STRATHCONA AND MOUNT ROYAL 5586 STRATHCONA AND MOUNT ROYAL 



is a pretentious building with a theater, a pic- 

 ture gallery and a library containing valuable 

 books and manuscripts relating to the poet. 

 In the memorial theater the F. R. Benson Com- 

 pany gave a series of performances in 1916, in 

 commemoration of the tercentenary *of Shake- 

 speare's death. American tourists, over seven 

 thousand of whom visit Stratford every .year, 

 contributed funds for the erection of a memo- 

 rial fountain and a clock tower. At Shottery, 

 a mile west of Stratford, is the quaint thatched 

 cottage where Anne Hathaway lived, while the 

 cottage of Mary Arden, mother of the poet, 

 may be seen at Wilmcote. 



Stratford is' a market town and municipal 

 borough. It is one of the oldest places in 

 England, dating, probably, from the Roman 

 era. In 1911 it had a population of 8,531. 



Consult Lee's Stratford-on-Avon; Savage's The 

 Registers of Stratford-on-Avon. 



STRATHCONA AND MOUNT ROYAL, DON- 

 ALD ALEXANDER SMITH, First Baron, (1820- 

 1914), a Canadian fur trader, railway builder, 

 financier and statesman, whose career is so 

 closely interwoven with Canadian history that 

 he defies classification and stands forth unique 

 among Canadians of all time. His youth and 

 middle life were devoted to the service of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company and the upbuilding of 

 the Northwest. He was fifty years old when he 

 held his first political office. At sixty he became 

 the chief promoter of the Canadian Pacific 

 Railway, and for nearly a decade devoted him- 

 self to the task of financing this great organiza- 

 tion. At seventy-six, an age when the average 

 man is ready for the grave, he accepted the 

 office of Canadian High Commissioner to Great 

 Britain, and for nearly a decade more served 

 his country with energy and ability. 



In the years immediately preceding his death 

 Lord Strathcona was a commanding figure 

 wherever- he appeared. His great age, his ven- 

 erable dignity, his high reputation, combined 

 with his vast wealth and his personal and offi- 

 cial rank, set him apart from other men. Great 

 as the offices were which Strathcona held, yet 

 he always magnified them through his own 

 greatness. Never did any office or power over- 

 shadow the man. 



With the Hudson's Bay Company. Donald 

 Smith was born at Forres, Morayshire, Scot- 

 land, but in 1838 left Scotland for Canada as a 

 junior clerk in the service of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company. For thirteen years he was stationed 

 in Labrador. There, besides mastering the de- 

 tails of the fur trade, he gave much of his time 



to attempts at introducing improvements into 

 the conditions of life. For example, he was 

 the first to prove that potatoes could be grown 

 there with success. Leaving Labrador in 1851, 

 he spent the next decade in the Northwest, 

 where he became in turn chief trader and chief 

 factor. Ultimately he became chief commis- 

 sioner of the company's fur trade, with head- 

 quarters at Montreal. 



In 1874 he retired from active participation 

 in the fur trade, exchanging the commissioner- 

 ship of that branch for the place of land com- 

 missioner. Thereafter the scope of his work 

 and influence widened. He became the cham- 

 pion of the ac- 

 tive traders, the 

 "wintering part- 

 ners," in their ef- 

 forts to get fair 

 treatment from 

 the board of di- 

 rectors, and was 

 himself elected to 

 the board in 1883. 

 Sir Donald (he 

 was knighted in 

 1886) was already 

 foremost in in- LORD STRATHCONA 

 fluence among all those connected with the 

 company and in 1889 was formally elected 

 governor, thus becoming in title, as in fact, the 

 chief executive. Thus Donald Alexander Smith 

 sat in the place once occupied by Prince Ru- 

 pert, by King James II of England, and the 

 great Marlborough. 



The Northwest and Politics. While thus ris- 

 ing in the councils of the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany, Donald Smith widened his field of activi- 

 ties. By virtue of his character, as well as his 

 official position, he had a remarkable hold over 

 the traders, the Indians and the half-breeds of 

 the West. He had traversed the West in sum- 

 mer and winter, was familiar with its resources 

 in men and materials, and was known to all. 

 During the disorders in the Red River valley 

 in 1869 and 1870 he acted as special agent for 

 the Dominion government, and but for his 

 courage and tact the uprising would have been 

 far more serious than it was. 



In 1870, on the organization of Manitoba as 

 a province, Smith was elected to the Manitoba 

 assembly as a Conservative, and in the same 

 year was appointed to the Council of the 

 Northwest Territories, and was elected for Sel- 

 kirk (Man.) to the House of Commons. He 

 resigned his seat in the assembly in 1874, as a 



