during the Battle of Ypres, was killed near Amiens in France during a personal reconnaissance mission over land that was to be attacked in a few days. Years later, in 1929, Hugh’s family established the Hugh McLennan Memorial Travelling Scholarship to be granted to an outstanding graduating architecture student at McGill.

A lawyer, Francis McLennan was one of the founders of the McLennan Travelling Libraries. He was a Governor's Fellow from 1905 to 1918 and a Governor of McGill University from 1917 to 1931.

The McLennan Family of Loretteville and Montréal arrived in Canada in 1802 from Scotland. Hugh Stewart McLennan was a Montréal businessman, active in the grain trade for many years. He founded the McLennan travelling libraries to provide library facilities to western Canada in cooperation with clergy and teachers. Of his thirteen children, two of the better-known were William, a notary and writer and Isabella, a benefactor of McGill University.