Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, GCMG, GCVO, PC, DL (August 6, 1820 – January 21, 1914) was a Scottish-born Canadian fur trader, financier, railroad baron and politician. He was born in the Morayshire town of Forres to Alexander Smith, a saddler, and Barbera Stuart. On leaving school at the age of 16, Smith was apprenticed to become a lawyer in the town clerk's office. He left Scotland in 1838 for Canada where he obta...
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Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, GCMG, GCVO, PC, DL (August 6, 1820 – January 21, 1914) was a Scottish-born Canadian fur trader, financier, railroad baron and politician. He was born in the Morayshire town of Forres to Alexander Smith, a saddler, and Barbera Stuart. On leaving school at the age of 16, Smith was apprenticed to become a lawyer in the town clerk's office. He left Scotland in 1838 for Canada where he obtained an apprenticeship from the Hudson's Bay Company and remained in the wildernesses of Labrador for nearly thirty years working in the fur trade. Smith was the chief commissioner for the company from 1870 until 1874 and eventually—after becoming its principal shareholder—was appointed as its governor from 1889 to 1914.
Smith's political career began in 1870 when he was elected as the Conservative member for Winnipeg in the Manitoba legislature. In 1871 he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons for the Selkirk constituency. In 1873 he...
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