Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal
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Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom | |
|---|---|
| In office 1896–1914 | |
| Prime Minister | Charles Tupper Wilfrid Laurier Robert Borden |
| Preceded by | Charles Tupper |
| Succeeded by | George Perley |
| Member of Parliament for Montreal West | |
| In office 22 February 1887 – 22 June 1896 | |
| Preceded by | Matthew Hamilton Gault |
| Succeeded by | District abolished |
| Member of Parliament for Selkirk | |
| In office 2 March 1871 – 13 May 1880 | |
| Preceded by | District established |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Scott |
| More... | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Donald Alexander Smith 6 August 1820 Forres, Scotland |
| Died | 21 January 1914 (aged 93) London, England |
| Resting place | Highgate Cemetery, London |
| Citizenship | British subject |
| Spouse |
Isabella Sophia Hardisty
(m. 1853; died 1913) |
| Children | Driving the CPR's Last Spike |
| Awards | Albert Medal (1912) |
| Signature |  |
Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal
Early life
Born 6 August 1820, on Forres High Street, in Moray, Scotland,[4] he was the second son of Alexander Smith (1786–1841) and his wife Barbara Stuart, daughter of Donald Stuart (b.c.1740) of Leanchoil, Upper Strathspey, descended from Murdoch Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany.[5] His father, whose family had lived at Archiestown Cottage as crofters at Knockando, became a saddler at Forres after trying his hand at farming and soldiering. Donald was also a first cousin of the successful and notably philanthropic Grant brothers of Manchester, who were reputedly immortalised as the "Cheeryble Brothers" in Charles Dickens' book, Nicholas Nickleby.[6][7] Donald's mother was the sister of the Canadian explorer John Stuart, partner of the North West Company who rose to become Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company.
Smith was educated at
Hudson's Bay Company
Smith emigrated to
In 1862, Smith was promoted as the company's Chief Factor in charge of the Labrador district.
In 1869, the government of
Smith accompanied Col.
Political career
In
Politicians were allowed to serve in both the provincial and federal parliaments in this period of Manitoba history, and Smith was elected to the
In 1872 Smith was appointed to the first group of members of the
Smith broke with Macdonald in 1873, after the
Manitoba abolished the "dual mandate" in 1873, and Smith resigned from the provincial legislature in early 1874 (the first person to do so). In the
In 1873, the HBC separated its fur trade and land sales operations, putting Smith in charge of the latter. Smith had developed an interest in railway expansion through his work with the HBC, and in 1875 was among the incorporators of the
Smith faced a serious electoral challenge from former Manitoba Lieutenant Governor
Corporate leader
In May 1879, Smith became a director in the
Smith became extremely wealthy through his investments, and he was involved in a myriad of Canadian and American corporations in the latter part of the 19th century. He was appointed to the board of the
Smith was also involved in the newspaper industry in his later years. His attempt to take over the
Later political career
Smith was re-elected to the Canadian House of Commons in
High Commissioner
Prime Minister
He was granted a second creation of the Barony, with a Special Remainder in favour of his daughter Margaret Charlotte Howard, as Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, of Mount Royal in the Province of Quebec and Dominion of Canada, and of Glencoe in the County of Argyll, on 26 June 1900.[16]
He was Lord Rector of the University of Aberdeen (1899–1902), and he received the Freedom of the City of Aberdeen in a ceremony on 9 April 1902.[17]
On 12 February 1902, he was appointed an Honorary Colonel of the 8th (Volunteer) Battalion, the King's (Liverpool Regiment),[18] and the same month he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) from the Victoria University of Manchester, in connection with the 50th jubilee of the establishment of the university.[19] He received the honorary degree Doctor of Civil Law (DCL) from the University of Oxford in October 1902, in connection with the tercentenary of the Bodleian Library.[20]
He was sworn in as a Member of the
Philanthropy
Strathcona was a leading philanthropist in his later years, donating large sums of money to various organizations in Britain, Canada and elsewhere. His largest donations were made with George Stephen, donating the money to build the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal that opened its doors in 1893. Strathcona also made a major donation to McGill University in Montreal, where he helped establish a school for women in 1884 (Royal Victoria College). He was named Chancellor of McGill in 1888, and he held the post until his death. He also bequeathed funds to the Sheffield Scientific School for a science and engineering building and to support two professorships in engineering. He was awarded an honorary degree from Yale University in 1892. He contributed donations to the new University of Birmingham following representations by Joseph Chamberlain.[22]
In 1910, Strathcona deposited in trust with the Dominion Government the sum of $500,000, bearing an annual interest of 4%, to develop citizenship and patriotism, for example in the Royal Canadian Army Cadets movement, through physical training, rifle shooting, and military drill.[23] A Syllabus of Physical Exercises for Schools was published by the Trust in 1911.[24] He is remembered today by the Cadets with the Lord Strathcona Medal.
