Official Website of Author and Historian
Christopher McCreery holds a doctorate in Canadian political history from Queen’s University and is the author of nearly twenty books, including two Canadian best sellers. He has served as the Private Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia since 2009 and was responsible for setting up and organizing Government House following the restoration of the building.
One of the Commonwealth’s foremost experts on the vice-regal offices, honours, and symbols, and he is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. In 2010 he was invested as a Member of the Royal Victorian Order by The Queen at Government House.
From 2012 to 2018 he served on the Board Trustees of the Canadian Museum of History & Canadian War Museum. During that time in addition to sitting on the Executive, Governance, Finance and Development Committees, along with Professor Michael Bliss, OC, FRSC, and Richard Gywn, OC, he was a member of the Canadian History Hall Working Group, which along with Museum of History Staff, helped bring together the Canada History Hall, which was launched on Canada Day 2017.
In his professional capacity he has co-coordinated a number of Royal and Vice-Regal visits to Nova Scotia and regular advises on matters related to the operation of official residences and protocol. In 2010, McCreery was appointed by the prime minister to serve on the Governor General Expert Advisory Committee – a panel of six people selected to advise on the appointment of a new Governor General.
Dr. McCreery has served as the advisor to the Federal Government and a number of other governments on matters related to honours. In 2011 McCreery was commissioned to undertake a comprehensive review of the Canadian Honours System for the Privy Council Office. This resulted in the report Preserving Prestige and Enhancing the Recognition of Excellence: A Review of the Canadian Honours System. In 2015 he was subsequently commissioned by the Department of Canadian Heritage to research and write a new protocol manual entitled The Canadian State Ceremonial and Protocol Manual.
He has also regularly been consulted on the role of the Crown; reserve powers and function of Canada's constitutional monarchy. Since 2005 he has served as the national historian for St. John Ambulance Canada, and additionally served on the national governing body of St. John Ambulance Canada for six years.
In collaboration with the Royal Archives, McCreery curated and presented an exhibition of Canadian items in the Royal Collection which was opened by The Queen at Canada House in London in July 2017. The exhibition included Enduring Connections, a book McCreery was commissioned to write as The Queen's official gift to Canada on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
Prior to his appointment as Private Secretary, McCreery worked for the Privy Council Office, the Leader of the Government in the Senate, the Speaker of the Senate and Senator Michael Kirby. It was while working for Senator Kirby and the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs Science and Technology, that McCreery assisted in the coordination of the Committee's report on Mental Health, Mental Illness and Addiction, Out of the Shadows at Last. During his time working for the Speaker of the Senate he devised the concept and design for the Parliamentary emblem/badge.
McCreery is a member of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society, Orders and Medals Research Society, the Corvair Society of America, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and the Royal Heraldry Society of Canada. He is an active volunteer with St. John Ambulance, serving as the National Historian from 2004-2022, and as a member of the Nova Scotia & Prince Edward Island Council Board of Directors since 2014, most recently as Chair. In 2022 he was elected to a three year term as a Governor of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
His hobbies include writing, canoeing, restoring vintage cars, Canadian art and anything related to Canadian history. McCreery lives in Halifax with his partner Matt Malone. Despite the formality of his job, and owning far too many books, he doesn't take himself too seriously.
