Lord Earl Grey, the Governor General of Canada, donated a trophy to be awarded for the Dominion Football Championship of Canada.
Prime Minister Robert Borden, stated that "up to this time Nova Scotia hardly regarded itself as included in the Canadian Confederation... The rebellion evoked a new sprit... The Riel Rebellion did more to unite Nova Scotia with the rest of Canada than any event that had occurred since Confederation." Similarly, in 1907 Governor General Earl Grey declared, "This Battalion... went out Nova Scotians, they returned Canadians."
Its origin probably traces as far back as an inaugural 1908 festival in Edmonton, where Governor General Earl Grey advocated the establishment of music festivals throughout Canada's provinces.
Piles began to be drilled for the foundations during the autumn of 1908 and in 1909 the Governor General of Canada, the Earl Grey, laid the cornerstone.
In October 1909, Canadian governor general the Earl Grey was on hand to lay the cornerstone of the Saskatchewan Legislature, which Premier Scott had recently decided should be made out of Tyndall stone.
Speakers at its events in its early years included President William Howard Taft, Andrew Carnegie, Earl Grey and various governors of New York.
Albert Einstein | Royal Albert Hall | Grey's Anatomy | Victoria and Albert Museum | Albert Camus | Prince Albert | Albert Park | James Earl Jones | Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex | Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma | Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener | Albert Speer | Albert Schweitzer | Albert, Prince Consort | Grey Cup | Earl | Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts | Albert Campion | Earl of Derby | Earl Warren | Earl of Pembroke | Albert | Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer | Earl of Warwick | Zane Grey | Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford | Grey Heron | Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby | Earl of Shrewsbury | Albert Park, Victoria |
There were several appeals to Ottawa and a last-minute plea to Governor General Earl Grey who, on the advice of the Privy Council, declined commutation.