MONTREAL
From 1535 to 1914
BIOGRAPHICAL
VOLUME III
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
MONTREAL VANCOUVER CHICAGO
1914
RICHARD B. ANGUS
BIOGRAPHICAL
RICHARD BLADWORTH ANGUS.
“No man in Montreal and very few in Canada have had a fuller,riper and more successful career than ‘the man of peace,’ ashe is known in business circles.” So writes the Toronto Globeof Richard Bladworth Angus, and there is little to add thatwould describe the man more accurately. A purposeful man, adeep thinker, a man of the highest principles, Mr. Angus isrepresentative of the empire builders of Canada. Beginning hiscareer in a humble station, he has climbed the ladder of successrung by rung until he reached the ranks of men like the lateLord Strathcona, and the present Lord Mount Stephen, with whomhe labored in building the most important railroad lines in theDominion and with whom he stood for all that which has madeCanada the great empire that it is today. Not only has Mr. Angusbeen prominent as a builder and financier of great rail lines,but he has given of his time and means toward the establishmentof great institutions to care for the sick, to bring education toall those who may seek it, to promote and disseminate a thoroughunderstanding of art—in short, to promote the intellectual aswell as the material welfare of that most enterprising of allBritish peoples—the Canadian nation.
Richard B. Angus was born in Bathgate, Scotland, May 28, 1831,and educated there. While in his native country he was employedby the Manchester & Liverpool Bank for some time and in 1857entered the offices of the Bank of Montreal in Canada. To thepresent generation the name of R. B. Angus has been rightlyconsidered a synonym for the financial activity instituted by theBank of Montreal, for he has been connected with that institutionsince 1857, having come out from Scotland to accept a position inthe bank in which at a later date he was to be for many years theguiding hand. His keen mind, his adaptability to new conditions,his shrewdness and his careful weighing of important questionsassured him of quick promotion and four years after he becameconnected with the institution he was placed in charge of theChicago agency, in 1861 and in 1863 was agent for the bank in NewYork.
During his sojourn in Chicago Mr. Angus became acquainted withthe spirit of the great west and what it was hoped might beaccomplished there. He saw the states of Illinois and Iowabudding forth from prairie to splendidly developed communitiesand reasoning by analogy he recognized what the future had instore for the Canadian west following the construction of theCanadian Pacific Railway.[6] The splendid financial standing of theCanadian Pacific Railway Company today is also in a measure dueto the wisdom of this man, whom no doubt Sir Thomas Shaughnessyconsiders one of his wisest counsellors.
In 1864 Mr. Angus returned to Montreal to become second assistantmanager of the Bank of Montreal, was later appointed assistantmanager and became manager in 1868. In 1869, or two years afterthe union of the British North Amer