George Stephen, 1st Baron Mount Stephen
The Lord Mount Stephen | |
---|---|
9th President of the Bank of Montreal | |
In office 1876–1881 | |
Preceded by | David Torrance |
Succeeded by | Charles Francis Smithers |
Personal details | |
Born | George Stephen 5 June 1829 Dufftown, Scotland |
Died | 29 November 1921 Brocket Hall, Hatfield, England | (aged 92)
Spouses | Annie Charlotte Kane (m. 1853–1896; her death) Georgina Mary "Gian" Tufnell (m. 1897–1921; his death) |
Children | 1 daughter (adopted) |
Relatives | Lord Strathcona (cousin) Elsie Reford (niece) |
George Stephen, 1st Baron Mount Stephen,
He was President of the
In 1888, he retired to England, living between Brocket Hall and 17 Carlton House Terrace. His first wife is credited with introducing the canoe to Scotland. From starting life as a bare-footed stable boy, he became the richest man in Canada and closely associated with George V, whose wife, Queen Mary, was a lifelong friend and confidante of the second Lady Mount Stephen.
Early years
Stephen was born in 1829 at
Stephen began life as a boy running barefoot through
George Stephen's first cousin, William Stephen, had already emigrated to
In 1866, he started to work closely with his first cousin,
Railroads
In 1877, his cousin
In 1879, the syndicate purchased the struggling Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad for $5.5 million. The deal created a sensation in Montreal as it was rumoured that Stephen had used his position as President of the Bank of Montreal to obtain loans at limited rates.[5] Stephen treated the "scribblers" of the press with contempt, but they continued to plague him and the complicated financial structures he put together. Stephen was constantly concerned about their effect on his businesses and reputation. The syndicate, however, turned the St. Paul railroad around. They changed its name, restored profitability and expanded its lines to Winnipeg. In 1885, they sold the railroad for $25 million, and such was the success of the partnership (minus Kittson who retired from business in 1881) that it had already led them to win the contract with the Government of Canada to build the CPR.[5] Stephen became the first president of Canadian Pacific Railway and held the position till 1888.
Building the Canadian Pacific Railway
Named as the CPR's first president, Stephen oversaw the monumental task of not just negotiating a route across 2,000 miles of
As Stephen purposefully did not want a long list of investors, the risks were high to all those involved and the CPR found few takers in London and New York City. By 1883, the syndicate was straining under the huge financial obligations being called of them. Stephen was risking almost all of his fortune on the venture and even used his mansion in Montreal as collateral. Hill resigned in 1883, when he realised that his own railroad would be in direct competition with the CPR for eastbound traffic. However, through loyalty to his partners, he held on to half of his shares. Next, Kennedy resigned, depressing the CPR stock even further and making Stephen's increasingly frantic attempts to find capital even more difficult. In the face of this crisis, fellow Montrealer McIntyre resigned in 1884, forcing the other directors to buy his shares and in the process earning himself Stephen's lifelong enmity.[5]
Using every ounce of his experience in banking, natural flair for persuasion and business acumen, Stephen proved capable of putting together the complicated financing needed to complete the project, despite cost overruns from numerous unanticipated engineering, business and political problems. The final piece in the financial puzzle was secured when, in 1885, he travelled to London for a personal appeal that convinced Lord Revelstoke and Barings Bank to underwrite the sale of £3 million in company stock.
On 7 November 1885, at Craigellachie, British Columbia, Donald Smith famously hammered home the last spike in the railroad.
Stephen, Smith, and Angus were the sole members of the original syndicate to have kept their nerve. Their gamble paid off and the success of the first leg of what would soon become the "world's greatest transportation system" almost immediately made them enormously rich.
Aftermath
Stephen gave over $1 million to
Though of course a very wealthy man, the CPR had taken a significant toll on Stephen's personal portfolio. James Hill had ended up better off than him for having held on to his railroad when Stephen had had to liquidate his share in it to ensure the completion of the CPR. He also regretted having encouraged his associates to invest in the CPR, knowing that Hill's Manitoba Railway was a better opportunity. He was not bitter towards Hill, in fact quite the opposite, remaining as Hill's staunchest ally throughout the remainder of his career. Stephen remained a director of the CPR until 1893, but thereafter showed only glimpses of interest in the railway. He reduced his holdings and even encouraged others to follow suit. Ironically, the principal source of Stephen's vast wealth stemmed from his investments in Hill's railroads.
Salmon fishing
A tireless worker, in private life Stephen was retiring with only one real passion –
Stephen was a pioneer of
Philanthropy
Remembered as one of the most generous
Though best remembered today for the
To put these figures into a personal perspective, when Mount Stephen died in 1921, after providing for his wife, step-daughter and charities, he left £1,414,319 to be divided between nineteen relatives, which worked out at about £75,000 each. Though hardly an inconsequential sum, he gave substantially more to charity than he left to his individual heirs. In his will, he left little to charities in Canada, believing that through the donations mentioned above and his legacy that was the Canadian Pacific Railway, he had given more to Canada than it had given to him.
