Donald Alexander Smith GCMG GCVO (1820 - 1914)

Ancestors Descendants

Biography

Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, GCMG, GCVO, PC, DL was a Scottish-born Canadian who became one of the British Empire's foremost builders and philanthropists. He became commissioner, governor and principal shareholder of the Hudson's Bay Company. He was president of the Bank of Montreal and with his first cousin, Lord Mount Stephen, co-founded the Canadian Pacific Railway. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba and afterwards represented Montreal in the Canadian House of Commons. He was Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 1896 to 1914.

Baron Strathcona, Vanity Fair, 1900.

He was chairman of Burmah Oil and the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. He was chancellor of McGill University (1889-1914) and Aberdeen University. He lived in Montreal's Golden Square Mile. In 1895, he purchased an estate in Scotland, building and living at Glencoe House. In 1905, he purchased the Island of Colonsay including Colonsay House, where his descendants still live. He kept a house in London and after his appointment as Canadian High Commissioner leased Knebworth House from 1899 until his death. His funeral was held at Westminster Abbey, where a memorial stands to his memory.

In reference to his reputation as a magnanimous philanthropist, King Edward VII called him "Uncle Donald": his will was valued at $5.5 million. During his lifetime, and including the bequests left after his death, he gave away just over $7.5 million plus a further £1 million (not including private gifts and allowances) to a huge variety of charitable causes across Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. He personally raised Lord Strathcona's Horse, who saw their first action in the Boer War. He funded the building of Leanchoil Hospital. He and his first cousin, Lord Mount Stephen, purchased the land and then each gave $1 million to the City of Montreal to construct and maintain the Royal Victoria Hospital. He endowed the Lord Strathcona Medal and donated generously to McGill University, Aberdeen University, the University of Manchester, Yale University, the Prince of Wales Hospital Fund and the Imperial Institute. At McGill, he started the Donalda Program for the purpose of providing higher education for Canadian women, building the Royal Victoria College on Sherbrooke Street for that purpose in 1886. He also built the Strathcona Medical Building at McGill and endowed its chairs in pathology and hygiene.^[1]

Family Life
"Everything we see and read about Donald Alexander Smith shouts of convention, hard work and moral standing, for example his philanthropic work, even his motto was “perseverance”. Arguably, one area that demonstrates a different side to Donald’s character was through his relationship with Isabella Hardisty.

They met while Donald was working in Labrador, Canada in the early 1850s. At this time she was actually married to a cousin of Donald's, John Grant, who she married in 1851. The whirlwind romance between Isabella and John, however, was not to last and they, unusual for the time, separated in 1852. It was Isabella who took charge of their son, John. She was reputed to be a very strong woman who knew her own mind and she had set her sights on Donald Alexander Smith.

Donald and Isabella’s relationship flourished in 1855 and they had a child, Margaret Charlotte Smith, on 17th Jan 1854. They were not actually married at the time, which was scandalous for the era. Donald was a man of principle and so this behaviour is perhaps out of character and demonstrates the strength of love between them. They were married in June 1859.

Glencoe House, Scotland, 1909

Such was his love for Isabella, Glencoe House was to be a grand love letter from Donald to Bella in celebration of their life together. There are many symbols on the building that reflect this, for example their initials DAS and ISS. The separate initials were to demonstrate that Isabella was an individual in her own right, again reinforcing the impact of her character. They enjoyed a long union which was only to be broken on Isabella’s death on the 12th November 1913."^[2]

Christening Date: 04 October 1820 Place: Forres, Moray, Scotland

Little is written in the many biographies of and articles on Donald's life and family back in Scotland. Throughout his life he remained close to both his immediate and wider family. The tales of his exploits in Canada and those of his cousin George Mountstephen were widely shared within the family. His unmarried cousin Jane Smith who knew him well, spent many hours regaling her grandnephews and grandnieces with his tales while sitting by the fireside hearth in her niece's home in Forres. ^[3]

Sources

• Wikipedia, entry for Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal
• Dictionary of Canadian Biography, entry for Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron Stathcona and Mount Royal
• Private papers and family correspondence in the collection of John M Sutherland-Fisher
• Lord Strathcona – The Story of His Life by Beckles Wilson (Toronto: George N. Morang & Co., 1902)

Footnotes

1. ↑ From the Wikipedia entry for Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal.
2. ↑ Glencoe House
3. ↑ first hand knowledge of Mark Sutherland-Fisher