Personal Life
Walsh married Bessie Amelia McVittie at Barrie, Ontario on November 14, 1883. The couple had 2 children: Marguerite "Greta" Clare (1886–1913) and Legh Aquila (1895–1938). His daughter Marguerite married Dr. George Robinson Pirie (1879–1938), a prominent children's doctor and member of the Royal College of Physicians (1931). They were married in Calgary on April 14, 1909. Dr. Pirie was Superintendent of the Great Ormond Street children's hospital in England from 1914-1919. They had one child, Miss Margaret Walsh Pirie (Mrs. R. O. Funston). Legh Walsh enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I and served the duration of the war. At the time of his enlistment he described his occupation as law student. He became a Lieutenant in the 82nd Battalion in May 1916. He was wounded at Courcelette in 1916, returned briefly to Calgary, and then sailed back to the front. After the war he returned to Calgary in April 1919 and resumed his law studies. After being called to the Law Society of Alberta in 1920, he was created a King's Counsel and made secretary of the Law Society of Alberta in 1932. Bessie Walsh died after a long illness in 1925. William Legh Walsh later married Bertha Main Barber, widower of a Royal Navy Commander, on April 22, 1931.
Walsh enjoyed many activities in his free time. While living in the Yukon, he was a member of a curling team that won the Yukon championship. In Calgary, Walsh was a member of the Calgary Golf and Country Club, and, 1907 served as the first president of the Canadian Club of Calgary. An avid golfer, Walsh founded a seniors' golf tournament named for him that still is held presently, alternatively in Edmonton and Calgary.
In 1931, he was made an honourary chief, "Sitting Eagle (Pee'topi)" of the Blood Nation First Nations tribe. He received an honourary Doctor of Laws degree and an honourary rank of Colonel of the University of Alberta Contingent of the Canadian Officers' Training Corps from the University of Alberta in 1932. In 1934, he was admitted as a Knight of Grace of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. Additionally, in 1981, the City of Edmonton named Walsh Crescent, in a southwestern part of the city after the former Lieutenant Governor.
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