Montreal to England
In 1880, Stephen employed the architect William Tutin Thomas to design a sumptuous mansion (now known as George Stephen House) for him in Montreal's Golden Square Mile. The house took three years to complete and cost some $600,000. Architectural historian Arthur Richardson described it as "one of the real masterpieces of the Italianate style in Canada". After Stephen moved to England, the house was occupied by his sister Elsie Stephen and her husband, Robert Meighen, who purchased the residence in 1900. It became the clubhouse of the Mount Stephen Club in 1926.
From the mid-1880s, Stephen began to spend an increasing amount of time in England. Tired of the business and politics that surrounded his life in Montreal, when he retired from the CPR in 1888, he settled permanently in England. The Stephens kept a London residence at 17 Carlton House Terrace and from 1893 leased Brocket Hall near Hatfield, Hertfordshire, where he died in 1921.[8]
Stephen had been created a
Lord Mount Stephen sat regularly in the House of Lords but avoided public speaking and committees. He returned to Canada infrequently, making his last trip in 1894, but his influence there remained considerable, particularly to those seeking high office – Lord Minto acknowledged that he owed his appointment as Governor General of Canada in 1898 to the influence of Stephen and Lord Wolseley. From the 1890s onward, he passed management of his substantial investments in Canada, the United States and England to his individual agents in those countries.
Lord Mount Stephen was appointed a
Charlotte (1830–1896), the 1st Lady Mount Stephen
At London, on 8 April 1853, George Stephen married his first wife, Annie Charlotte Kane (1830–1896). She was one of several children born to Benjamin Kane on the island of Corfu when the Ionian Islands were a British protectorate. Her father, a former officer in the Royal Engineers was assistant clerk of works in the Naval Ordnance there, though she was educated in London. During a Royal Tour, the haemophiliac Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, fell seriously ill at Montreal and Charlotte nursed him back to health. As such, in 1887, she was first presented to Queen Victoria by her friend Georgina Gascoyne-Cecil, Marchioness of Salisbury, who lived at Hatfield House which neighboured the Stephen's home from 1893, Brocket Hall. The Queen thanked Lady Mount Stephen by presenting her with an oil portrait of herself.
At Brocket Hall, Lady Mount Stephen frequently entertained the Prince (the future Edward VII) and Princess of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Connaught and the Duchess of Teck. She introduced the canoe to Scotland while living at Faskally, Perthshire and fished with her husband in Canada and the rivers of Scotland. She died in London on 10 April 1896, and was buried in Lemsford Churchyard, adjoining Brocket Hall.[12] The couple had no biological children, but had adopted as a young woman in Montreal, Alice Brooke, purportedly the daughter of a Vermont clergyman.[13]
- Alice Maude Stephen (died 1934), DBE (born Alice Brooke). Her adopted father introduced her to, and in 1873 she married, Henry Northcote, 1st Baron Northcote. The union was childless. In 1919, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.[citation needed]
Georgiana (1864–1933), the 2nd Lady Mount Stephen
In 1897, after the death of his first wife, Mount Stephen remarried Georgiana Mary (known as Gian) Tufnell (1864–1933), daughter of Captain Robert George Tufnell
Gian Mount Stephen had a stillborn daughter in March 1900, and there were no other children of the marriage.
Gian, Lady Mount Stephen gave Queen Mary a diamond riviere necklace, which was later given to Princess Margaret, who wore it on her wedding day.[17]
Lady Mount Stephen died in 1933 at Cuckfield, Sussex, England. As Lord Mount Stephen had left no natural heirs by either of his wives, his titles died with him.
See also
- Canadian Hereditary Peers
- Golden Square Mile
References
- ^ a b Gilbert, Heather (1965). The Life of Lord Mount Stephen: 1829-91. Aberdeen University Press.
- ^ Willson, Beckles (1902). Lord Strathcona: The Story of His Life. London: Methuen & Company.
- ^ The Cheeryble Brothers, victorianweb.org; accessed 14 February 2020.
- ^ Moray Connections - George Stephen Archived 22 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Reford, Alexander (2005). "Stephen, George, 1st Baron Mount Stephen". In Cook, Ramsay; Bélanger, Réal (eds.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. XV (1921–1930) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
- YouTube
- ^ "Court News". The Times. No. 36545. London. 28 August 1901. p. 7.
- ^ Residents of Carlton House Terrace
- ^ "No. 25555". The London Gazette. 2 February 1886. p. 506.
- ^ "No. 26176". The London Gazette. 26 June 1891. p. 3378.
- ^ "No. 27761". The London Gazette. 3 February 1905. p. 841.
- ^ Morgan, Henry James, ed. (1903). Types of Canadian Women and of Women who are or have been Connected with Canada. Toronto: Williams Briggs. p. 245.
- ^ "First Lady of Australia". Yukon World. 23 October 1904.
- A Naval Biographical Dictionary. London: John Murray.
- ^ a b Lady Mount Stephen in Every Woman's Encyclopedia, chestofbooks.com; accessed 20 March 2016.
- ^ "Births". The Times. No. 36092. London. 17 March 1900. p. 1.
- ^ Helen Molesworth, Property from the Collection of Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon. Christie's Auction House, Jewellery Department, London, 2006. Auction of the Property of HRH Princess Margaret