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Holmes, Hon. Simon H., Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, Halifax, was born near Springville, East River township, Pictou county, N.S., on the 30th July, 1831. His father, Hon. John Holmes, came from Ross-shire, Scotland, where he was born in 1783, to Nova Scotia, and settled in the province in 1803, and represented Pictou county in the Nova Scotia legislature, from 1839 to 1847, and from 1851 to 1855, and was called to the Legislative Council in 1858. At the time of Confederation in 1867 he was made a member of the Senate of the Dominion of Canada. His mother, Catherine Fraser, was a native of Nova Scotia. Simon H. Holmes received his educational training at the New Glasgow Grammar School and at the Pictou Academy. He adopted law as a profession, and studied in the office of the Hon. James McDonald, now chief justice of Nova Scotia, and was called to the bar of Nova Scotia in August, 1864. He practised for a number of years as a barrister in Pictou, and during that time acquired the honourable distinction of being a logical and able speaker, and one who always made a favourable impression on a jury. Mr. Holmes entered political life in 1867, and yet though he failed to carry Pictou county at the general election of that year, he was successful in 1871; and in 1874 he was re-elected by acclamation, and chosen leader of the opposition. After the contest in 1878, he was called upon to form an administration, of which he became premier and provincial secretary, which position he occupied during the four years following, when he accepted the office of prothonotary of the Supreme Court for Halifax, which office he now holds. Hon. Mr. Holmes was for twenty-four years editor and proprietor of the Colonial Standard, Pictou, an outspoken Liberal-Conservative paper, which he conducted with marked ability, and which exercised a great influence in shaping the politics of the province. When quite a young man he took an active interest in the volunteer movement, and rose to the rank of captain; subsequently he held the same rank in the militia, and was, before severing his connection with the corps on entering public life, promoted to the rank of major.