| The Lord Mount Stephen | |
|---|---|
Lord Mount Stephen. |
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| Born | 5 June 1829 Dufftown, Banffshire, Scotland, UK |
| Died | 29 November 1921 (aged 92) Brocket Hall, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, England, UK |
George Stephen, 1st Baron Mount Stephen (5 June 1829 – 29 November 1921), known as Sir George Stephen, Bt, between 1886 and 1891, was a Scots-Quebecker banker and railway executive in Canada.
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Stephen was born in Dufftown, Banffshire, Scotland, the son of William Stephen, a carpenter, and Elspet (née Smith). He was educated at the parish school, after which he worked as a farm worker. At the age of 21 he emigrated to Canada where for the next 15 years he laboured in a relative's textile business. Driven by a desire to succeed and his strong work ethic, he demonstrated a strong business acumen. By 1866 he was running his own successful wool-importing company then began investing in other enterprises.
In the 1860s he entered the railroad business by purchasing a major share position in the Montreal Rolling Stock Company. In 1868 Stephen joined with Richard B. Angus, Andrew Paton, and his cousin Donald Smith to establish the textile manufactory, Paton Manufacturing Company in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Finance was a key element in the development of the Quebec and Canadian economies, and Stephen's abilities saw him appointed a director of the Bank of Montreal in 1873 then named as the bank's president three years later, a position he held until 1881 when he resigned to devote his full attention to running the company that built the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Both he and his wife, Charlotte Kane, were sport fishing enthusiasts. In 1880 they had built a fishing camp at the confluence of the Matapédia and Cascapédia rivers. Their fishing lodge is today a museum open to the public.
George Stephen partnered with Donald Smith, James Jerome Hill, and Norman Kittson to purchase the near-bankrupt St. Paul and Pacific Railroad in Minnesota in the United States. They turned the business around, restoring profitability and expanding its lines. Renamed the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway, Stephen and his partners then sold it out for an enormous profit. So successful were he and his partnership that they won a contract with the Government of Canada to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. Named the company's first president, he oversaw the huge and difficult task of constructing the costly transcontinental railway. Because of his banking experience, Stephen proved capable of putting together the complicated financing needed to complete the project, despite cost overruns from numerous unanticipated engineering and other problems. The final piece in the financial puzzle was secured when, in 1885, he traveled to London for a personal appeal that convinced Lord Revelstoke and Barings Bank to underwrite the sale of £3 million in company stock.
Having risked most of his wealth to build the CPR, the success of the railroad soon made George Stephen enormously rich. With business partner Donald Smith, he donated the money to build the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal.
Stephen retired to England. He was created a Baronet, of Montreal in the Province of Quebec in the Dominion of Canada, in 1886,[1] and raised to the peerage as Baron Mount Stephen, of Mount Stephen in the Province of British Columbia and Dominion of Canada, and of Dufftown in the County of Banff, in 1891[2] becoming the first Canadian to be made a peer, the name deriving from a mountain in the Kicking Horse River Valley of Yoho National Park in British Columbia previously named in his honour. He lived at Brocket Hall in Welwyn, Hertfordshire until his death in 1921, aged 92.
After his death, his home in Montreal, built at an estimated cost of C$$600,000 in 1880, was converted to a private club in 1928. Today, the Mount Stephen Club has a gourmet restaurant open to the public and the building is regarded as one of the city's most important heritage properties.
Lord Mount Stephen married Annie Charlotte Kane, daughter of Benjamin Kane in 1853. She accompanied her husband to Montreal. She was was born and educated in London, England. Lady Mountstephen was first presented to Queen Victoria by the Marchioness of Salisbury, in March, 1887. While living in Canada, Lady Stephen nursed the Duke of Albany through a serious illness. She was thanked by Queen Victoria, who gave her an oil portrait of Her Majesty. Guests of Lord and Lady Mountstephen, at their seat, Brocket Hall in England included Her Magesty, the Duchess of Albany, the Prince 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, in Perthshire, in Scotland. She fished with her husband in Canada and the rivers of Scotland.
She died in London, England on 10 April 1896, and buried in Lemsford Churchyard, adjoining Brocket Hall.[3]
The couple had no biological children, but adopted a daughter, Alice Maude, who married Henry Northcote, 1st Baron Northcote, becoming the spouse of the Governor-General of Australia. In 1919, Alice, Lady Northcote (1873–1934) was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). As there was no male heir, the Mount Stephen baronetcy went extinct upon the death of Sir George Stephen, 1st Bt.
In 1897, Lord Mount Stephen married Gian Tufnell, who had been Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck, the mother of Queen Mary. She was a lifelong friend and confidant of Queen Mary and she and Lord Mount Stephen regularly entertained the Queen at Brocket Hall. Lady Mount Stephen was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1919 for her work with Queen Mary's Needlework Guild, the same year her stepdaughter, Alice, Lady Northcote, was also named DBE.
| Business positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by David Torrance |
President of the Bank of Montreal 1876–1881 |
Succeeded by C. F. Smithers |
| Preceded by nobody |
President of Canadian Pacific Railway Limited 1881–1888 |
Succeeded by William Cornelius Van Horne |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron Mount Stephen 1891 – 1921 |
Extinct |