Death
Lord Strathcona died in 1914 in London[4] and was buried at Highgate Cemetery. His imposing red granite vault is the first vault after entering the Eastern Cemetery. His seventy-five-year tenure with the Hudson's Bay Company remains a record.
He lived in Montreal's
His obituary in
With no advantage of birth or fortune he made himself one of the great outstanding figures of the Empire.
Family
In 1853, he married Isabella Sophia Hardisty (1825–1913), daughter of Richard Hardisty (1790–1865), Chief Trader of the Hudson's Bay Company, and Margaret Sutherland (1802–1876), daughter of the Rev. John Sutherland, a native of Caithness who lived at Lachine, Quebec. Lady Strathcona's father was a native of London, England, and her mother was of Indian and Scottish parentage. Her brother was the Hon. Richard Charles Hardisty. She was presented to King Edward and Queen Alexandra, 13 March 1903, and with her daughter donated $100,000 to McGill University in Montreal to erect a new wing to its Medical Building.[27] The couple lived at 53 Cadogan Square, London; Knebworth House; Debden Hall; Glencoe House, Scotland; Colonsay House, Scotland and 1157 Dorchester Street, in Montreal's Golden Square Mile.[28]
Lord and Lady Strathcona were the parents of one child, the Hon. Margaret Charlotte Smith. In accordance with the special remainder to the 1900 barony, she succeeded her father as Lady Strathcona in 1914. In 1888, she married Robert Jared Bliss Howard
Robert Howard and Lady Strathcona had the following children:[citation needed]
- The Hon. Frances Margaret Palmer Howard (born 13 February 1889, died 5 October 1958)
- The Rt Hon. Donald Sterling Palmer Howard, 3rd Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal (born 14 June 1891, died 22 February 1959)
- The Hon. Robert Henry Palmer Howard (born 1893, killed in action 8 May 1915)[citation needed]
- The Hon. Edith Mary Palmer Howard (born 7 April 1895, died 1979), married John Brooke Molesworth Parnell, 6th Baron Congleton on 6 April 1918[citation needed]
- The Hon. Sir CVO(born 30 May 1896, died 26 April 1971)
His Montreal home was located in the Golden Square Mile. In 1905, he bought the island of Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides, which remains in the hands of his successors today.
Legacy
Lord Strathcona is commemorated in Montreal by several McGill University buildings; he gave freely of his time to this institution, and a great quantity of his wealth.[29] In Westmount, a street was named in his honour. In the greater Montreal West Island community, the Strathcona Desjardins Credit Union bears his name, with offices downtown Montreal and in Kirkland. The credit union members were historically from the English-speaking hospitals of Montreal, but since recent mergers also include the Montreal area, English-speaking teachers.
The Strathcona family mansion in Montreal on Dorchester Street (now René Lévesque Boulevard)[25] near Fort Street was torn down in 1941 to make way for an apartment building.[30]
Strathcona Avenue, located in Westmount (a suburb on the island of Montreal) is named in his honour.
Strathcona is commemorated in Manitoba by the
The Town of
Strathcona was inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame in 1973.[35]
Ships named for Lord Strathcona
At least three ships were named for Lord Strathcona during his lifetime. These were:
- Strathcona, a 598-ton, 142-foot wooden sidewheel paddle steamer, was built in 1898 by J. Macfarlane at New Westminster, British Columbia for the Hudson's Bay Company. The vessel was operated on the Pacific Northwest coast and in 1898-99 carried elements of the Yukon Field Force. In 1902 Strathcona was sold to S.J.V. Spratt, later passing into the hands of the Sidney & Nanaimo Transportation Company. On 17 November 1909, the vessel was wrecked on a snag near Pages Landing on the Fraser River. In 1910 Strathcona was refloated and towed to New Westminster, where the engines and boilers were removed and the hull abandoned.[36]
- Strathcona, a 1,881-ton, 253-foot steel canal-sized
- Lord Strathcona, a 495-ton, 160-foot steel salvage tug, was built in 1902 by J.P. Renoldson & Sons, Ltd., at Second World War.[42] Ownership passed to Foundation Maritimein 1944, and Lord Strathcona was scrapped in 1947.
A fourth ship, Lord Strathcona, was a 7,335-ton, 455-foot ocean steamer built in 1915 by W. Doxford & Sons Ltd. at
Gallery
-
Lord Strathcona's house in Montreal's Golden Square Mile, built in 1879 -
Glencoe House, Scotland in 1905, built by Lord Strathcona in 1895 -
Colonsay House, purchased with the island by Lord Strathcona and still occupied by his descendants today -
Knebworth House, leased by Lord Strathcona from 1899 until his death
See also
Notes
- ^ "Chancellor". www.archives.mcgill.ca.
