Alexander Gunn

Gunn, Alexander, M.P. for the City of Kingston, Ontario, is a Scotchman by birth, and came to Canada with his parents when a mere lad. He was born at Brims, Caithness-shire, Scotland, on the 5th of October, 1828. His father was James Gunn, who carried on farming and contracting in Caithness, and his mother was Janet Shearer. Both parents died many years ago, and left a family of two sans and three daughters, all of whom, with the exception of one daughter, still survive. Alexander, the eldest, received his early education at Forss parish school in Caithness, and finished in Kingston, where his parents first resided in coming to. this country. Mr. Gunn began his career in the grocery business, with John Carruthers, in Kingston, and has kept steadily at this branch of business, until he may now be considered a prince of the trade. Being a public-spirited gentleman, he was induced by his many friends and admirers to offer himself as candidate for the House of Commons for the city in which he had spent nearly all his life; he consented, and at the general elections of 1878, was elected, defeating no less a personage than Sir John A. Macdonald, who had held Kingston as a "pocket borough" for a great number of years. Mr. Gunn was again elected at the last general election, and as time moves on he seems to become a greater favourite than ever with his friends of the Limestone City. In politics he has always been a steadfast Liberal, and it makes his election victories all the more important that he not alone defeated the Conservative chief, as we have already seen, but defeated him in the very centre of old Torydom. Mr. Gunn married, on the 13th October, 1864, at Kingston, Angelique Agnes Matthews, daughter of the late Robert Matthews.