Anselme Seraphin Deguire

Anselme Séraphin Deguire enjoys high distinction as a lawyer and has also given much evidence of his public spirit in his position as alderman of the city of Montreal. He comes of an old Canadian French family, the earliest ancestor recorded in Abbé Tanguay’s Dictionnaire being François De Guire, who was born in 1641 and who died at Montreal. In 1669 he married Mlle. Rose Colin, born in 1641, and they became the parents of nine children.

Anselme S. Deguire was born at Côte des Neiges on the 25th of November, 1874, a son of Séraphin Deguire and Alphonsine Pilon of Ste. Anne de Bellevue. The father was a gardener by profession. Mr. Deguire of this review studied at Montreal College, from which he was graduated in 1895 with the degree of B. A., and afterwards took a law course at Laval University. He was admitted to practice in 1901. Immediately afterwards he interested himself in municipal affairs and his aptitude along financial lines made him valuable in a number of important positions which he held in the administration of the village of Côte des Neiges. Under his leadership the proceedings to erect the village into a town were successfully completed.

As a lawyer Mr. Deguire soon secured a select clientele, no long novitiate awaiting him in his practice. He is one of a coterie of lawyers, or more correctly, he continues the traditions of a coterie of lawyers who had their origin in Côte des Neiges and several of whom were well known and very prominent. Such were the late Judge Madore and Judges Charbonneau and Demers. Mr. Deguire is universally esteemed by his fellow citizens and since the annexation of Côte des Neiges to the city of Montreal, of which annexation he was an ardent advocate, he has been its representative in the Montreal city hall. He was elected first for the Côte des Neiges ward in 1910 and reelected by acclamation in 1912.

At the Church of St. Louis de France, on the 18th of November, 1902, Mr. Deguire married Mlle. Aloysia Chopin, a daughter of the late Dr. J. Nestor Chopin of Sault au Récollet. Mr. and Mrs. Deguire have one son, René, born January 1, 1904. Mr. Deguire is not only a successful advocate and lawyer, but a patriotic citizen and a splendid example of a loyal French-Canadian. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Royal Arcanum.