- ISBN 1-55002-397-7.
- ISBN 1-55002-266-0.
- ^ ISSN 1920-9894.
- ^ "Individual Page". wc.rootsweb.com.
- ^ a b "Read the eBook Lord Strathcona, the story of his life by Beckles Willson online for free (page 1 of 21)". www.ebooksread.com.
- ^ "Dickens's "The Brothers Cheeryble" by Harold Copping". victorianweb.org.
- ISBN 9780665180736– via Hathi Trust.
- ^ Newman 1992, p. 47
- ^ Newman 1992, p. 5
- ^ "Smith, Sir Donald Alexander (SMT887DA)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ "No. 26885". The London Gazette. 24 August 1897. p. 4725.
- ^ "No. 25592". The London Gazette. 29 May 1886. p. 2634.
- ^ "No. 26741". The London Gazette. 20 May 1896. p. 3054.
- ^ "No. 27482". The London Gazette. 14 October 1902. p. 6493.
- ^ "No. 27205". The London Gazette. 26 June 1900. p. 3963.
- ^ "Lord Strathcona at Aberdeen". The Times. No. 36738. London. 10 April 1902. p. 11.
- ^ "No. 27405". The London Gazette. 11 February 1902. p. 850.
- ^ "University intelligence". The Times. No. 36704. London. 1 March 1902. p. 12.
- ^ "University intelligence". The Times. No. 36893. London. 8 October 1902. p. 4.
- ^ "Freedom of City of Bath for Lord Strathcona". The Daily Phoenix. 14 July 1911. p. 6.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 October 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ viu.ca: "The Strathcona Trust and Physical Training in B.C. Public Schools" Archived 30 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ archive.org - Executive Council of the Strathcona Trust: "Syllabus of physical exercises for schools".
- ^ a b Reford, Alexander (1998). "Smith, Donald Alexander, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal". In Cook, Ramsay; Hamelin, Jean (eds.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. XIV (1911–1920) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
- ^ Newman 1992, p. 167
- ^ Morgan, Henry James, ed. (1903). Types of Canadian Women and of Women who are or have been Connected with Canada. Toronto: Williams Briggs. p. 2.
- ^ Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Smith, Donald Alexander, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal
- ISBN 9780665779664.
- ^ "Ottawa Citizen - Recherche d'archives de Google Actualités". news.google.com.
- ^ "Donald Alexander Smith [Lord Strathcona] (1820-1914)". Memorable Manitobans. Manitoba Historical Society. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
- ^ Scottish Place Names in Calgary.. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
- ^ "Strathcona Park (Ottawa)". National Inventory of Military Memorials. National Defence Canada. 16 April 2008. Archived from the original on 21 May 2014.
- ^ "Builders Fund". Transcona Historical Museum. Archived from the original on 3 October 2014. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
- ^ "Smith, Sir. Donald – CCA Hall of Fame | ACC Temple de la Renommée Virtuelle".
- ^ Strathcona file, Hudson's Bay Company Archives, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
- ^ Greenwood, John Orville (1986), Namesakes 1910-1919, p. 87. Cleveland: Freshwater Press, Inc.
- ^ Mitchell's "Marine Directory of the Great Lakes", 1912 edition, p. 53.
- ^ Green's Marine Directory of the Great Lakes, 1915 edition, p. 80.
- ^ Brookes, Ivan S. (1974), The Lower St. Lawrence, pp. 33, 282. Cleveland: Freshwater Press, Inc.
- ^ Brookes, pp. 40, 285.
- ^ Brookes, p. 56.
References
- Newman, Peter C. (1992). Merchant Princes. Viking.
- Bernard, Kenneth (March 1907). "Lord Strathcona: A Hudson's Bay Trader Who Has Won A High Place in the British Peerage". The World's Work: A History of Our Time. XIII: 8668–8678.
External links
- Works by or about Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal at Internet Archive
- Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal – Parliament of Canada biography
- Sir Donald Alexander Smith, Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal fonds - Library and Archives Canada
- Grant, William Lawson (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 1000–1001.
- Photograph: Sir Donald Smith, Lord Strathcona in 1895. McCord Museum[permanent dead link]
- Photograph: Sir Donald Smith, Lord Strathcona in 1908. McCord Museum[permanent dead link]
- Photograph: Mausoleum in the East Cemetery, Highgate Cemetery in which Donald Alexander Smith lies Archived 5 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine
- Farr, D.M.L. (4 March 2015) [20 January 2008]. "Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal". The Canadian Encyclopedia (online ed.). Historica Canada.
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